Play Hard: Bad Boy Sports Romance by Abbi Hemp

having to break up with her or anything. We weren’t going together, but I had to get out of her life.
    I needed to concentrate on the one thing that mattered most – football.
    I sent Haley a text message with an invitation to watch me play at the touch-football game.
    “Watch?” she wrote back. “I want to play.”
    I sent her a winking smiley face in return, telling her I would pick her up around five.
     
     
     

TWELVE

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    James
     
     
     
     
     
    Fall football games were the best, especially friendly ones where there wasn’t any tackling. I pulled up to Haley’s house in my Camaro, freshly cleaned inside and out. The smell of leather hung thick in the air, just how I liked it.
    She walked over from where she had been sitting on the porch and got in the passenger seat. The jeans and grey sweatshirt looked well worn.
    “My football clothes,” she explained when she saw me checking her out.
    “I didn’t say anything, but I was imagining that cute as hell body underneath the clothes.”
    She smiled.
    “You’re a horn-dog, aren’t you?”
    “Hey, I have a body made to play hard.”
    On the drive to the park north of campus, neither of us mentioned the events of the night before, or that we were about to attend a social event together. People would talk when they saw us together. I didn’t care. The only people invited were friends and teammates, my fam.
    Still, it might be good to bring it up, I thought.
    “Hey, you know football players aren’t supposed to have steady girlfriends or anything, right? Coach wants us all football all the time.”
    “Oh, yeah,” she said. “I understand. It’s no big thing. I’m so busy now anyway. I mean, you’re good in bed and all, but I don’t have time for a real relationship right now either.”
    “Right,” I said, somehow sad she hadn’t been offended by me bringing it up. “Let’s do this.”
    I opened my door and got out of the car, stretching to the sky. She walked around the back of the Camaro and stopped at my side.
    “Looks like they’re all here already,” she said, pointing to the grassy field sixty yards away.
    “Yeah, I’m always late. It’s cool. You’re with me.”
    “Big man on campus, huh?” she teased.
    “You know it.”
    I winked at her. Side by side, we made our way to the dozen others standing around with flags tucked into their belts or pants. Curtis tossed a football up in the air, catching it confidently.
    “It’s okay if you don’t play well,” I whispered.
    She punched me in the arm.
    “Oww,” I said, laughing and rubbing it.
    “I’m tough too, you know.”
    Introductions were passed out. Everyone, including Curtis, didn’t say anything about Haley showing up with me.
    “Women versus men?” I asked.
    “We’re going to kick your ass today,” Janet Frost said.
    As captain of the women’s track team, she knew how to run.
    “Oh, hey, Haley,” she said as we formed two groups of people in the field.
    “Get ready to have some fun, ladies,” Curtis said. “We’ll kick off to you.”
    “Bring it,” Haley said, a trash-talking star. “You boys are going down.”
    All I thought about was her going down on me as the guys walked to one end of our makeshift field. Curtis stopped and placed the ball on the ground. Eric, the kicker for our team, sent it sailing down toward the group of women.
    Haley grabbed it. I half-expected her to drop to a knee, but instead she sprinted down the field toward us. Game on, I thought, running toward her.
    She screamed, dodging Curtis and two others who had reached her first. I ran behind her, laughing too hard and unable to catch her.
    When she crossed the two trees that signified the goal line, she threw the football to the ground and lifted her arms triumphantly.
    I stopped to catch my breath, still smiling from ear to ear. As we played, I forgot all about forgetting her and moving on with my life.
    She made life more interesting when she was