Page 134 of The Score We Never Settled

My girl.

My girl who never legally took my last name.

Instantly, my gaze falls down the length of her, finding a black baseball jersey with the Tennessee Tornadoes labelled on it and the number twenty-three. My cock twitches in my sweatpants because it’smynumber.

“Layla Jean,” I apprise, not able to take my eyes off the damn jersey. “Please don’t tell me you flirted with a man wearing my fucking number on your chest. I’ll kill him right now.”

She chuckles, which would be funny if Davis weren’t such a dipshit whose mission is to sleep with, at least, one woman in every city we’re in.

“If he calls that flirtin’, then he’d need to look up the definition,” she replies simply. “Because all he did was talk about his game-winnin’ catch and if I wanted something to drink. I said wine.”

“He thinks he’s going somewhere with you.”

“You just said he thought we were flirtin’, Briggs,” she replies with amusement in her tone. “I think we need to reevaluate what he believed was going to happen and what wasactuallygoing to happen.”

I look up at her. “I’m curious about what your play was here, Short Stop. Wearin’ my jersey, sneakin’ in, and, what, eye-fuckin’ me from across the way?”

She bobs her head and pushes her lips out before responding, “Oh, there was definitely eye-fucking. How else was I going to get my autograph?”

“I’d give you more than that, Layla Jean.”

“Yeah?” Her head cocks to one side. “I was hopin’ that big mouth would say something about my name. He talked a lot about it. I was just waitin’ for you to catch on.”

“What’s it gonna take for you to leave with me right now?”

“Aren’t you gonna introduce me to your friends?”

“No.” Her brows knit together. “They can meet you later. They’re not going anywhere.”

“I could be here for just an hour.”

“Highly doubt it if you were waiting for me to catch on to your little game.”

“Maybe I just like to tease, Briggs Kerrigan.”

I narrow my eyes suspiciously at her. “How long?”

“A while.”

“How is that possible?”

“I made it possible.”

“Are you fuckin’ with me?”

“Aren’t I always?”

My lips break out in a full-blown smile before my arm reaches out to snatch her in my arms, pulling her tight against my body. The softness of hers against mine is irreproachable to anything that happened tonight.

Sure, we landed our playoff spot, but my girl ended up surprising me andfeelingher is everything.

“I missed you, Short Stop.”

“I couldn’t tell from all the text messages. And the dick pics.”

“You should’ve sold those online. Would’ve made you a fortune.”

She snorts out a laugh. “Yeah, that’s not going to work for me. I told you if you made the playoffs, we’d talk about still being together. And, I’m here to tell you, Briggs Kerrigan, that if you can sweep me off my feet tonight, I’m all yours.”