Page 7

SEVEN

PARKER

“ O uch,” I grumbled, rubbing my ribs where Tanner had just rammed his elbow. “What was that for?”

Tanner flung open the back door before Lux had a chance to cut the engine, and jumped out while almost pulling me with him. Dragging more like. By the time I’d managed to stand up, Ace had got out, too, both of us wondering why Tanner was hopping about excitedly.

“What are you doing?”

Tanner nodded over to the Lions Stadium entrance. “Isn’t that Scout?”

Ace and I followed where his finger pointed, but all we could see was a person carrying way more than any person should reasonably carry in one go.

Several bags were slung over each shoulder, while their arms were full from the boxes they were holding, piled on top of which were books. Even when I squinted it wasn’t entirely clear who was under the bags and the boxes.

It could be anyone.

Until a flash of blonde caught in the sunlight, and a burst of nerves shot through me.

“Yes, it is.” Ace spun around, took one look at me, and removed his ball cap, shoving it onto my head. “Wait.”

“What are you doing?” I asked, pushing it up so I could see.

“You had bed hair. You don’t want her thinking you’re hooking up with other chicks, even if you are just friends,” he replied, taking a step back to assess me. “Okay, you’re good to go.”

“Go where?”

“Go and help Scout with all that shit she’s carrying.”

“You think?”

“Yes,” they replied in unison.

“Okay.” I turned to Lux as he closed the trunk, sensibly staying out of this ridiculous situation, even if I did need him for one final seal of approval. “Yeah?”

“Yes, go, before someone else helps.”

“Oh fuck that.”

I shoved my bag at Ace and Parker and sprinted across the parking lot. Scout was carrying so much and moving so slowly that it didn’t take any time to catch up with her.

“Hey, let me help you with that,” I said, grabbing the boxes and the books, yanking them way too enthusiastically from her grip. In hindsight, I should have given her a little warning, seeing as she nearly toppled from the change in balance. “Whoops, sorry.”

“What the…” Her blue eyes flared as they landed on me, and it took her a second to figure out what had just happened. “Parker…what are you doing?”

“Helping?” I grinned.

“Oh, okay, thanks.”

“Sure thing,” I replied, holding the book with my chin before it fell off. “Why are you carrying so much?”

Though maybe the question should have been how are you carrying so much? She could barely see over the boxes.

She shifted one of the bags back onto her shoulder. “I had to pick up some things on the way in this morning, and when my Uber dropped me, I realized I had way more stuff than I thought. It’s video equipment, so I can’t leave it outside.”

“Seems I arrived just in time,” I replied, also relieving her of one of the bags. Jeez, this was heavy. Scout was way stronger than she looked. “Where are we taking this stuff?”

“Oh, I can manage, you don’t need to help me. I only have to make it to the lobby, then I can get a couple of the guys to come down and help carry it.”

“Hey, we’re friends, remember. That’s what friends are for, right?” I winked.

She glanced around me, based on her expression, I’d hasten to guess she had no idea what was happening right now. That made two of us. But I was too committed to back out now, so therefore I’d be taking these boxes wherever she wanted.

In the reflection of the glass doors, I caught Tanner, Ace, and Lux with identical grins plastered on their faces, as well as Tanner giving me a double thumbs-up.

“Um…sure, I guess. Thanks. I need to go to the fifth floor.”

“Cool, not sure I’ve ever been up there. Lead the way.”

I followed her through the giant revolving doors, and across the vast Lions logo on the floor to the security gates by the reception desk. Which is when I realized my first mistake. Or maybe it was my second, possibly third if you included allowing the guys to convince me running after Scout was a good idea.

Scout and I might only be friends, but I’d forgotten about Pablo on the security desk.

Pablo Garcia was a Lions lifer. He’d been with the club since he was a boy, and there was no one more loyal, which he felt gave him the right to act as an unofficial coach for each and every position on the field. And he had strong opinions.

Most of us had learned the hard way that it was much better to listen to Pablo than ignore him.

Pablo also knew everything that went on in this stadium. And I mean everything, including how I felt about Scout.

“Well, look at you two. You sure look busy.” His tone was light, but that meant nothing, especially as his beady eyes were trained pointedly on me. He was the biggest shit-stirrer in this building, including Ace. “Good boy, Parker, what a coincidence you were available to help.”

My eyes narrowed while I attempted to somehow send him a telepathic message to please keep his mouth shut. Just this one time.

“Hey, Pabs.” Scout smiled sweetly. Because that’s probably all she knew him as, this sweet old grandpa figure. “How’s it going.”

“Good. Always good for me, especially on game days,” he replied. “How about you two? Parker, you doing okay there?”

“I’m great,” I replied, letting Scout go ahead of me through the barriers. I followed her as quickly as possible and tried to ignore Pablo’s stare.

Unfortunately I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going, and collided with one of the grounds staff watering the huge trees in the atrium. Pablo shook his head and turned away.

“Sorry, man.”

“Parker?”

“Yeah, coming,” I called and raced after Scout.

I caught up with her right before she reached the elevators and hit the button.

For the first time today, I had time to properly look at her, soak in those big blue eyes of hers sparkling like sapphires. Faint laughter lines fanned around the corners, and I realized I hadn’t ever properly heard her laugh. I’d heard her giggle, I’d seen her smile, but I’d never been present for one of those big, deep laughs drawn from the depths of your belly. The type that made those creases, anyway.

What did Scout find funny? What made her laugh? Whatever it was, I bet she looked stunning. I bet her cheeks turned rosy pink when she did. She was so goddamn pretty.

I wanted to make her laugh, and then it occurred to me that even if I never got any further than this moment, being her friend and getting to know her—like normal people did, or however Payton put it—would still be totally worth it.

“Is there something on my face?” she asked after a second, scrubbing her spare hand over it before running her fingers through her hair.

“No, you’re all good.” I shook my head with a laugh and changed the subject before she could ask what I was staring at. “So, are you coming on the road with us?”

“I am.” She nodded, a grin widening on her face. “Not gonna miss the first game of the season at Wrigley Field.”

I matched her grin with one of my own. “It’ll be a fun one.”

“You want to tell me what you’ve got planned for the rookies?”

Slowly, I shook my head and did my best to ignore the way her eyelashes were batting as her eyes turned pleading. “No can do, I’m afraid.”

Every year, the first away game in Chicago was a big one, and not because we had a game to play.

It was the setting for the rookies’ rite of passage, a tradition that had them on an excursion to the nearest coffee shop in Wrigley Field with an order for everyone on the entire Lions roster, coaches, and additional staff. I don’t know how or why it started, but it was something all the teams did—it was fun, team bonding, and always raised a smile, especially as we added an extra element—our rookies had to wear dress-up.

And what they wore was always kept a closely guarded secret until the last minute.

When I’d been a rookie the theme had been Wizard of Oz , I had the honor of dressing as Dorothy.

Today, the nine rookies coming on the road with us would be in yellow Minion costumes, all wearing their own shirts and numbers while they walked—or waddled, given the size of the costumes—through Wrigleyville.

“Are you sure?”

“I am. You’ll find out soon enough.”

“No fair.” She chuckled as the bell rang and the elevator doors opened.

Stepping aside to let her in first, I noticed Scout glance down at her phone and frown deeply. Three small lines stretched across her brow and her eyes narrowed in annoyance.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Just…oh, it doesn’t matter.” She nodded, and before she could stop it, her mouth opened in a wide yawn.

As her arm shot up to cover her mouth, her phone flew out of her hand. I bent to pick it up and pass back to her, trying my hardest not to look at the stacked-up messages on her phone screen from someone called Shit Head.

Rangers Douche.

“Do I need to fetch you a coffee once I’m done with these boxes?” I asked, doing my best to push through the irrational jealousy that had my teeth grinding.

Scout shook her head and laughed, her blonde hair coming untucked from behind her ear, and I found myself fighting not to place it back.

“Sorry…” She yawned again. “I usually pick one up from around the corner on my way in. But…” She glanced down at the boxes with a sheepish smile.

“What’s your order?”

Her teeth caught the edge of her lip. “Oh…um, you know…”

I was waiting for her to add to that sentence, but she was now staring down at her feet, and we rode a whole floor without her looking back up.

“Scout?”

Her eyes shot to mine. “Oh…yeah, it’s just…um…just coffee.”

If the tops of her cheeks weren’t flushed, and she wasn’t trying her best not to look at me, I’d have left it, but something was going on.

“Coffee and what else?” I pointed right at her. “I call bullshit.”

Her eyes flicked to the monitor see how many floors we had left to travel, only to wince when there were still three left, and I couldn’t hold in the laugh.

“Scout?”

Eventually she sighed in defeat. “In my defense, it’s something I discovered during school and it got me through exams, breakups, finals. You name it. Now I like to start my day with one. It’s a little ritual.”

“What’s the drink, Scout?”

“Don’t judge…” She stared at me, and if my hands weren’t full, I’d have held them up.

“Hey, I won’t.”

“Okay…it’s a double espresso split in two—one to start and one to finish, caramel drizzled around the insides of the cup, half one percent, half almond milk, two shots of hazelnut, a packet of Splenda and a spoon size whip on top, with chocolate powder to finish.”

My brain was still trying to keep up with what she’d said, and my mouth must have dropped open because I heard her grumble, “Hey, you promised you wouldn’t judge.”

I shut my mouth, then opened it again. “I’m not, I’m just…I mean…oh man, I dunno if I can do this.”

“Do what?”

Pushing my cap up, I eased my fingers along my brow and let out a massive sigh. “This friends thing.”

“What—”

“Yeah, I might need to rethink it.” I shook my head with a grimace. “I can’t be seen with someone who drinks that. I have a reputation.”

Scout’s mouth dropped open, and she shoved me hard on the shoulder. At least, I guessed she thought it was hard. I didn’t move.

“Parker!”

“I’m kidding.” I laughed, even harder when her outrage deepened. “What I meant to say was…how interesting and how ever did you discover it?”

She shrugged. “Well, maybe not so much as discover, more like invent.”

“Wow.” I blinked. “I’m impressed. Very inventive. And did I mention brave? How do you not get laughed out of coffee shops with that? It genuinely sounds like the most disgusting drink I’ve ever heard.”

Her mouth dropped again, this time her cheeks turned fully pink. I kind of liked teasing her like this, especially when it meant her teeth sank into her plump, rosy bottom lip, like they were doing right now.

My gaze was still focused on her mouth when the elevator pinged and the doors opened.

“Welcome to where the magic happens,” Scout announced, stepping out.

I followed her and stopped.

I’d never been up here. I’d been to the floor where legal sat, which was mostly made of glass meeting rooms, but this was all open. Everyone together. Noisy chatter, clacking on keyboards, shouting.

There had to be over a hundred people, and I could swear I’d not seen any of them before in my life.

“Is this just the social media team?”

“No, this is the whole communications and marketing departments.” She nodded over to the corner, where a life-sized cardboard cutout of Jupiter Reeves stood, holding onto a Gatorade. Someone had drawn a curly mustache and glasses on it. “My desk is this way, where the social team sits.”

Not one person looked up at us as I followed her in silence, walking past several banks of desks and over toward a wall of glass overlooking the entire stadium and field.

“Hey, cool view!” I marched over to the window. “You can see everything from up here. The batting cages, the bullpen…”

“Yeah, we can watch the game and work,” she replied as she stopped at the desks next to where I was standing and dropped her things onto it. “This is me. Thanks for the help.”

“You’re welcome,” I replied, my eyes still fixed on the view, where I’d be heading shortly. Usually at practice we were too busy focusing to think about anyone watching from the front office. There were always people wandering around—grounds staff, PTs, not to mention the occasional VIP who got backstage access with one of the execs. We learned to block it out.

It never occurred to me that Scout could be one of those people.

I kind of liked the idea that she was. Liked it a lot.

I placed down everything I’d carried for her as two chairs on the other side of her desk immediately swizzled around to reveal the guys who’d been on the entrance door yesterday.

Their mouths dropped open.

I nodded over to them. “Hey, guys.”

“Hey, Parker,” they echoed each other, staring at me in a way I always found unnerving, no matter how much I experienced it. “Good luck today.”

“Thanks.” I smiled and turned back to Scout. “I should go.”

“Yeah, of course, thanks again.” She shuffled a little, glancing down at her feet, at the pale blue Chucks she was wearing, then at her backpack and her laptop. “Good luck today.”

She was looking at anything but me. I should have found it weird, except from the way she was worrying at her lip, it was clear her nonchalance was all an act in front of her audience of two interns, plus anyone else watching.

“Anytime.” I took a step back with a quiet chuckle, wondering how far I would get before she gave in. “See you on the plane, Davison.”

Scout’s head shot up, her blue eyes flaring wide, eyelashes batting against her high cheekbones before she turned away with a flick of blonde hair. It wasn’t quick enough for me to miss the smile growing on her face, however.

Yeah, this girl definitely liked me.

Operation Strike Zone was underway, or would be as soon as I came up with a better name.