Page 47 of The Linebacker

Right. Jeff. Their morning meeting. “Yes,” she responded, the word practically a squeak.

Emma canted her head. “You okay?”

Diana nodded. Now was not the time to blurt out all the confusion in her head, even to her best friend. “Overslept. Set my alarm and then left my phone in the kitchen.”

No one knew that Amil had taken up temporary residence at her condo. She hadn’t even told Emma last night, despite the number of drinks they’d had, despite the conversation during which they’d analyzed every member of the team and discussed their hotness ratio.

She knew damn well that telling anyone, even Emma or Allison, would lead to questions she was not prepared to answer. And now that Jalen seemed to have worked it out all on his own with zero proof, well, avoiding the subject at all costs currently seemed like the best route.

“I’ve done that before,” Emma said sympathetically. “Well, let’s go look at pictures, shall we?”

Great idea. Work was an excellent distraction.

Time to ignore her confusing as hell social life and focus on the job.

They were done before lunchtime. Jeff dismissed them so he could take a conference call. “Want to grab lunch?” Emma asked as they strolled down the hall together.

Much to her own frustration, the first thing Diana thought was, what are Amil’s plans?

Before she could respond, the door to the theater room opened and Callahan bebopped out like he was jamming to music only he could hear. He caught sight of the two of them, froze in place, and gave them both sweeping looks of appreciation before winking at Emma and striding away, the same cockiness to his walk that Amil had earlier.

Diana whipped around to gape at her friend. “You didn’t?”

Not that she had any room to talk, but at least Amil wasn’t dating someone else.

Emma scoffed. “Hell no. He’s hot AF and a fabulous dancer, but I’m not into being the other woman. Nor am I into boys with baggage, and that boy has enough baggage to fill the Titanic.” She rolled her eyes.

“Come on, let’s get out of here.” Diana kicked up her pace, needed to get out of the vicinity before Amil strode through that doorway and Emma asked her the same damn thing.

Because she would not be able to say no.

Which was why she blew off lunch, claiming she had errands to run. The last thing she needed to do in her current state was sit across from one of her besties and chat over a meal. Her damn secret would slip out unbidden, she was sure of it.

Instead, she headed back to her condo, where both cats greeted her with great enthusiasm. Even if Amil decided last night was a mistake, he still had to retrieve his cat, so she’d have to face him at some point.

And then she curled up on the couch with her laptop, pulled up real estate listings.

Where did he intend to sleep tonight?

Would he assume he was sharing her bed again?

Or would he retrieve Patches and leave?

She flopped back against the couch and stared at the ceiling.

She’d never gone through this inner turmoil before.

Frankly, it sucked.

What was so wonderful and glamorous and fun about second-guessing every damn decision?

By the time Amil arrived, kicked off his shoes, and strode into the living room, she’d worked herself into a panic.

“What do you expect?” she demanded the moment he came into view.

He paused, almost comically, one leg and arm lifted, as if her words had frozen him in the process of taking a step. Slowly, he lowered his foot to the floor and canted his head.

“About what?” he asked, his voice full of caution.