Keeping Score by Cathryn Fox

Author:Cathryn Fox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cathryn Fox

15

Rocco

With the bacon halfway to my mouth, my hand stills, Reagan’s question hanging heavy in the air between us. What do I want? To be perfectly honest, at this very moment, I want my hands and mouth on her—I want to lose myself inside her—but the real problem is, I might want it tomorrow, or again next week…maybe forever. But that’s not going to happen, and I honestly have no idea why I even told her that much about my history. There are a lot of rumors about me, but I’ve only ever opened up to Alistair.

I toss the bacon into my mouth and try to settle my racing heart as she waits for me to answer. “I guess I want to finish my degree, get into the NFL, and live happily ever after.”

Her lips quirk. “Fairy tales. Nice, but—”

“But you don’t believe in them either,” I say, finishing her sentence.

She shakes her head, and toys with the corner of her toast. “How did you know?”

“We’re not so different in some ways.”

“You’re right.”

“I want that for you, Reagan. I want you to have the happily ever after, the house, kids and minivan.”

She reaches across the table and squeezes my hand. “I want that for you too.”

I nod. In the world I grew up in, fairy tales don’t exist, but if she starts living her own life, maybe she can have all the things she wants and deserves.

“What do you want to do after the NFL?”

“The scholarship comes with a degree, and while football is my life, and I don’t know what I’d do without it, I’m pretty good in math.”

“If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be here right now.”

She’s referring to the card game. “If your douche…” I catch myself. No trash talking her boyfriend, or her ex-boyfriend. I’m not even sure she knows where she stands with Cochrane. “If Cochrane hadn’t handed you to me, I wouldn’t be here.” I consider that for a second. “I guess now I can’t hate him as much as I used to.”

Her lips pinch tight. “Yes, you can. He was horrible to you.”

“I hate that he hurt you.”

She nods and looks down for a second. “After the NFL, what are your plans?”

I shrug. “I love coding, so maybe something in the tech industry.” I lean back and take a sip of coffee. “Or maybe I’ll open my own art studio.” Her eyes go wide, then she laughs. “What, you don’t believe me?”

“No, I don’t.” She crushes a napkin and tosses it at me. “So you can stop that right now.” I catch the napkin and toss it back. “Do you think about having a family or kids?”

“I don’t know. I guess not really. Is that something you want?”

She nods. “Cochrane and I talked about it.” She snorts. “We had our entire future planned out.”

“And now?”

She rolls one shoulder, and shrinks into herself. “And now…I have no idea what the future holds.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“I guess.”

“You and me. Us.” I point my finger back and forth between the two of us.

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