Page 26 of The Linebacker

It was going to be a long day.

Hell, it was going to be a long season.

Chapter

Nine

Dante smacked Amil on the chest with the back of his hand. “Come on, man, I’ll introduce you around.”

He meant the non-players at this tailgate shindig. Amil had obviously met all the players on the team. They’d been practicing together for a week now. He’d call himself friendly with Broderick, although he was pretty sure that guy befriended literally every person he came into contact with. Amil had gone out to dinner with Gunner Valentine, their starting safety, two days ago and then headed to Gunner’s house to play video games with the guy’s roommate until way too fucking late. Not that Amil had complained.

Hell no.

He was feeling a little shell shocked, though. He’d never once, in all his years, felt this tight with a group of people in such a short period of time.

Even Jalen was glaring at him less and less, making him suspect that Dante had likely had a conversation with him, much as he had with Amil.

Whatever. Amil didn’t care how it happened, so long as they could bury the perceived hatchet. He was this close to being part of a cohesive team for the first time in his life, and, as it turned out, he was willing to do whatever it took to get to that point.

Including keep Diana at arm’s length.

That was admittedly the hardest part to accept, even though it was fairly easy to put into play. She’d told him her reasons for not doing relationships, and he respected her beliefs. She already had Jalen giving her a hard time about not dating him; she didn’t need Amil acting the exact same way.

No one deserved that sort of pressure.

He and Dante walked over to a cluster of players and what Amil assumed were their significant others. Gunner was standing next to his roommate, a lean yet buff guy who Dante introduced as “his buddy” Ben Harrison.

“Yeah, we’ve met,” Amil said, shaking Ben’s hand. “He kicked my ass at Counter Strike 2 & Go the other night.”

After hanging out with the two men and now noting the adoring looks they kept shooting each other, Amil was pretty sure they were more than “buddies.” Sucked that Gunner was in a situation where he felt he could not be open about his relationship status.

“And this is our most famous groupie, Morgan Gentry,” Dante joked, indicating a woman with platinum blonde hair and a brilliant smile. Royce had his arm wrapped around the woman’s shoulders. He would clearly let go with great reluctance.

Morgan laughed and shook Amil’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Diana hadn’t given him much detail, but she had mentioned that Royce was engaged to a famous actor. Amil looked her up after that conversation, mostly so he would not feel like an idiot in situations like this, where it was clear that he should be aware of her status.

Turned out, she was a very, very famous actor, although not in the type of movies Amil usually watched. Still, that was pretty damn impressive.

He glanced over at Diana, who was standing with Allison, Emma, and some other woman he had not yet met, who had a toddler resting on her hip.

Truth be told, he barely noticed the other women. Only Diana.

He noticed her flawless brown skin. Her thick, pouty lips. High cheekbones. Perfectly arched brows. Her eyes, hidden behind sunglasses, he knew were a shade somewhere between green and brown. She’d pulled her dark hair into a high bun.

She wore a white, cropped tank top with a picture of the Ducks’ mascot on the front and a pair of baggy jeans that were no less attractive than the skintight ones she’d worn to dinner at Dante and Allison’s house.

He really liked the sensation, and yet he didn’t because he couldn’t do anything about it. Couldn’t act on these sparks shooting between the two of them.

It was unnerving.

He knew she felt it too; it was so obvious, he was surprised her friends hadn’t called her on it. Hell, maybe they had. She and Allison and Emma had been friends since college; they no doubt were all too aware of her relationship choices.

“Callahan,” Dante called out to their kicker, who was some distance away, standing with a willowy, dark-haired woman who was far too dressed up for a college football game. Two men who bore a strong resemblance to the woman hovered nearby, one of them not so subtly holding his phone to film or snap picture after picture of this group of football players.

“Fucking tool,” Amil heard someone mutter.

He glanced over at Diana’s friend Emma, who was glaring in the direction of the guy with the phone. The group of women all moved close to Royce and Morgan, crowding them and blocking the camera guy’s view.