Page 82 of Wild Card

Tobias slips me a black box, one that looks distinctly like a jewelry box and a devious grin flashes over his face. My hands shake a little as I go to open it, feeling like whatever’s inside is going to be more than I deserve. I lift the lid and pull it back to reveal a beautiful silver beaded necklace.

I bite my lower lip and then grin at him before I get up to give him a hug.

“It’s gorgeous, thank you.”

“Here, let’s put it on.” He takes the box from me and unclasps the necklace while I turn around for him to help me. “This isn’t one of those fancy ones you only wear on special occasions. I specifically told them I needed something you could wear every day.”

“Every day, huh?” I smirk as I run my fingers over the beads.

“Every day,” He reiterates.

Under the necklace is a small business card size piece of paper with the name of the restaurant that we went to on my birthday.

“What’s this?”

“That’s a promise. I want to take you there when I’m fully back to playing and better. Just the two of us. We’ll get a quiet table, and you can actually enjoy the food. Make up for him fucking it up the first time.”

“Oh, you didn’t have to do that. You were so sweet that night.”

“Still. I want a redo. Just the two of us.”

“I love it, Tobias. Thank you so much.” I kiss him, and he pulls me into his lap.

When I look up, Madison’s staring at us a little wide-eyed before she breaks out into a grin.

“Um… I love this. Every bit of this.” She waves her hand over us. “I’m not entirely sure how to process it, but I love it.”

FORTY-FOUR

Tobias

“Too bad youdon’t have a date tonight. You could join the rest of us.” Colt stands next to me at practice later in the week, smirking like an asshole.

“Yeah, well I’m trying to stay focused on us winning it all. Shouldn’t you be?”

“Oh, we will. But Joss has me focused on that work-life balance thing. Nick and I were just talking about it the other day. Making sure there’s plenty of downtime when we’re not on the field, you know?”

I turn on Colt. “If Nick gets his downtime anywhere near my girl, I will break every finger he puts on her, and you’ll be out a wide receiver and a long snapper in the playoffs. That what you want?”

Colt just laughs. “We both know you’re smarter than that. And don’t say playoffs until we know for sure.”

I give him an annoyed look as I toy with my mouthguard, rocking it between my teeth. He’s right that the physical violence is a baseless threat on my part. But he won’t lay a fucking finger on her if he knows what’s good for him. I’ve already warned him twice this week that he better treat her like a fucking lady and keep a fucking bubble between them at all times.

“She won’t touch him anyway. No reason to when she’s got me every day.”

“You’re seeing her today?” Colt raises a brow.

“No, but she knows where she can come after.”

“I don’t know. Joss said she was pretty excited for the date. She was into the idea of a younger guy. Joss talked it up, I think. You know we last a little longer than you senior citizens.”

“You’re fucking cold-hearted these days,” I grouch at him. “That her wearing off on you or just the way you kids act now?”

“Probably both.” He laughs. “Speaking of Joss. Did you ever get the remote-controlled vibrator she told you about?”

“No. Why?”

“Works long distance with an app on your phone. Comes in handy when we’re not at the same place at the same time.” He shrugs. “Could be useful if that situation ever happened for you and a girlfriend. Assuming you ever have one.”