Page 17 of Kicked in the Heart

“I want to apologize for being so…” he trailed off.

“Being so what?”

“Being so vocal about not wanting you on the team. Even after you proved you could kick, I still acted like a complete jackass to you.” He looked at her expectantly.

She stared back.

“Well, do you accept my apology or not?” he asked with a frown, crossing his arms across his chest.

“If I accept your apology, what does that do? Will you stop acting like an ass to me?”

“Of course,” he growled.

His eyes focused on her face, narrowing when she didn’t answer right away.

“What about the kiss? Was that some sadistic part of your hazing?” she asked curiously.

“That was, something else,” he admitted. “Can we at least try to be civil to each other?”

“No more hazing or snide comments about girl kickers?”

His shoulders relaxed. “Yeah, no more comments.”

“And the hazing?”

“That too,” he said hopefully.

“Okay, even though it goes against my better judgement.”

With a smile he held out his hand. “Friends?”

She shook his hand. “Don’t push it.”

With that, he turned and walked back to his car.

After he’d sped away, she got in her car and stared out the windshield. Could he be trusted to live up to his side of the bargain? She sure hoped so, it would make her life so much easier. Now, if she could just forget about that kiss…

Chapter Nine

Butch

He watched the door to the meeting room, waiting for Rocky to arrive. For some reason he was nervous about seeing her. Would he be able to control himself and not make disparaging comments about her to his buddies? It had become a habit to trash talk about her.

She walked in and took a seat at the front of room, Coach following her in.

He resisted the urge to comment, instead focusing on Coach.

“You all played well on Sunday but there are some areas where we can improve. There were some sloppy tackles and a couple of unnecessary penalties.” Coach began his analysis of the game.

Thirty minutes later Coach dismissed them to practice. Butch watched as Rocky turned back to look at him, as if she was waiting for one of his snide comments. When he remained silent. she walked to the door.

Okay, he could do this.

“Nothing to say about the girl kicker’s missed field goal?” Travis, one of the players who also thought girls didn’t belong in football, asked him.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Every kicker misses once in a while.” That wasn’t so hard.

Travis stomped away, obviously pissed that Butch hadn’t taken the opportunity to trash the girl kicker.