Page 82 of Backup Plan

“I’m at a resort ten minutes away. It’s about fifteen minutes from there to the practice center. Super convenient, and they have everything I need, though my teammates have been taking me out every night,” he says.

“How’s that been?”

He lifts a shoulder. “It’s been incredible, actually. I guess I’ve been relegated to second string for so long that I never really felt like a part of the action in Pittsburgh, but here…I don’t know. It’s a different feeling. Tanner is the starter, and he has never once treated me like I’m inferior to him even though by all accounts—”

“Stop,” I interrupt. “You’re not inferior to anybody.”

He clenches his jaw, and it feels like this conversation hits a nerve for him.

“You made it. You’re a professional football player. That’s nothing short of totally and completely incredible.”

He presses his lips together before he responds. “Yeah. As a career backup.”

“Maybe you just haven’t had your chance yet.”

He lifts a shoulder. “Or maybe my best days are behind me.”

I can relate.

“Manifest, babe. Manifest the good stuff.”

He glances at me with a chuckle. “I didn’t know you were all woo woo.”

“I’m not,” I say, holding up a hand. “But manifesting freaking works.”

He raises a brow. “Oh yeah? How?”

“Okay, so that night you walked into the bar, I was sitting there after a long day of work, and I manifested you.”

He glances at me again to narrow his eyes before they return to the road. “You wanted me to walk into the bar?”

I shake my head and giggle. “No, I told the universe I needed someone to pay for my dinner so I could use that money to pay for Sammy’s baseball uniform, and you showed up and took care of the bill.”

He barks out a laugh. “If you weren’t best friends with my sister, I’d think you had ulterior motives.”

Emboldened by the fact that it’s just the two of us in this town—plus his entire football team and one, maybe two of his siblings—I reach over and slide my hand up his thigh until I feel where his cock is nestled in his shorts, and I rub my palm over him. “Oh, I do.”

He shakes his head, a smile playing on his lips. “Admittedly, I have those same motives.”

“Good thing the hotel is only ten minutes away.”

“I’m not entirely sure I can make it that long.”

“Oh? Shall we manifest an orgasm right here in the car?” I tease, and I apply a little pressure where my palm still sits over his cock.

He groans. “Not if you want to get there safely.” He reaches down and grabs my hand in his, pulling it away from his now very hard cock and lacing his fingers through mine. “If you keep doing that, I’m going to come in my pants, and then we won’t get to have fun for two to three hours.”

“I can still have fun, Bradley,” I hint.

He chuckles. “Don’t you worry about that, Wade.”

My head whips over to him.

My last name is still legally Calloway.

But there’s something inherently sexy about him calling me by my maiden name—a name I didn’t even know he knew.

“That’s right,” he murmurs. “I’m not calling you by some other asshole’s name. Not when you’re mine.”