Playing for Kicks (Play Makers Book 5) (19 page)

“Just go.” She smiled wistfully then turned
on a small TV in the corner of the breakfast nook so she could
check on last night’s baseball scores. She technically didn’t need
to keep such close tabs on things since she wouldn’t be a sports
bartender much longer, but what did it hurt? And maybe it would
give her ideas for a third article once she finished the two
Portland-based ones.

The thought felt almost threatening. Would
she really continue hanging out with the McSpurlings once she left
town? Especially after football season started and Johnny was on
the road so many weekends? And this thing with Sean
. . .

It’s like you told him. You can’t take the
risk,
she reminded herself sadly.
Forget the crazy chemistry
and the Tantric silliness. And forget about last night, because it
never should have happened. And it can never, ever happen
again.

• • •

To please Erica she wore the knee-length
ruffled black skirt. To please herself she chose a sleeveless
white-silk shell with a high neck. And for Sean? Sexy black heels
in place of the red huarache sandals.

And a ponytail, just to avoid
misunderstandings.

He had been so cool about this on the phone.
Stoked in fact, or at least making a good show of it. The only
hiccup was when she said she was riding with Johnny and Erica, but
even then he was a pretty good sport about it. And he never
mentioned how willing she had seemed the night before to be totally
and completely seduced.

Thank God he had turned her down.

Still, when he walked into the moody,
intimate restaurant, Tess sighed for what might have been. She
always loved the way he looked, but tonight in his dark slacks and
a striped shirt with the sleeves rolled up he seemed even hotter.
Out of her league to be honest, although his twinkling eyes when he
caught sight of her—and his two best friends—told her he didn’t see
it that way.

Ambling over to them, he gave Erica a quick
kiss on the cheek, said “Hey,” to his QB, then leaned down to give
Tess a light embrace. No kiss, but he might as well have nuzzled
her neck given the heat he brought when he whispered, “Hey,
babe.”

“Back off, Romeo,” she whispered back.

He chuckled and took the only free seat,
which was next to Erica and across from Tess, who had been seated
at Johnny’s side by the QB’s own decree.

Sean nudged Erica. “How’s your head?”

“After six sips?”

“Six in dog years,” he teased her. “Tess says
she was teaching you to make the perfect martini.”

Erica smiled proudly. “She says I’m a
natural.”

“At everything,” he agreed. Then he turned
his attention to Johnny. “Any update on Jordy?”

“They say it’s a contusion, but more likely
hurt feelings. Courtesy of Riga.”

They both laughed at the inside joke, then
Sean explained to Tess, “Jordy’s one of our rookies.”

“You mean Jordy Jordan out of ’Bama? Never
heard of him.”

The men seemed impressed, but Erica stole the
show by saying, “Pop mentioned you know your college football. I
guess it’s true.”

Tess gawked. “You’re calling him Pop? Since
when?”

“I couldn’t deal with
Coach
Pop. And
you said yourself I’d eventually choose one. So I made my
choice.”

“I like it. So will he.”

A waiter interrupted to take drink orders, so
Johnny and Sean asked for Lager Storm beer while Tess and Erica
settled for sparkling water with a twist. At Johnny’s insistence
they bypassed appetizers and ordered clam chowder for their first
course.

Tess had glanced at the menu and was tempted
by grilled salmon, but when Sean ordered surf and turf, and
everyone else followed suit, she went for it too. Because if
nothing else, he had great taste in food.

Once the waiter left, the QB surprised her by
demanding, “So how much of that French story was true?”

“All of it.” She eyed him teasingly. “Did you
hear your wife’s story?”

“Yeah, Once too often. I
hate
that
clown.”

Tess smiled in sympathy. “What about
your
first time? Another cliché, right?”

He chuckled. “Yeah, more or less. But I have
a better excuse than Erica does, since I didn’t have time to date
in high school. Too busy living up to the Spurling name.”

Erica jumped in. “Long story short, he slept
with a cheerleader. Isn’t that worse than mine?”

“I’d call it a tie,” Tess drawled.

Erica giggled. “At least
our
stories
are true.” Her gray eyes shifted toward Sean. “What about you?”

When he winced, Tess smiled in fake sympathy.
“Twins?”

“That would have been safer,” he assured her
with a chuckle.

At that moment the clam chowder arrived so
they waited, then pounced again as soon as they were alone.

“Just get it over with, bro,” Johnny advised
him. “They’re relentless.”

“Yeah, I know.” Sean gave Tess a quick look
that almost felt like an apology. Then he explained. “There was
this girl named Mindy whose family had a ranch near ours. She was
five years older. And really pretty. Meaning she never noticed me
but I definitely noticed
her
. She left for BYU and I didn’t
see her after that. Fast-forward to my junior year in high school.”
He exhaled sharply. “I was backup QB but should’ve been starting
based on ability. But the mayor’s son was a year ahead of me and my
coach said I needed to wait my turn.”

“Such bullshit,” Johnny said under his
breath.

“Yeah, it sucked. Then on Thanksgiving
weekend, the starter got food poisoning and I was up. Turns out the
whole team had my back so we all played above our level. Especially
the wide-outs. We kicked ass that night,” he remembered fondly. “It
was awesome.”

“Way to go,” Johnny told him
emphatically.

Sean flushed. “I usually kept the
celebrations to a minimum since my dad was a hard-ass. But this
time he told me to go for it. So I partied with the team. And Mindy
was there because her friend’s brother was our center. She asked me
for a ride home, which was so cool. Then she told me her parents
were out of town and she wanted to try out their new hot tub, so .
. .” He grinned. “I’m not gonna lie, it was awesome. Not just
in the hot tub but the bed, the sofa, you name it.”

“You were sixteen and she was twenty-one?”
Tess asked, pretending to be shocked. “Isn’t that statutory
rape?”

“Probably. But it seemed more like a gift
from God. Right up until she started crying on my shoulder about
her linebacker boyfriend, saying he had such a jealous temper she
was afraid of what he’d do if he found out about us.”

Johnny howled. “Even for your first time, you
did it with someone else’s girl? That’s bad karma, dude.”

“Tell me about it. But by then I was hooked,
right? So I told her to dump his ass and date me instead. I know, I
know, but I was sixteen, so it seemed like a great idea until some
maniac started pounding on the front door, yelling for her to let
him in.”

Tess collapsed against Johnny, laughing until
her ribs ached. “Oh, my God, Sean. Just when I thought you
weren’t
a loser.”

He grinned. “This guy was so huge he made
Riga look like a ballerina. And hairy as hell. Foaming at the
mouth. I was sure he’d snap me like a twig, since at sixteen I was
skinny as a rail. One sixty soaking wet. Literally in this
case.”

“But at least you wouldn’t die a virgin,”
Erica said with a giggle.

He laughed too. “Luckily Mindy saved my life
by promising to marry him if he didn’t hurt me. But I still wasn’t
ready to abandon her, so she took me aside and explained she set
the whole thing up to make him jealous.”

“Poor Sean,” Erica murmured.

“I started running and didn’t stop until I
was safe in my own bed. I even asked my aunt and uncle to get Dad’s
truck because I did
not
want to face that gorilla
again.”

“Still,” Johnny said reverently, “hot-tub
sex. At sixteen?”

Sean nodded. “Best night ever.”

Tess giggled. “This is why I love men. So
consistently simple-minded.” Pausing for a mouthful of chowder, she
sighed. “Yum.”

“So the only question is, whose story is
best,” Erica told them cheerfully. “I vote for Sean’s since I’m
pretty sure Tess made hers up.”

“I like Tess’s,” Sean said quickly.

“Me too,” Johnny agreed.

Tess gave them a grateful smile, but
insisted, “It’s moot, because the best de-virgining story—
ever
—is my sister Jill’s.”

Erica’s ears perked up. “Tell it,
please?”

It occurred to Tess that Jill might not
appreciate this. But the odds of anyone at this table meeting her
were low. And the odds they’d love this story were astronomical, so
she decided it was totally worth the risk.

Chapter
Six

As they listened with rapt attention, Tess
began. “First you need some background on Jill. She’s amazing.
Smart, pretty, confident and most importantly, a planner. So of
course, she planned how to lose her virginity.”

“You mean, like what age she wanted to be?”
Erica demanded. “Or the place to do it? Or she wanted to be in love
with the guy first?”

“That’s how normal females think. But Jill
prides herself on being logical and rational. And she had heard
some friends complain that it hurt the first time. Or even the
first couple of times. So she decided to find a guy with a small
penis.” She paused while their jaws dropped, then she explained.
“Not tiny or anything, just small enough not to hurt while still
getting the job done.”

Johnny grinned. “How did she plan on locating
it?”

“Good question. She didn’t do much dating
because she spent twenty hours a day studying and the other four
trying to re-do
my
homework. So she concentrated on what she
called high-value targets—”

“
What?”

Tess grinned at Erica. “You can’t make this
stuff up, right? So she went to the biggest parties and proms.
Danced with a cross-section of guys. They were teenage boys so they
blossomed on the dance floor.” She laughed as she remembered some
of Jill’s best descriptions. “She was like that fairy tale. Some
were too big, a few seemed too small, but none were just right. So
she was still a virgin when she went off to college. And finally
she met Mr. Right Size.”

“You’re such a liar,” Erica complained
teasingly. “You’re saying she had sex with a guy based purely on
penis size? In the
wrong
direction?”

After the guys laughed, and the waiter had
taken away the bowls and replaced them with giant plates of lobster
and sirloin steak, Tess started eating as if the story were
over.

“Tell us the rest,” Erica pleaded. “Did she
actually go through with it? Did she at least date him first?”

“Date him first? Is that a requirement?”

“Stop it.” She arched an eyebrow. “Just
finish the story.”

Tess pursed her lips, then gave in. “Okay, so
she had coffee with this professor. And she was attracted to him,
so she cooked dinner at his house and she liked him even. But
obviously, she still had some research to do. So they made out a
little and she decided he was perfect for the job. So they did it,
it didn’t hurt, they fell in love, and three months later she
married him.”

“
What?”
Erica recovered enough to
nudge Sean. “You don’t believe it, do you? Why would she marry a
guy with a tiny penis?”

“It’s not tiny,” Tess insisted. “Otherwise
she’d still be a virgin, and I’m pretty sure she isn’t. Although
with Jill you never know.”

Johnny seemed completely impressed, asking,
“Does she look like you?”

“More or less. The same way
you
look
like your little brother.”

“Huh?”

“I saw him in the wedding video and he looks
almost exactly like you except also completely different.”

“Yeah,” he murmured. “That makes sense.”

“Oh, God,” Erica groaned to Sean. “He’s
starting to think like her. Next he’ll be quote-unquote living in
the moment. Then we’ll
all
be doomed.”

“Living in the moment?” Sean asked. “Is that
like
seizing
the moment?”

“It’s completely different.” She glanced
across the table at Tess. “Explain it to him.”

“I’m eating.”

Johnny intervened. “Tess wants us to
savor
the moment, not seize it. Right, Tess?”

She pretended to swoon. “No wonder I love
you.”

“Don’t forget it.”

“Okay, you two,” Erica said with a laugh.
“Sean? Dance with Tess.”

“She’s
eating,”
Johnny reminded her,
his tone playful but his eyes filled with warning. “And this isn’t
a date, remember?”

“You two go ahead and dance,” Tess said with
a grateful smile. “Sean can tell me Mindy stories while I finish my
lobster.”

“Sounds like a deal.” The QB stood then
walked around the table to take his wife’s hand. “Mrs.
Spurling?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” she said
amorously.

As soon as they were gone, Sean shifted into
Johnny’s vacated seat and moved it closer to Tess. “Hey, babe.”

“Hey,” she said shyly. “Thanks again for last
night.”

“Which part? The kissing or the walking
away?”

“I think you know which part I liked
best.”

“Yeah . . .” He leaned closer, his
breath warm on her face, his green gaze pulling her in. “I liked
that part too.”

“Settle down,” she warned him, but her voice
was too throaty to do any good.

“Are you gonna let me drive you back to the
hotel?”

She nodded, breathless.

“Come on, then. Let’s dance.”

He led her to the small dance floor but
stopped halfway to stare down at her. “What’s different?”

“Better shoes,” she explained, her gaze
meeting his. She too was aware of the extra height, enough so that
his lips were much, much closer to hers.