12. Parker

CHAPTER 12

Parker

S he had no idea how adorable she was. No fucking clue.

Nor did she know how much it affected me to know she was wearing pink fucking panties. I held back a groan, holding her hand tighter as I brought her into the living room, where the rest of my teammates were gathered.

Though we didn’t all live in the house, it made sense that we’d all hang out here after games. The underclassmen mostly lived in the dorms, while some juniors and seniors were in apartments off campus, making this the easiest place for all of us to gather.

“Hey, everyone,” I called to the room, all eyes turning to Audrey and me. “Want you to meet someone.” I squeezed her hand as she stood at my side, giving a small wave to my teammates. “This is Audrey Rose. My girlfriend.” Looking down at her, I winked, and she gave me a small smile back.

“Hey,” Audrey said, any hint of shyness gone. Of course, she was the extroverted one in our relationship. I’d always been the quiet guy. Only now was I feeling more comfortable with the team. “You guys played great today.”

Samuel grinned. “You watched the game?” He was sitting on the couch, a pretty brunette draped over his lap.

She nodded. “Yeah. It was fun.” Looking at me, she cocked her head. “Though I’ll admit, I didn’t really know what was happening.”

Taylor piped up with, “I’m sure we could teach you.”

I hated that idea. Because if anyone was going to teach my girl the rules, it would be me. I wasn’t letting any of these fuckers do it. I grumbled, close to her ear, “I’ll teach you. Because you’re my girl.”

Audrey just nodded, and I tried to ignore the flare of possession I felt running through me. She wasn’t really mine, so I had no right to be territorial over her time. But after last year, the last thing I wanted was for my girlfriend to spend an extended amount of time with my teammates. Call me paranoid, but I wanted her all to myself.

“I liked watching you,” she whispered, standing up on tiptoes so her mouth was level with my ear.

Fuck yeah. My chest puffed out, feeling pleased to know that she’d watched me. I didn’t think I’d mistaken the way her eyes had roamed over my body as I walked away from her earlier on the field, but this was practically a confirmation.

Derek, the team captain, stood up, extending his hand towards my girl. “It’s nice to meet you, Audrey.” He was a senior, graduating this year, which meant the position would go to someone else next year. Maybe that someone would be me if I didn’t fuck everything up. I was pretty sure that was why our coach had been so hard on me.

She accepted his handshake. “Hi. Thank you for letting me come.”

“Of course. We told Maxwell he couldn’t hide you away forever. Besides, everyone’s welcome.” There were plenty of people here who weren’t on the team. Friends, girlfriends, and other university students. We were celebrating, so plenty of people were drinking, but it wasn’t so loud yet that we couldn’t hear each other talk. Though it was still early. I was sure the music would be louder in a few hours.

“Do you want a drink?” I snaked an arm around Audrey’s midriff, tugging her closer to me.

She nodded. “Sure.”

I tugged her into the kitchen, grateful there was no one else around, as I grabbed myself a beer. There was a six-pack of hard strawberry lemonade in the fridge, and I held up a bottle for her. “How’s this?”

“That would be great, actually.” She looked relieved as I popped the top off with a bottle opener, and I laughed.

“Did you think I was going to give you a beer?”

Audrey shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Do you even like beer?” I took a sip of mine, used to the taste. It wasn’t the shittiest beer I’d ever had. Thankfully, we’d sprung for something that wasn’t the cheapest, but it wasn’t great , either.

I knew she didn’t. We might not have gone to parties every weekend, but I’d spent enough time around her to notice what she drank. It was mostly fruity beverages.

She wrinkled her nose. “No. But no one ever cared about making sure I liked my drink before.”

“Duke?” I asked, popping my index finger under her jaw and tilting her chin up to look at me.

She nodded before taking a sip. “I’m used to it.”

“You shouldn’t have to be.” I clenched my jaw.

Her eyes brightened as she stood up on her tiptoes, kissing my cheek. “Thank you, Parker. You’re a good guy.”

“A good boyfriend , you mean?”

She looked around as if worried someone else was eavesdropping before nodding. “Yeah. That too.”

“Come on, girlfriend. Let’s go back in there.”

“What am I supposed to say if someone asks about us?” Audrey asked, rubbing the rim of the bottle with her thumb.

“The truth.” We hadn’t really talked about this part in our agreement. I leaned my head down so my lips would brush against the shell of her ear. “Except for the fact that it’s fake.”

“Okay.” The word was hardly more than a breath, and I tucked a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear before threading our hands together again and heading back out to the living room.

Sitting on the couch next to Samuel, I placed my beer on a coaster—we might have been athletes, but we weren’t animals.

Audrey looked around, eyes wide. No doubt noticing what I’d already figured out. There were no open seats. I could see the indecision on her face as she looked around the room.

“Come here,” I murmured, gesturing to my open lap.

Audrey’s cheeks flushed pink like she couldn’t possibly sit on me, her boyfriend. As if it was somehow scandalous to sit on my lap.

“Are you sure?” she whispered, and I wrapped my arm around her waist, tugging her backward so she stood in between my legs.

“Positive.” My voice was low, more of a grumble than anything else. “Sit on my lap, baby.”

I didn’t think she was going to, but then she lowered herself onto my thigh, hovering like she didn’t want to give me all of her weight. But I used my hold around her waist to tug her back against me fully before curling a hand over her thigh. Possessively.

Like I was daring the rest of these fuckers to make a move on my girl.

My teammates had no idea what happened last year, but I wouldn’t make the same mistake again. She hadn’t been right for me, anyway. I knew that, yet still, I’d stayed with her.

“Parker,” Audrey whispered in my ear.

“Mhm?” With my free hand, I played with the ends of her hair. It was an unconscious movement, but I couldn’t stop touching her. Now that we were dating and free to, I was finding excuses to have my hands on her all the time.

What would she think if I always asked her to sit on my lap? I could smell her perfume, the sweet scent like champagne and berries mixing with her strawberry shampoo. Sweet. She smelled so damn sweet.

I didn’t hear a single conversation around me. Not when I was so painfully aware of Audrey’s weight on mine. How good it felt like this.

She took a long gulp of her lemonade, and I did the same with my beer before setting it back beside me. Tonight, I wouldn’t get drunk. During the season, I had a strict two drinks per night limit: beer or cider only—no hard alcohol. So I was content just to watch her.

“Parker,” Audrey said my name again, and it finally broke me out of my trance.

“What?”

She giggled. “You’re staring.”

I hummed, pushing a hair back behind her ear. “So I can’t stare at my girlfriend ?”

A pretty blush dotted her cheeks. “No. I mean… You can. It’s just…” She ran her tongue over her lower lip, and it drew my attention to those plush, pink lips. So kissable. They were just begging for my attention.

I rubbed my thumb over her bottom lip before pulling away. “It’s just what?”

“Nothing.” She shook her head before resting it on my shoulder. I adjusted her legs so they draped over my free knee so she didn’t have to straddle me, and she cuddled in closer. Damn, but I liked this.

I glanced over at the couch next to us, seeing my teammate also cuddled up with his girl. Everyone might have been celebrating around us, but we were just in our own bubbles.

Sam’s girlfriend, Danielle, was a cheerleader, her high ponytail still in her hair as she laid her head in his lap. Though the cheer team didn’t officially participate in our games, she’d still been there anyway.

I liked that. She seemed nice enough from seeing her around the house. I wondered if Audrey and I would ever be like that. Look that comfortable with each other.

Danielle was wearing Samuel’s lacrosse t-shirt with his last name on the back and his number. No girl had ever worn my jersey before. But maybe it was time to change that.

A few days later, I stepped foot in the theater building for the second time, joining the entire cast and crew of the spring musical. It was my first time here in my new role.

“You ready for this?” Audrey whispered to me as we took seats in the front row.

I squeezed her hand, not letting go as we sat down.

Looking around, I noticed her ex was in the row behind us at the end, glaring daggers at me. So I leaned over, kissing Audrey’s forehead.

“What was that for?” she whispered.

“Because I wanted to.” I smirked at her. “Plus, your ex is staring at us. Don’t look.”

“What?” She turned her head, and I clicked my tongue against the roof of my mouth.

“Don’t pay attention to him. Let him know exactly how little you think about him.” Audrey let out a breath, and I squeezed her knee. “I’ve got you, sunshine. Okay?”

He needed to back the fuck off because I wasn’t going to play. If he came after her again, he was going to have me to deal with.

Everyone settled down as Professor Woods took the stage. It was clear she had stage presence and poise, and I was sure she’d graced the stage herself numerous times. “Welcome, welcome, everyone, to our first rehearsal of the season!”

Everyone around me cheered, and I looked over at Audrey. This was her wheelhouse.

I was incredibly out of my depth here. And I realized how overwhelmed she’d probably been at my game this weekend. It was how I felt now. Damn, I should have prepared her better.

Though I’d had the script for a few weeks now, this was our first official meeting. I was surprised these hadn’t started the second the semester had, but maybe losing their lead had delayed some things. Fuck if I knew.

“We’re going to start things off with a little bonding exercise for everyone to get to know each other.” Mary, the student director of the musical, announced to all of us.

To a chorus of groans.

I was pretty sure there was nothing college students hated more than icebreakers and bonding activities.

“I know, I know,” Mary said, rolling her eyes at us. “But it’s going to be fun. I promise.” She grinned. “And then we’re going to do our first read through of the script.”

For the icebreaker, she brought all of us up onto the stage, sat us in a circle, and we played a silly name game. We all introduced ourselves with our first name and an animal that started with the same letter and then had to repeat everyone’s names who had already gone. I chose Parker the panther, wanting a strong, masculine animal.

Audrey, the axolotl. I chuckled—even that was pink, which felt fitting.

Surprisingly, by the end, I actually remembered almost everyone’s name. Given how many people were involved in this production, it was incredible.

I never would have imagined myself here, but as we went through the script for the first time and I watched the way Audrey’s face lit up as she said her lines, I couldn’t imagine anywhere else I’d rather be.