Chapter 19 Desiree Dixon

You Know the Rule

I freeze. Did he just spot me?

His head was turned in my direction, and I swear our eyes connected, but it was hard to tell with that helmet on.

It was like I could feel that shade of navy blue as it branded me in place. Holy hell, the chemistry is heated between us.

And I guess the next question is…what’s he going to do about it?

What am I going to do about it?

I was hurt when he didn’t call, but suddenly that hurt seems to fall to the wayside as I want to know why he never called.

An explanation is the least he can give me. It’s not like this is the last time we’ll run into each other. He’s on my dad’s team now, and by default, I have to cheer for my dad’s team.

I’ll be around, and if nothing else, it’d be nice to clear the air.

The game ends, and my mom and I give the stadium a minute to clear out before I follow her down toward the locker room. There’s a family waiting area that’s filled with wives and kids of the players and coaching staff as they wait for their loved ones to exit, and it’s about a half hour after the game ends before the first player—the kicker—exits the locker room. He heads toward a woman waiting for him, and he bends down to kiss her before he takes her hand and they leave together.

More players walk out, some individually and others in bigger groups. The star players and some of the coaches have to talk to the media after the game, so my dad won’t be out for a while. He drove here this morning, and my mom and I will go home with him, so we wait.

“It’s Desi, right?” a voice to my right asks, and I glance over to find Ellie Dalton.

I lean in and give her a quick hug. “Yes! Ellie! So good to see you again. What are you doing here?”

“Well, many reasons.” She laughs. “I work with a bunch of players here, my husband is a consultant to the coaching staff, and my brother-in-law owns the team. So I pretty much live here. Is this your first home game?”

I nod as I squeeze mom’s arm. “Decided to tag along with my mom.”

Ellie smiles. “Moms are the greatest, aren’t they? Mine is at home with my kids right now, bless her heart.”

I laugh along with her, but I have no idea what it’s like to leave Mom home with the kids.

We make small talk until her husband walks out, and my dad comes shortly after that. “Good game, Dad,” I say, slapping him a high-five, and he grabs me into a hug.

The quarterback exits behind my dad, which means the star players are coming out soon.

Asher is a star player.

He’s going to come out soon, and he’s going to see me, and…

Then what?

“Because my good luck charms were here.” He hugs my mom next, and then he slings his arm around my shoulders. “Where to?”

Just as I open my mouth to answer, the door to the locker room opens, and Asher Nash walks out. He’s wearing a silky shirt with pineapples all over it, and something about his fashion choices make him even more endearing. He doesn’t seem to care what anyone thinks about him, whether it’s that gold suit he wore to the ball or this pineapple shirt or any one of the dozens of wild patterns he’s worn over the years in public.

It doesn’t matter what he has on. He’s always hot.

His eyes search the area where families are gathered, and he freezes when he spots me.

He can’t be more than ten feet away from me, and all I can think about is how he had my tits pressed up against the hotel window as he shoved a finger into me from behind.

My entire body somehow freezes and heats at the exact same time.

Holy shit, the connection between us is intense .

A woman who looks like she’s probably his mother walks over to him and gives him a hug, and I’m staring as my dad waits for my answer.

Asher is staring back at me.

Heat seems to be flying across the room between the two of us, and there’s no way the people in here don’t sense it. There’s no way.

It’s like time freezes as navy blue meets green across the room.

He’s hotter than I remember. My memory didn’t do him justice.

And it hurts all the more that he didn’t bother using my number, that he could so easily write the two of us off when I know something big and important started that night.

That’s when Ellie jumps in. “Oh, Coach Dixon, I was going to invite your daughter to come out with us. We’re going to go to the Gridiron to grab a few drinks. Is it okay if we steal her?”

My head swings over to her and then to my dad.

My dad looks at me as if he’s gauging whether I want to go or not. My eyes are bugging out of my head as Ellie just announced to the entire room that I’m Bill Dixon’s daughter, and surely Asher heard that since he’s within ten feet.

My heart races.

“If she wants to go, it’s fine by me,” Dad says to Ellie. He leans in toward me. “But you know the rule. No football players.”

Right, Dad.

As if rules weren’t made specifically to be broken.

He says the words loud enough that everyone around us hears them, and I know he’s just trying to protect me.

It all stems back to Clayton Mack, the superstar wide receiver on the San Diego Storm. I’d watched him all through college, and we were the same age. So when the Storm held a family night at the stadium after he was drafted and we happened to be in the same place at the same time, I took my shot.

He asked me out.

We both fell hard and fast despite my father’s warnings that he wanted better for me than a football player.

But as we became comfortable, I fell down his list of priorities until I felt like the only reason he was still with me was because my dad was a coach on the team.

He didn’t exactly deny it. Things had fizzled out for him, and we were young at just twenty-two. He ended things, and I was heartbroken. And as my dad watched me cry over a football player, that was the moment when he made me swear I’d never date someone on his team again.

Ellie laughs. “I married one. Some of them really aren’t so bad.” She offers me a wink. “So you’ll come out with us?”

Asher’s eyes are still on me. How do I know this? Oh, only because mine edge over to him, and he’s still watching me.

“Yeah, sure. I’d love to,” I murmur.

I watch as Asher breaks away from the woman he’s hugging as Luke walks over toward him.

They exchange words as my dad pulls my attention back to him, asking me what I thought of the game, and I’m too distracted to answer with anything coherent as I wonder what Asher and Luke are talking about.

Is he finding out where we’re going so he can go, too?

What if he shows up?

Why did I come here? Do I want him to show up?

Of fucking course I want him to show up. I’ve hardly stopped thinking about our night together since it happened, and all I can do is hope that tonight I can finally get the answers I deserve.

I ride with Luke and Ellie to the Gridiron. Also in our car are Luke’s sister, Kaylee, and her husband, former Aces star tight end and resident hot guy Ben Olson. Being in this car is sort of like stepping into a dream.

“Tell us everything we need to know about Desi Dixon,” Kaylee says as we make our way over to the bar.

I laugh as I hold a hand to my forehead. “Oh, God. What do you want to know?”

I don’t really want to get into the fact that my mom’s a billionaire and I’m the sole heiress to her fortune. They may actually already know that about me if they bothered to do any research at all about their new OC.

“Where do you live? What do you do?” Kaylee asks.

“I’m a junior event planner in San Diego.”

“You should come be a senior planner in Vegas,” Ben suggests.

“Truthfully, I’d love to run my own event business someday. I always tell people I like to party, so I decided to make a living planning them,” I admit.

Everyone laughs at that, though to me, it’s just the truth.

“You would love Vegas,” Ellie agrees. “There’s a party pretty much every minute of every day somewhere around here, and most of them take some level of planning.”

“What I’d really love to do is give back to my community. I’ve started looking into running my own business planning charity events,” I say.

“Ooh, I know Erin wants help with the Wild Aces Charity Ball,” Ellie says. “She’s the director of charitable contributions for the Aces, and she already had a full plate when the ball was added. If she could outsource that, she could get her focus back into doing more community outreach with players.”

“Jack was saying she’s looking for an assistant,” Luke pipes in from the driver’s seat, referring to his brother and the team owner…and the guy whose jersey I’m currently wearing. “It’s not the same as being a senior event planner running your own business, but if you want to get your foot in the door in Vegas, we know people.”

I laugh. “That’s really sweet of you, but I don’t think I’m leaving San Diego.”

“I don’t blame you,” Kaylee says. “We love San Diego. We’re there all the time using Jack’s beach house.” She elbows her husband, and they both laugh.

“Why don’t you want to move here?” Ellie asks.

I sigh. “I wasn’t expecting my dad to move, to be honest. My life is there. My friends, my career.” I lift a shoulder. “The Storm.”

“The Storm,” Ben snorts. “Look, we’ll be your friends here, and we already practically got you the job at the Aces. We’ll convert you to a fan, too.”

I laugh as I hold up both hands. “I’m working on it. I always cheer for my dad. But if the Aces were playing the Storm…” I trail off and make a face that says how unsure I am of who I’d cheer for in that situation.

Everyone laughs as Luke parks at the bar, and we all hop out. Truth be told, I do feel like I fit in here. I don’t know if I could sit with Ellie and Kaylee discussing the spicy scenes in whatever book I’m reading, but I could fly back to San Diego for book night, or we could do it over Zoom if we had to.

I’m not really considering moving here.

It’s just a thought.

But as we walk into the Gridiron, I spot Asher Nash sitting at a table with a few of his teammates.

His heated eyes fall to me, and I’m filled with hope that maybe there’s a chance.