Page 26 of Reverse Pass

“Lucas desperately needs Haley’s help passing their statistics class and trying to charm her into helping him quickly becomes the least of his worries when he realizes she’s the one girl he can’t live without. Haley can’t stand Lucas, but she also can’t stand to go without their late-night sexts and hookups either.” Violet reads it out loud, and by the end there is an all-out grin on her face.

“I stopped at the bookstore. The mafia stuff seemed a little heavy to start with, more like something you build up to.”

“I see.” Her lips press together as she suppresses a laugh. “And the bookmarks with handwritten notes?”

“I had some help picking it out.”

“I bet you did.” She smiles at them and starts pulling them out and scanning them.

“Is her number on the back of one of them?” she teases.

“She was really nice, explained a bunch to me,” I say, a little defensively.

She pulls one up and reads it out loud. “Second best sex scene in a library.”

“She did say she liked hockey players better, so maybe the other one involves them.”

“Or she wants you to come back to find out what the first one is in person.” Violet’s eyes dance with mirth at being able to tease me over this.

“She was kind of cute.” I shrug.

Her eyes narrow and focus on me in a way that if it were any other woman, I’d swear was jealousy. So I plow ahead, hoping that’s what it was.

“So do you have time for a chapter?”

She turns the book over in her hands, and I watch her wheels follow the round. I can almost hear the clicking of the lottery ball as my luck goes from good to bad to good again, hitting each rung on the way.

“Let me get changed and then you can come in if you want.”

I nod, “See you in a few.”

* * *

I gathermy crap off the table and stuff it into my bag, taking that and my workout bag to my room. I take a deep breath. I can hear her moving around in her room. Opening and closing drawers and moving from one side to the other. Then the movement quiets and I hear the TV turn on against the wall. I give it another minute before I rap my knuckles against the door, trying not to seem as eager as I am.

“Come in,” she calls.

I open the door, and the room is dark except for the dull glow of the TV from the wall. She’s laying on the bed in an old sweatshirt with our university logo on it, and a pair of short shorts that let me see her long gorgeous legs. But her hand is wrapped around the TV controller, and she doesn’t look at me.

“Changed my mind, I’m awake enough now if you want to watch something.”

I bet she’s awake enough now. Now that her mind is over analyzing this and running fire drills on how to exit.

I grab the book, lay it in her lap and then lie back next to her, enough that our bodies line up, tucking my arm under my head. I can feel her tense at the brush of contact, but I close my eyes, hoping for another round of luck.

“Was a long day and the offensive coach is punishing me for my suspension by making me run double the number of drills. I’d rather listen to you read, but it’s up to you.” I nod to the book.

She hesitates but presses the mute button and lets the TV controller drop, picking up the book and flipping through the pages.

“You want to start at the beginning, or you want to pick one of your friend’s passages to start with?”

“The library sounds intriguing.” I shrug.

She flips to the bookmark, and I see her smile again at the writing there.

“I’m surprised there’s not a phone number on this. She playing the long game you think?”

“She didn’t seem like the type to go for football players.”