Page 63 of Scoring Lessons

I nodded at the book. “Is that the final list?”

“Pretty much. I scribbled some things around it, too. Like my own version of what she is doing in the book.” She paused for a beat to think. “I’m sure we can be done by the end of the season?” She said it more as a question.

“I’m not worried about a timeline. Are you?”

“I guess not.” She shrugged then squinted in my direction. “Are we really doing this?”

A lazy smirk pulled at the corner of my mouth. “Yeah.”

“Is this crazy?” she asked through one of her blinding smiles, making her eyes sparkle like the sky on the Fourth of July. My favorite kind of smile—the one that no one got to see as of late except for me.

My heart did a little backflip and dropped to the pit of my stomach. My skin tingled, like millions of stars flickering to life for her smile.

Yes, it is, was what I almost said. Instead, I settled for, “Normal is overrated.” I grabbed the book and placed it underneath my arm.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

My grin was wide. “I’m going to read it.”

She scoffed. “Oh, absolutely not.”

“Embarrassed much?”

“No.” She puffed a short breath, but her eyes flicked anywhere but to me. One of her usual tells when she was lying. “But if you want to read it so badly, get yourself a copy.”

“I want to read your notes.”

“But I haven’t even finished reading it!”

“I’ll buy you another copy.”

She let out a tired sigh. “Fine.”

I grinned as I reached for the door then looked both ways to make sure no one from the team saw me coming out. It wasn’t like we did anything, but it didn’t look great, either.

“I’ll try to make some plans for tomorrow.”

“You’re going to read it now?” she asked, a hint of nerves hitting her voice. Like this was settling in her head, realizing how real this crazy situation was becoming.

“Nothing better than the present, right?” I crossed my arms with a casual one-shoulder shrug.

She scrunched her nose in a way that made her septum ring glint against the soft lighting. “How efficient,” she joked.

I mocked a bow. “I’m here to be of service. Quite literally.”

She pinned me with a glare, flipped me off, and shut the door in my face.

God, I loved it when she was like this.

By the time I reached my room, the grin I had etched on my face was so big that my cheeks hurt.

Let the fun begin.

SEVENTEEN

WESLEY

GIVING ME ALL THE CONTROL? NICE.