Page 54 of The Linebacker

“Hell yeah.” Jalen punched his palm with the other fist.

“No, I mean, are you ready for all the shit-talking that’s going to happen?”

Jalen went from excited to stiff and scowling in the space between heartbeats. He glared at Amil. “What kind of shit-talking do you expect?”

Like he didn’t know exactly what Amil was talking about. Why the hell was Jalen so obsessed with Diana?

He could understand, of course, but he didn’t think his obsession and Jalen’s were the same. If Diana had told him to go away, he’d have honored her wishes. According to Diana, she had told Jalen to back off, more than once, and yet he kept mooning after her.

Well, not anymore. They’d not had a conversation about it, but Amil had noticed. Jalen didn’t try to initiate conversations with her anymore. He didn’t make it a point to touch her elbow when they did speak, whether it was about practice or the game or whatever community event Diana had lined up next.

And Diana hadn’t complained about him paying her too much attention lately.

She’d also stopped musing over the fact that she’d broken her own rule. That she was willing to challenge her family’s curse.

For Amil.

Heady feeling, knowing the woman he wanted more than anything in the world wanted him too. She wasn’t fully there yet; hell, they hadn’t even defined this thing between them, even though they were basically living together.

And he wasn’t pushing, because he knew she needed time. As comfortable as he was living with her and two cats in that tiny condo, he also continued to live out of his duffle bag rather than leave his toothbrush on the bathroom counter or hang up his wrinkled shirts in her closet.

He was moving along as slowly as she needed him to.

“Shit,” Jalen muttered, dropping his head against the back of his seat. “This is about Diana.”

Amil cleared his throat. “Yeah.”

“I’ve barely talked to her in weeks.”

“The 49ers’ defense doesn’t know that. Although, if you’re saying their chirping won’t get under your skin, that’s great. Especially if they don’t know. It’ll be comical, actually. Them trying to rile you up, you being completely oblivious. Or so it will seem.”

Jalen stared at his tray in its upright position on the back of the seat in front of him. Amil noted his knuckles turned white as he squeezed the armrest.

So, not over her, then. The greater issue with that needed to be dealt with at a later date. Right now, Amil needed to coach him through what to expect at that game.

“Fake it ’til you make it,” Amil advised after he’d listed the barbs he expected his former teammates to call out whenever they were near enough to Jalen. “Even if they bother you, don’t let those guys know.”

He dropped his hand onto his friend’s shoulder, gave it a squeeze. Hard enough to draw Jalen’s attention.

“You got this. I know you do.”

The plane landed, and they rolled up to the gate. A bus waited to whisk them to the practice field. As they made their way to the exit, he overheard Broderick chattering about how the rest of the staff was taking a separate bus to the hotel, while Jillian had arranged for a car to take the WAGs into the city so they could play, since the guys on the team were relegated to the hotel and an early lights out.

Diana and Emma would be included with the WAGs, especially if Jillian was planning the excursion. He was glad Diana was going to have fun while she was here in the Bay Area, although he wished he were the one showing her a good time.

Maybe they could take a vacation in the offseason, just the two of them. Take a little tour around the Pacific Northwest. Or go someplace farther away. Europe. A cruise on the Baltic Sea. He’d wanted to take a trip to Iceland for a while now.

Hell, he didn’t care where they went as long as they were together.

Yeah, he recognized that he was making long-term plans for a relationship that hadn’t even been defined, which was exactly why he would not make that suggestion yet.

He could wait.

Right now, it was time to focus.

He walked into Levi’s Stadium with the rest of his team and tried to pinpoint exactly how he felt, being a visitor instead of on the home team here.

Mostly, he was happy to have been traded. He liked the atmosphere with the Mountain Lions. He liked the coach, a lot. The defensive coordinator was a great guy with a whole lot of solid ideas. His teammates were becoming his friends.