Page 30 of Game Plan

I plaster on a smile. “Yup, I do get tired of being asked about it. The interest is bizarre.”

“Is it really, though? You’re handsome and charming and wealthy. You’re basically the man women read about in fairy tales who comes in on their white knight and sweeps them off their feet.”

Not all women. Not the one I want, anyway.

“As soon as you’re no longer available, I think the interest will settle down,” she says, swiping the screen of her device.

“Maybe I’ll tell people I’m engaged.”

She laughs. “I like it. Slightly unorthodox angle, but creative, nonetheless. Now about this upcoming season. The Legends won the championship last year. Does that change how you approach this season, or do you approach them all the same?”

I breathe a sigh of relief and fall easily into talking about football. I’m sure Kylie won’t stay in this lane and will try to bounce back to my personal life at least once before this interview is over. But, for now, discussing the game is a welcome transition. I can do it on autopilot—which is good because my brain is still on Poppy Quinn.

If I could figure out a way to spend more time with her, I could make faster progress. I need her to see what a life with me could be like and realize that there’s nothing to worry about. The problem is time. She works all week, and I’m about to spend six days a week here, working my ass off, too. Living apart doesn’t help.

I just need a way to get her closer.

I check back into the interview just in time to catch Kylie’s question. “There’s a thing going viral on Social right now where people share what they think about most in a day. Have you participated in that trend?”

“Nah, social media really isn’t my thing these days.”

“What would your answer be if you did?”

Poppy. “I don’t know. How to land an airplane, probably. I’m pretty sure that I could get one to the ground in an emergency.”

“That’s an answer that I haven’t heard before,” she says, segueing into her next question. “What do you think you know more about than anyone else on your team? Chauncey said … Well, I can’t say what Chauncey said.”

I laugh. “I can imagine.”

“Frutter said he knew more about Chauncey’s assignments on a play than anyone else, including Chauncey.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right, too,” I say, nodding.

“What about you? What is Finn Miller an expert about?”

Again—Poppy.

“I’m not sure I know much about anything,” I say. “But I can name every establishment in greater Chicago where you can find a Dr Pepper on a whim.”

“That’s so incredibly random, but I guess if you’re a Dr Pepper connoisseur, it’s a handy skill to have.”

“Yeah. Something like that.”

She ventures off into another line of questioning, and I fight myself not to think about Poppy. If I don’t figure out how to handle this, how to make her see reality, I’m going to be distracted all season.

Or longer.

Because I won’t stop until she trusts me.

Until we both agree that she’s mine.

CHAPTER

NINE

Poppy

“Hey, perfect timing.” Joshua smiles, coming toward me from the other end of the block. Clouds partially block the afternoon sun, and the tall buildings on either side of the street cast funky shadows over the sidewalks. “Is parking always so hard to find down here?”