Chapter 21

chapter twenty-one

Gavin

I check the bleachers every chance I get, scanning every girl in the stadium for Quinn. She didn't seem like she would come, but a part of me still held out hope.

The game drags by in a slow torturous manner, especially when we are down by two touchdowns and I can't go in. The crowd is furious and shouting things at the sideline, but they have no idea what's going on.

In every pre-game interview, Collins and I responded the same.

No comment .

There's four minutes left in the fourth quarter when Levi nudges me with his elbow. He nods his head toward the student section, and I see Quinn leaned against the concrete wall of the tunnel that leads to the bathrooms.

"She's looking right at you," He whispers.

I take her in. Her hair is wavy, her jeans are ripped, and a simple black Golden Eagles t-shirt clings to her body.

She's gorgeous.

The way the clock sounds off in the stadium is deafening and breaks my stare. When I turn back around, it's a mass chaos of people and she's gone.

I pull my phone from my pocket and type out a quick message to Quinn before walking to meet with the team.

Meet me at my truck. I parked over near the student center.

"The game is over," Coach starts, his voice stern and booming at us with passion. "This game is over, but this season? This season has just begun. I know y'all are pissed. I'm pissed, but I need more from you, from all of you. I expect you all to step on this field and play football. You need to want it, and you need to work together to achieve it. This team is capable. You are all capable of greatness but you aren't going to get there on one man's back. We get there together, as one team."

Kind of ironic if you ask me. The eagle is a solitary bird, but here we are hoping for a miracle.

The team heads to the locker room, and I head out to my truck. The guilt from the loss covers me like a blanket when I hear the whispers from fans.

Quinn is leaned against the bed of my truck, her ass perched on the bumper and her phone in her hand.

The closer I get, the more nervous I become. She's not a stranger by any means but she's not exactly someone I'm completely comfortable around. Especially since I spent the most amazing day with my head buried in her pussy.

What if she quickly decides that she doesn't want to hang out with me, and what happened on the cruise was actually what we said it was?

Just sex.

What if she feels obligated to meet with me to break the ice and tell me she's not really interested in someone like me?

"You alright?" She asks, and I realize I've stopped about ten feet from the truck and I'm just staring at her like a lunatic.

"Oh, yeah," I mumble. "Thanks for coming."

She pushes off the truck and walks in my direction. "The game sucked."

"Tell me about it," I sigh. "I hated watching from the bench."

She pushes her hair behind her ear, a stray piece falling against her cheek. "I'm sorry."

I touch her hand, pulling her tiny body closer to my much larger one. "Don't apologize. You didn't do anything wrong."

A couple walks by and we catch the tail end of their conversation. They are talking about me fucking Collins' sloppy seconds.

I feel my face flush, heating with rage.

"Let's go somewhere more private," she says. "Out here, we are just starting rumors."

"Fuck these people," I say. "They don't know shit."

Her eyes fall to the ground and I can tell that the blatant stares are bothering her.

"Let's go."

I pull her door open, and close it gently once she's inside. I don't want anyone talking about her. "I'm sorry about them."

"It's not your fault," she whispers. "I did this. Plus, I'm used to all the shit with Grayson."

I'm still so nervous for some reason, and the fact that she's the most beautiful girl on the planet? It's fucking with my mojo.

She fidgets in the seat, my silence crashing over us like an awkward wave. I hate that I don't have immediate words, but I'm also afraid to fire off with everything that is on my mind. I want her next to me, not running so fast there's a Quinn shaped hole in my truck door.

"We need to talk about what happened on the cruise." Her voice is weak and timid, like she's as nervous about it as I am. "I know you didn't plan to see me ever again, and I don't want to drag you into anything with Grayson…"

I stop her before she can talk herself out of it, "I want to be dragged."

Her eyes widen, and I chuckle, explaining myself. "I mean, I want to hang out with you, Quinn. When I saw you staring back at me from the stands, it felt like fate."

Her shoulders perk up, and corners of her lips tilt into a soft smile. "You are literally the calmest, nicest guy I've ever met."

"I'm not that nice," I smile. "And I won't be calm if Collins grabs your arm like he did in the tunnel last weekend."

"I don't want you to get in trouble. You missed the game today because of me."

"I missed the game because of me ." I say, with emphasis on the me part. "And what happened on the cruise isn't something that I wanna pretend didn't happen."

Her cheeks turn an adorable shade of pink, and I watch as she turns her gaze toward the window. An uncomfortable amount of people are pointing in our direction. Saying God knows what.

"I don't want anyone talking shit about you, but I don't know if I can control what those idiots say. They hear whatever they want and start a mill of rumors that very instant. It doesn't help that Collins and I fought on the field last weekend."

She nods, "It looks bad."

"They don't know the truth though. They just know a miniscule part of it. I met you over the summer and had no idea that Grayson Collins was your ex boyfriend."

I say those words like I'm reminding myself that I didn't know she was my teammate's ex. In any other circumstance, it would be breaking bro-code. This is different.

"I know that," she whines. "But Grayson will lie and say all sorts of things to make you look bad. You don't deserve that."

I take her hand in mine and notice those pretty nails painted a different shade of red. I rub my thumb over them tenderly.

"Let me deal with Collins."

A hefty pause lingers between us before she finally speaks, "I don't want to pretend it didn't happen either. I'm glad it happened."

It's like a large weight has lifted off my chest with those words coming out of her mouth. I wasn't exactly sure how she felt, because she did give me a fake name. She didn't want to be found after the cruise, but now it seems that she just didn't want to drag anyone into the shit storm that is Grayson Collins. It was more about protecting me than protecting herself.

"Before I met you, I wanted Grayson to choose me. To come back and tell me he'd made an awful mistake, but when he was standing in front of me at the game last weekend, I could only see you."

She takes a shaky breath and continues, "I closed my eyes, and thought about what he was saying to me, but I cared more about the fact that you were out there."

Her words make my stomach burn with the desire to kiss her. I want to wrap my hands through the back of her hair and pull her to my lips, but once again, I don't know how fast is too fast.

"I know it's late but would you wanna come over to my apartment? We could talk."

"I'd love to," she smiles, reaching for her seatbelt.