Page 75 of Touchdown, Tennessee

The fucking things he’d told me, last night.

How could anyone have treated him that way, when he was just a child?

How unfair was it that he had to grow up in that environment, always feeling like he was worthless and just a pawn for his mother to use?

“Does it look like I’m still here?” he asked, lifting an eyebrow at me.

God.

I even liked that, now, too.

His constant fucking attitude was familiar to me now. I enjoyed it.

Do I have a crush on you, or am I going crazy?

“Well, good morning to you, too.”

His eyes scanned my torso, lingering a little on my abs before he looked up at me again.

“I’m fucking freezing.”

“I noticed,” I said, putting out a hand to run my fingers over the goosebumps on his stomach.

He swatted my hand away, but then changed his mind and gripped his fist around my wrist, pulling me in.

“You’re obviously just as cold,” he told me.

I didn’t tell him that my own goosebumps only got there because I saw him.

“You can blame Luke for that one. He keeps turning the heatoffon cool mornings. Sometimes he even cracks a window.”

“It can’t be more than fifty-five degrees out there.”

“He says he likes the fresh air.”

One of the guys below screamed. “That’s what I callchocolate chip motherfuckin’ pancakes!”

Gray gave me a look.

“Thinking about putting that in your article?” I joked. “The guys wake up chanting about food?”

“I’m thinking the article will be about how insane you all are instead,” Gray told me.

A shadow moved somewhere further down the hallway.

I grabbed Gray’s arm, pulling him into the bathroom and slamming the door shut.

“You’re still here,” I repeated.

“Yeah. I slept like a fucking rock until your bros decided it was time to warm up their vocal cords.”

I snorted. “I need to shower. Don’t leave this room.”

I stripped naked and hopped in, turning the shower on hot. Steam billowed out from the shower, and as I felt the heat pound onto my skin, I hummed at the sensation.

“You’re going to hog all that heat to yourself and not expect me to come get some?” he protested.

God.