Page 15 of Elite Player
Jo goes stiff as a board next to me, and I squeeze her hand, once again feeling that knot in my stomach. I try to laugh it off. “I was surprised when she said yes too.”
Lizzie huffs and takes her cell phone back to keep researching me as Danny tells me, “We’re a football family. We don’t do hockey.”
I shrug. “That’s all right. We can’t all be perfect.”
He turns away from me, rolling his eyes.
“Are you going to bring him to Granny’s birthday?” Tonya asks Jo, and I raise my brow at her in question.
“My great-grandmother is turning one hundred.”
Tonya bats at the air. “We’re planning a big party for her. You have to come.”
Mamaw nearly throws herself at me, hands wandering once again, and I’d hate to have to put Jo’s grandma in her place, but I will. You do not touch anyone, especially strangers, without their consent. I remove her hand from my hip, though she doesn’t notice, too excited as she chirps, “She’ll just love you! She’s still a firecracker. You know, the women in our family live a long time. Will you come to the party?”
I glance over at Jo to find she’s a deer in the headlights, so I offer Mamaw a smile. “If it fits in my game schedule.”
“I hope so. You have to meet everyone. You’ll?—”
“Your mom is Paulina Luciano!” Lizzie shouts, and there is so much going on, I don’t know where to look. If this is what Jo puts up with all the time, no wonder she’s stressed.
Danny whips his head around to his sister. “The model?”
“Pauly who?” Mamaw asks, her arm around my waist.
Reading over Lizzie’s shoulder, Waylon says, “Paulina Luciano is an Italian supermodel, born in?—”
“That name sounds familiar.” Tonya’s brows knit together.
“Because you buy her skincare,” Lizzie says, and Tonya gasps.
“Oh yes! Nico, she’s your mother? She’s beautiful.”
I nod along because, sure, she’s beautiful. Yes, she was one of the biggest models in the 1980s and ’90s and now has a popular skincare line, but she might as well be a stranger to me. Though they don’t need to know that.
“I can’t believe you managed to snag him.” Tonya whacks at Jo’s leg, while gesturing at me with her other hand. “How did you do that?”
And I can’t for the life of me understand all thesebackhanded comments. “She didn’t do anything, that was part of the problem,” I say, wiggling out of Mamaw’s grasp. “She ignored me for a long time until I begged and pleaded for her to go on a date with me.”
“You did not.” Lizzie scoffs, and I nod seriously at her.
“In front of the whole team, didn’t I, babe? Got on my knees and begged for a date.”
Danny crosses his arms, grumbling something about being pussy-whipped for a loser, and what in the actual fuck?
Before I can respond to him, Tonya flaps her hands, as if it’s all making sense. “No wonder why you didn’t want to tell us about him, Buck. With him being a handsome, famous athlete, and all the other girls probably throwing themselves at him—that must be so hard for you.”
I cut my attention to Josephine, her lip tucked back under her teeth, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she bit it until it bled from all her anxiety. I brush my hand over her hair, tucking the dark strands behind her ear, but she shies away from me, moving her hair back in place, as if using it for cover.
I hate it.
I hate all of this, and I stand up, putting on my best smile. “It’s really kind of you all to come visit Jo, but I think she should get some rest.” I move toward the group. “What are your plans? Are you staying the night? Do you have a hotel?”
They all start talking at once. Danny complaining about how long the drive took, Mamaw saying her bunions hurt, Tonya talking about how she doesn’t want to stay in the city, but it’s Lizzie’s question that silences everyone.
“Where is Beave’s ring?”
I look around the room. “Who is Beave?”
