Page 85 of Quarterback Sneak

“Nope. House rules. You sleep here; you play Sunday ball,” Zane says. “Slate, you’re with Evie and I.”

Quint slaps Reid’s back. “All right. Let’s do this.”

Everybody makes their way to the center of the huge backyard. I walk over to Zane. “I really don’t think I should—”

He puts his hands on my waist and bodily moves me to the side. “You’re right here.”

Quint and Reid line up across from us, and it’s impossible to ignore Quint’s grin. “What do I do?” I ask. “Wait.” I put a hand on Zane’s arm. “This isn’t tackle, is it?”

The side of his mouth tugs up. “No. Since we’re all under contract, we don’t do anything to jeopardize any of us getting hurt. It’s just two-hand touch.” Relief flows through me.

“So, I just have to touch somebody with both hands, and they’re considered down?”

Zane looks at me, and I can see his wheels turning. “I’m switching up the teams,” he says, surprising all of us. “Quint, you’re with Evie and Slate. I'll be with Reid.” He steps to the other side of the invisible line. “Only I can touch Evie.” Quint snickers, but Zane ignores it. His eyes meet mine. “Evie, same goes for you. Onlyyoucan touch me to tag me out.”

I frown at him. “Why?”

“Yeah, why?” Quint asks, and I hear his barely restrained laugh. I look at Reid and see he’s biting back a smile. Even Slate looks slightly amused.

“Because nobody touches my girl but me,” Zane says with absolutely no embarrassment. “And I don’t trust you idiots not to hurt her.”

“What about me?” I challenge. “Do you trust me not to hurt you?”

He grins wickedly. “Baby, you can hurt me any time.”

Quint makes a gagging sound, and I can’t help but laugh at his corny line. “That was terrible.” But Zane doesn’t stop smiling, and I can’t seem too either.

“Are we doing this or not?” Reid asks.

“Okay,” Quint says, turning to Slate and I. His face is devoid of all humor now. “Let’s make a plan. Since we have one more player, they’ll get first possession. Evie, your job is simply to go after Zane.”

“And do what?”

“If you can touch him, great. But all you need to do is just go after him.” I look at him in confusion. “Trust me. You’ll distract him; that’s all we need.”

I look at Slate, but he just nods his agreement. I shrug. “All right. I can be a distraction.”

“Yes, you can. Hands in.” I put my hand on top of Quint’s, but Slate doesn’t. “Come on, Slate.”

“I like my hand attached to my body,” he says in a low voice.

Quint glances at me. “Good point.” He pulls his hand out from under mine. “Let’s go!”

I shake my head and line up with them. Reid hangs on to the ball. He passes it through his legs to Zane, and Zane takes a step or two backwards, just like he does in the games. I start towards him, but don’t get far before he throws it to Reid. Reid spins with it and gets past Slate, but Quint touches him, stopping his progress. We make a new line of scrimmage. “Hey, what happened to distracting Zane?” Quint asks under his breath when we line up.

“I will this time.”

“Good.”

I can’t help my smirk. He’s all in on this; they all are. Reid snaps the ball to Zane, and I’m moving before I think about it. Zane sees me coming and grins widely but releases the ball before I get to him. I turn around in frustration as I watch Reid catch it. “Gotta be faster than that, Bennett,” he says against my ear, sending a shiver down my spine.

I don’t face him. My competitive spirit is starting to kick in. I've always had a healthy dose of it. My mom refused to play games with me because of it. The guys stop Reid, and we line up again. This time when I go after Zane, he spins around me and runs, scoring a touchdown for them. He winks at me when he tosses the ball to Quint, and I refuse to get frustrated.It’s just a game.But that wink might have woken up my competitive spiriteven more. Quint turns to Slate and I. “All you have to do is keep Zane occupied,” Quint says. I raise a brow at that, but he grins and turns to Slate. “You pass, and I'll run?”

“Yeah.”

Quint turns back to me. “You want to do the snap?”

“Yeah, no thank you.”