Page 51 of The Linebacker

“Yeah, cool,” Amil said, fighting the grimace he could feel trying to slide onto his face.

Shit.

This was why he hated lying to his friends.

Chapter

Eighteen

How had Diana shifted so damn seamlessly from one-and-done to essentially living with a guy?

It could not possibly be this easy.

Or maybe it was, which was why her grandmother and mother and sister had so easily tripped from this stage to marriage. Over and over again.

The good thing, she supposed, was that Amil did not seem inclined to push her any further or faster than she was willing to go. He didn’t ask for a relationship status, he didn’t suggest they make this arrangement permanent—despite the fact that it was far more comfortable than she would have expected.

Hell, the man didn’t even leave his toothbrush in the holder on the sink. He tucked the toothbrush back into his toiletry bag, like he knew she might freak out if he presumed this was anything beyond temporary.

She tried to tell herself that he was right. She would freak out.

She should be freaking out over this much togetherness. Six nights. Seven days.

The 49ers game was tomorrow, and so far, they had managed to keep Jalen from figuring out that Amil had essentially moved in with her.

And was banging her senseless every night. And often in the morning, when he returned from his jogs.

Jogs with Jalen.

It felt so dirty. Yet when she was in the moment, it felt so right, so, yeah, she was a tad frustrated with the whole thing.

Not enough to stop, though.

Every morning, Amil went jogging with Jalen and Callahan, who, Amil told her when he returned on Wednesday morning, was trying to figure out how to break up with his girlfriend.

At least Diana was reassured they weren’t talking about her. They were too busy dissecting Callahan’s love life, apparently.

Wednesday evening after practice, Amil went to see the condo that was three doors down from Jalen’s unit. Diana was not invited.

When she pressed him for information later that night, he said it was okay.

No other details.

She knew it was more than okay. She’d helped Callahan secure his unit in that building, so she knew damn well how nice those condos were.

“I don’t think I want to live in a condo,” Amil finally admitted. Just to her. To Jalen, he was hedging, claiming to be considering it.

She couldn’t help but wonder if what he really didn’t want was to live three doors down from Jalen. Not because he didn’t want to live near his buddy, but because of her.

She was the damn snarl in the whole mess. Without her mucking things up, Amil fitting in with his new team would be going so much more smoothly.

“What are you thinking about?” Amil asked after rinsing his toothbrush and tucking it into his toiletry bag.

She stood next to him in front of the bathroom mirror, pretending to focus on sweeping eyeliner across her lid so that she wouldn’t blurt out, “Just put the damn thing in the holder.” It wasn’t like there wasn’t plenty of room. There was a lone toothbrush resting in that cup.

And it wasn’t like he wasn’t going to come in here later tonight and use the damn toothbrush again?—

Okay, technically, he was not.