3. Goal Setter

Ihad time for exactly three things in my life if I was going to dedicate my all to them. Family, football, and school.

But I wasn"t in school anymore.

Sure, gaming with the boys, keeping up with the social media for our streaming channel, and what my agent scheduled for me to do for sponsorships added some to my schedule, but nothing like school. Especially my last semester when I took as many classes as I could knowing I was going into the draft. Not graduating just because I"d been drafted was never in the plan.

For the first time in my life, I had room in my schedule for a love life. Not just getting laid, although, that was high on the priority list, but a real relationship. I"d seen plenty of guys in college let their game take a dive when a girl got up in their head. It was part of the reason I didn"t date.

I knew full well I"d missed out on some very specific experiences when I swore off dating to concentrate on other more important things. That strategy had paid off. Not only had I gotten drafted as a junior, but I was having one hell of a rookie year on the Mustangs.

I made a goal, I went after it, and I accomplished that goal.

Everett told me I was being a punk by thinking I could do the same with Willa Rosemount. I didn"t really see why. I just needed to put the same study and effort into learning how to get her to date me as I did football and graduating.

His advice was decidedly different. Normally, I"d listen to the love guru of the family as he was the learned expert. He certainly had the experience with women to back it up, and his advice had helped Chris and Dec get the loves of their lives to fall for them. But this time, he was wrong.

Just being myself with Willa and getting to know her wouldn't get her to go out with me. We already knew each other, although not very well, and she wasn"t all goo-goo ga-ga for me. If that worked, she would"ve fallen for me back in high school. Not that I had given her the chance. She"d been off-limits then. Friends don"t date their friend"s little sisters.

But Xan hadn"t spoken to me since the draft. And I"d tried. But according to him, we weren"t friends anymore. Which meant I wasn"t breaking any guy code rules by asking her out. If I could fucking figure out how to do that and not look like a total fool.

I highly doubted a conversation about what she did and didn"t like would get me into her bed. Nope. I needed a better plan than that. Especially after how damn awkward I"d been this morning.

What I had to do was turn myself into a love guru, and fast. Which meant I didn"t have time to go out and get the amount of practice in this area that Everett had. But if I knew one thing, besides football, it was how to study. I already had a reading list a mile long on everything from flirting to the female orgasm. I"d skimmed three books this morning, and on my phone, I had a mile-long list of bookmarks for dating advice sites.

Practice today couldn"t end soon enough. I"d already reviewed all the tapes the offensive coordinator wanted me to earlier in the week. I was ready for the game against the Rebels because I was always prepared. One more walkthrough of the plays wasn"t going to make me a better player tomorrow. But I had enough discipline and focus to pay attention until Coach dismissed us.

After a shower and a shave, because stinky ballplayer was not the scent to make a good impression with, I snagged my bag, ignored the chatter around me, and headed straight for Willa"s family's coffee shop.

I rehearsed the conversation in my head, discarding every attempt at a smooth pickup line as soon as they formed.

"Hey, beautiful, got any coffee for a tired athlete?"Not enough pickup. Flirt level one.

"Can I get a shot of espresso and a shot at dinner with you?"Too forward. But much higher on the flirtablilty scale.

I parked and then pulled up the list of pickup lines from some dating coach. One popped out at me immediately. "If I were a cat, I"d spend all nine of my lives with you."

That had distinct possibilities given the way we"d met this morning. Except it was entirely too cheesy. I unbookmarked the site on my phone and made a mental note to find some better resources later.

By the time the bell announcing my arrival jingled above the coffee shop door, I had settled on nothing more than a simple hello.

Willa was behind the counter, her hair pulled back in a casual ponytail, wearing an adorable frilly apron that emphasized the curve of her hips, and her smile lit up the room as she chatted with the person in line ahead of me. I cleared my throat, trying to appear casual as I approached the counter.

"Hey, Willa."

Okay, good start, good start.

She looked up at me and grinned, and I swear her cheeks got a little pinker. Was she thinking about this morning? I wasn"t sure if that was good or bad. "Hayes. What can I get for you?"

I fumbled with my wallet, pulling it out as if it held the script to this encounter. "Uh, just a coffee. Black." Great, Hayes, real smooth.

She raised an eyebrow but turned to make my coffee. "Thought you were more fun than boring-old, plain black coffee. That"s what Xa... uh... don"t you want something more exciting? I pegged you as a caramel macchiato kind of guy."

Crap. Boring was bad, and she"d definitely almost compared me to her brother. Which was the last thing I wanted. "Yeah, sure. The caramel whats-ee-ah-toe sounds... fun. Gimme that."

"Fun is good," she said with a nod, her voice playful. "Fun can be really good."

I leaned on the counter, trying to muster the Kingman charm I knew was buried somewhere deep inside me. "So, I was thinking, maybe, you know, we could..."

Willa handed me my frou-frou drink with whipped cream and then gave it another squirt of caramel on top in the shape of a smiley face, her eyes twinkling very distractingly. "We could...?"

Oh, yes, we could indeed. I stared into those gorgeous eyes and forgot that anything else in the world existed for a moment. But her eyes got wider and she tilted her head like a puppy that"s wondering what the hell you"re doing.

Shit.

"Hang out? Sometime?" I blurted out, immediately wincing at how juvenile that sounded. Real fucking smooth. We weren"t in junior high.

Her eyes went from are-you-okay to are-you-serious real fast. Good god. I"d better just turn and walk away to drown my dumb ass in my fancy-ass cup of coffee. Somehow my feet did not get the message my embarrassed as shit brain was sending.

A smile slowly spread across Willa"s face. "Hayes Kingman, are you asking me out?"

Lifeline, lifeline. Catch it you fool. This message brought to you from your dick who"d like to get wet some fucking day and your ass who is feeling really fucking lucky to be saved by the pretty girl who threw us said lifeline.

"Yes?" It came out as more of a question than I intended. I took a deep breath, straightening up. "I mean, yes. I am."

Willa leaned in a bit, her voice lowering to a conspiratorial whisper. "You know, for a big, tough football player, you're pretty cute when you're nervous."

My heart thumped hard trying to jump up and out my throat, but I managed a chuckle to push it back down. "Is that a yes?"

"It's a maybe." She winked at me.

She.

Winked.

At me.

And I was going to have wet dreams about her doing that.

"I want to know more about this ‘fun' Hayes," she waggled her fingers in front of my chest like she was performing a spell on me, "before I make any decisions."

"Fair enough." I could be fun. Or I could just pretend I was Flynn or Gryff for a night. "How about I show you how fun I can be tomorrow night?"

She scowled at me, and I had no idea what made her give me the face of doom. "If you"re inviting me to watch you play football, pass."

Shit. The how-to-get-a-girl guide I"d read this morning said it made girls all hot and bothered to see a man dominating in sports. I thought for sure I could impress her with tickets to the Kingman VIP suite at the stadium. But Willa looked more like she"d rather give her cat a bath. Scratch that book off the list too. Maybe feed it to said cat. "No, of course not. I meant after the game. I promise, no football talk."

She considered it, her finger tapping against her chin thoughtfully. "Okay, Kingman, you've got yourself a date. But I'm choosing the place. I have a feeling you"re as good at picking restaurants as you are at picking coffee."

I grinned and had to keep myself from giving a fist pump in the air. "It's a deal. But I do know a fairly good restaurant that just opened up this summer."

Manniway"s Steakhouse was an excellent choice. I was sure of it. But I"d let her choose anywhere she wanted, because I didn"t care where we went as long as I got to be near her.

"Wills," a man with Willa's same dark blue eyes popped out from a backroom door. "Sure you can't stay another week or so?"

Wow. Was this her uncle Liam? He didn't look like the same man I remembered. His face was almost gaunt, and he had much shorter hair than the messy mop he'd always had before. He must have been ill. What was that he said about staying another week?

"Oh look, a Kingman. George is gonna die that he wasn't here. Willa, get a pic with our celebrity guest for him." He gave her an eyebrow waggle that was not as discreet as he thought it was.

"Liam, you remember Hayes. He went to school with Xander and me." She turned to me with a smirk, trying to communicate that her uncle was being a weirdo.

"I do remember." Liam extended his hand to me and shook it, grinning at Willa the whole time. "That doesn't mean he's not a celebrity and that George won't pee his pants when he finds out he was here while they were all at the Dragons' game."

Willa's forehead wrinkled along with her nose in the cutest WTF face. She whispered to me, "Is this because you got drafted? George is a nutter for all things Mustangs."

I shrugged. It was hard to feel like anything but just another guy on the team when your three older brothers were not just at the top of their games but recognized as the best players in the League for several years running. Not to mention their car commercials, big-brand shoe sponsorships, and a particularly famous underwear ad in Times Square.

I kind of liked that she wasn"t wowed by the notoriety. I didn"t give a shit about being a celebrity. I just wanted to be a good ballplayer.

Her uncle shook his head and patted Willa on the shoulder. "Willa, Willa, Willa. Your boy Hayes here is the hottest rookie to hit the League in a half century. Or so George and most of the talking head sports bros say. You're wearing his jersey for goodness' sake, and it's already going for three times what I bought it for at the start of the season."

Willa spun, looking over her shoulder as if she could read the name. I saw it well before she could.

H. Kingman.

She was wearing my jersey.

Every bit of blood I had rushed out of my extremities and straight to my cock. The couple of brain cells I had left in my head growled like a cocaine bear inhabited by a very possessive demon.

Mine.

Whoa. Slow down there lizard brain. I was raised better than to think I could lay claim to a woman or her body like that. I may not have needed to ask for it as of yet, but I full well knew the name of the game was enthusiastic consent.

But fuck me, I wanted to see Willa wearing my name and number and absolutely nothing else while I enthusiastically consented the shit out of her. That didn"t even make sense. But my lizard brain was high fiving the demon bear that wanted to... nope, stop it. We hadn"t even been on a date yet.

But the sooner we went on that date, the sooner I could kiss her, the sooner I could get her to fall for me, and the sooner I could get her into bed.

I had some more homework to do.