Quarterback Sneak (Red Zone Rivals #3)(11)

“Is this your not-so-subtle way of asking if I have a girlfriend, Julep Lee? Because I can save you the detective work and tell you that I don’t.”

I scoffed. “Like I care.”

“Seems like you might.”

“Seems like they might need to order new helmets to fit your big head.”

Leo coughed to cover his laugh, nudging Riley who was having that silent conversation with Giana across the table again.

Holden ignored all of it, only leaning in even more, his breath warm on my lips. “Some of us are going out tonight to celebrate chart before the real work of the season starts. You should come.”

“Since when are you going out?” Leo asked with a scoff.

“Since now,” Holden answered without looking away from me. I didn’t think it was possible for him to lean in any closer without it being a kiss, but he managed, and I resisted the urge to back down. “That is, if Julep joins us.”

My next inhale came harder than the one before it, burning in a way I was unfamiliar with as those sea green eyes danced.

“You keep forgetting who I am,” I said, hoping my voice was louder to him than it was over the roaring in my ears.

“I know exactly who you are.”

That made me scoff. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“So, let’s change that.”

He shot the words back at me so quickly that the table went quiet, everyone pretending to eat when I knew damned well they were all tuned in to what I would say back.

I narrowed my eyes, rolling my lips together before I pressed just a fraction of an inch into the slight space that still existed between us. I opened my mouth, ready to fire back even though I didn’t have anything locked and loaded.

But before I could, a deep voice rumbled through the room.

“Moore.”

It was like a rubber band snapping, how my father’s voice made every player sit at attention. They straightened their backs, aligned their shoulders, and kept their eyes on their food.

Everyone except for Holden, who jumped back from me like I was on fire before standing like a fucking soldier.

“Sir,” he answered.

Dad ambled over to the table slowly, a tray of food in his hands as his eyes surveyed the scene. He looked at the table of players, at Giana, at me, and lastly, at Holden — at where he was in proximity to me.

There was no verbal response, just a head tilt from my father toward the door. He walked out without checking to see if Holden followed — which he did, without so much as a look behind at me or anyone else.

When they were gone, Leo let out a fizz of a laugh that set the rest of the table at ease.

“Poor Cap,” Zeke said, shaking his head. “Can’t catch a break this season.”

Embarrassment heated my neck as eyes slowly drifted to me, and I cleared my throat, forcing the best smile I could before I grabbed my tray and stood.

“I better get back,” was all I quietly offered before I was jetting toward the trash cans to dump my barely touched lunch.

Giana and Riley chased me down, stopping me before I could leave.

“You really should come out tonight,” Giana said. “We could use another girl in the troupe with all this…” She waved a hand. “Masculine energy floating around.”

I glanced behind them at where the players watched me, then to the door my father had led Holden out of, and my chest tightened.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “I… I can’t tonight.”

And then before either of them could argue, I bolted.

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Holden



“You actually said that?”

My uncle Kevin tried not to laugh as he asked, sharing a glance with his husband who was sautéing mushrooms with one hand and sipping red wine with the other. It was a look that said can you believe he’s talking to us about a girl instead of football?

“I’m as surprised as you are,” I admitted, shifting Joanne in my arms.

My cousin was tiny — just eleven pounds and three months old — and she slept cradled against my chest. I could have put her in her crib or bouncer, but I liked having her there, liked having someone so soft and sweet and innocent to look down at as I confessed my unfortunate stupidity.

“I cannot understand what’s going on with me, honestly,” I said, exasperated. “When I’m away from her, I’m my normal, logical self. I recognize that there is no point in even entertaining the thought of her. But when I’m around her…” I made a face, struggling for words. “It’s like she scrambles my freaking brain. All I want to do is get a rise out of her, get her to do anything other than float by me like an emotionless ghost.”

“A ghost?”

I nodded. “I can’t explain it. She just seems… haunted.”

My uncles glanced at each other before pretending like they hadn’t, as if I didn’t already see.

“Did she end up coming out with you?” Uncle Nathan asked before carefully adding the thin-sliced steak to the pan. It sizzled when he did, the steam that hit my nose making my mouth water instantly. Uncle Nathan was a phenomenal cook — which was exactly why my Uncle Kevin had married him.

Because he’d be living off Easy Mac, otherwise.

“Of course not,” I answered. “And thank God she’s smarter than I am and didn’t, because it would have only brought on more trouble.”