Down by Contact - A Seattle Lumberjacks Romance (17 page)

The tight end suckered Zach into following
him only to have their running back dart past him untouched for a
fifteen-yard gain. Kelsie covered her mouth with her hands and
groaned. She felt the quick looks of her friends but stared
straight ahead, pretending to be oblivious. Only she wasn’t and
neither were they. They didn’t say a word, so Kelsie hoped she’d
dodged a bullet.

“Zach’s a sweet guy.” Rachel pushed her long
hair behind one ear. A diamond earring worth enough to finance a
small town’s fire department sparkled in her ear. Kelsie loved
diamonds, especially ones big enough to choke a Texas Longhorn. Or
at least she used to love them. Now they didn’t seem to be such a
big deal.

“I adore Zach.” Lavender bounced to her
feet, waving wildly at a hot dog vendor, bought three, and gave one
to Rachel and Kelsie. Kelsie never ate hot dogs. Her mother hadn’t
allowed junk food in her diet. In fact, she barely allowed food in
her daughter’s diet.
Hot dogs added unnecessary pounds besides
not being good for the complexion.
God, she was thinking just
like her mother. She took a big bite of the hot dog and savored the
juicy dog slathered with mustard.

“You know, Kel, you might want to watch one
of the other ten players on the defense once in a while, or you’ll
give the impression you’ve got a thing for our defensive captain.”
Lavender wiped a bit of mustard from the corner of her mouth.

“Or watch the offense when it has the ball
instead of the bench.” Rachel patted her arm.

“It’s that obvious?” No sense denying
it.

“You two circle each other like sparring
partners, yet the chemistry’s so intense it’s like being zapped by
static electricity. You guys remind me of Tyler and me when we
first met.”

“And Derek and I. So why don’t you fill us
in with all the sordid details?” Rachel said.

“Yeah, are you sleeping with him?”

“Are you guys a couple?”

“Or fighting like we did?”

Kelsie looked from one to the other as they
gazed expectantly at her. She didn’t like to talk about her past,
yet something told her she could trust these two women, unlike most
of the female friends in her life and all of the males. “I was a
bitch to him in high school. More than a bitch, I was a mean, cruel
bitch. Zach doesn’t forgive and he doesn’t forget.”
And I can’t
blame him.

“Ty knows that story.” Lavender closed her
eyes, rolled her head back, and chewed on her hot dog like a woman
having a food orgasm. Another drop of mustard dribbled down the
corner of her mouth, and she dabbed it with a napkin.

“Life’s too short to hold grudges. Maybe you
can help him work on that?”

“I’m the last person to give him advice on
that subject. He hates me.”

“He might hate being attracted to you, but
he doesn’t
hate
you.”

“I almost destroyed him in high school. When
he was at his lowest point and just needed a friend, I offered
friendship just to help my friends bully and ridicule him.”

“You don’t seem like that type of
person.”

“I was. If one good thing has come of my
circumstances the past ten years, it’s that I’ve developed empathy
for people other than myself. I’ve put the mean girl to rest for
good.”

“After the game, you can tell us the entire
story while we’re waiting for the guys.” Lavender licked her lips
and wadded up the napkin.

“Starting with high school and ending with
why you’re here.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“Maybe not, but you could use a few friends,
and we’re here.”

“Then we’ll come up with a plan to get those
two hard-headed men to cooperate with each other instead of butting
heads.”

Kelsie looked from one to the other, seeing
nothing but earnest sincerity on their faces. She nodded, knowing
that once she let that proverbial cat out of its crate, it’d never
go back in again.

* * * * *

Zach stalked the sidelines, shouting
encouragement to the Jacks’ offense and berating the opposing
team’s defense. The O-line kept caving, allowing Harris to be
sacked three times, yet they were still ahead by three points no
thanks to Zach with a few minutes left to play.

He hadn’t been his usual single-minded self.
As soon as he’d spotted Kelsie sitting a few rows behind the bench
with Rachel and Lavender, he’d been distracted. No matter how hard
he tried to concentrate on the game, her gaze burned into his back
like a hot summer sun. As a result, he played one of his worst
games in years. He made too many mistakes, misread the offense and
fucked up his defensive audibles, resulting in too many big gains
for the offense. His tackling was sloppy and a step off. Stupid
fucking rookie mistakes, and Zach was no rookie.

Three and out, the offense came back to the
bench. After the punt, Zach strapped on his helmet and went back to
the trenches. He checked the offense and called a change in
formation for the defense to blitz. He got down in his set
formation and waited for the snap of the ball. The ball snapped,
and he anticipated a run. He stepped sideways, assuming the running
back would be coming his way. As a result, he left the middle of
the field open. A second later, the Packers tight end caught a ball
in the middle of the field and galloped twenty-five yards for a
touchdown and the win.

Game over. The Jacks dropped to two wins,
three losses. Not a pretty picture.

Zach stood under the showers for several
minutes, but he couldn’t wash off the stench of defeat. His
teammates avoided him, giving him a wide berth. Zach toweled off,
wrapped the towel around his waist and walked into an unusually
quiet locker room.

Harris stood at the locker next to him,
talking quietly to a few reporters. They glanced Zach’s way but his
murderous glower stopped them as sure as a prison wall separated
the innocent from the guilty. And Zach was guilty as hell of a
piss-poor game.

Several minutes later, the reporters left,
the locker room cleared out except for a few stragglers. But Zach
made no move to leave. He slumped on the bench, propped his elbows
on his thighs, cupped his chin in his hands, staring at his locker,
but not seeing it. He’d lost the game for them, not just on that
last play, but on overall crappy play throughout the whole,
frigging game.

“Tough game, but we’re still in a good
position to win the division. The season is young.” Tomcat slapped
him on the back and moved on to his locker, not expecting an
answer.

Bruiser strutted by in wrinkle-free slacks
and a blazer with a polo shirt. The blond surfer boy dressed like
he’d walked off the pages of a fucking Nordstrom catalog. Zach
didn’t care much for Bruiser’s stylin’ and profilin’ as the kid
liked to call it, but he appreciated how hard the back played.
Despite his pretty boy appearance, Bruiser deserved his nickname
and reputation as one of the toughest backs in the league.

Bruiser paused next to Zach’s locker. “Hey,
man, you played a hard game.”

“I played a piss-poor game.”

Bruiser shrugged one shoulder and wandered
off, probably had a hot date with his mirror.

Behind Zach, Harris cleared his throat. The
quarterback was in as foul of a mood as Zach. In fact, the heat of
his gaze scorched the back of Zach’s skull like a desert sun burns
a bald head. Zach glanced at Harris, but the guy now had his back
to him and was digging through his locker as if he’d lost
something. Maybe his guts? His fighting instinct? His no-quit
attitude? Oh, yeah, he’d lost that last year. This year the QB
managed to fake interest in the game.

Zach ran a hand through his thick hair. As
if he should talk. He played like a rookie today. At least Harris
hadn’t made any glaring mistakes, even if his play was uninspired.
Zach hated losing, and for once it was on him as much as
Harris.

Irritated, Zach itched for a fight. “So, go
ahead. Say it.”

Harris turned around, his face a perfect
mask of indifference. He’d make a killing on the Vegas poker
circuit. “Say what?”

“That I lost the game for us.”

“Last I counted, there were at least
twenty-two other guys on that field today, not counting special
teams and substitutes.” Tyler slipped on a pair of expensive
sunglasses, effectively blocking out Zach’s ability to read his
eyes, not that he’d been able to read much anyway.

“Yeah, but I played like crap.”

“So did I. What the hell? Instead of
wallowing in pity for the next twenty-four hours, let’s figure out
how to do it better next week.”

Zach’s mouth dropped open, good thing it
wasn’t fly season. He’d be ingesting an entire belly-full of them.
“I called the wrong defensive plays. Got suckered into going after
the running back and left the tight end wide open.”

“You sure as hell did. You’re a better
player than that.” Harris paused and rubbed his temple. “So the
fuck am I. I got caught in the pocket with my pants down and got
sacked three times. I’m a better player than that. My pussy-whipped
cousin didn’t get open and fell down in the end zone and missed a
perfect pass from me. He’s a better player than that. We all
fucking sucked.”

Derek’s head snapped up from the next locker
over. “Hey, wait one damn minute. That wasn’t a perfect pass. And I
fell down diving for the overthrown ball.”

Tyler snorted and turned his gaze on their
star running back. “And Bruiser here couldn’t have found a hole in
a donut let alone in the Packer’s defense.”

Bruiser’s head snapped up from his locker.
“Bullshit, if there’d been holes, I’d have found them.”

“My point is blame isn’t going to get us
anywhere. We’re in this together regardless of which side of the
ball we’re on.”

A couple defensive guys stood around,
shuffling their feet. Some glanced at Zach, as if expecting a
response.

Zach didn’t disappoint. “I’ll take care of
my guys, you handle yours.” The minute he said the words, he
regretted them. He never missed an opportunity to stuff his big
foot in his mouth. He couldn’t let it go, couldn’t cut Harris any
slack. The guy played hard today, despite the screw-ups for which
the entire team shared the blame. Yet Zach knew how the fans and
the press operated, win or lose, it was all on the quarterback. Not
a job he’d want.

Tyler’s eyes narrowed, and he leaned
forward, getting into Zach’s face. His menacing expression
telegraphed a challenge not wasted on Zach. “Then see to it the
offense doesn’t have to carry the defense, and we’re all good.”

Zach leaned forward himself until their
faces were inches apart. He could smell Harris’s fancy aftershave
and see the small scar above his lip. “Yeah, we’re good. More than
good.”

Tyler dismissed him, shrugged into his
leather coat, and strolled from the locker room.

“You don’t ever learn, do ya?” Tomcat shook
his head as if Zach might be missing a few marbles.

“Don’t like the guy,” Zach mumbled and
dropped to the bench to pull on his shoes.

“You don’t have to, but we’re all teammates.
The way you behave you’d think the offense and defense played for
two different teams.”

“Sometimes I wish we did.”

“You’re an idiot.”

Zach didn’t have an answer for that. Tact
for him was an art form in which he’d never graduated above
crayons. In fact, he couldn’t even color between the lines.

“He cut you some slack today. Could’ve
chewed your ass but he didn’t. Could’ve thrown some of the blame
your way. He didn’t. That’s leadership, buddy. You might try
practicing it yourself.” Turning on his heel, Tomcat stalked from
the room.

Heat slid up Zach’s neck and settled on his
cheeks. He’d failed again and didn’t have a fucking clue how to
succeed. He couldn’t get past his resentment of Harris, just like
he couldn’t get past his bad history with Kelsie or how good she’d
looked all soapy in his tub.

He needed to get past it. He didn’t need to
trust either person, just forgive and move on.

For the team. For himself. For his future.
And most of all, for that elusive, fucking ring.

CHAPTER 12

Rachel and Lavender swept Kelsie along after
the game like a tidal wave of girl power, insisting she join them
for drinks and dinner. Her stomach growled at the thought of a
thick prime rib when she couldn’t even afford a cracker.

At halftime, the two women had been
persuasive and didn’t take no for an answer, before Kelsie knew
what hit her she’d poured her heart out to them in an abbreviated
history of her life, minus her current living situation, or lack
of. She didn’t want their pity, and she didn’t get it. She got
their understanding and acceptance, and that meant a hell of a lot
more.

They flashed passes at the bored security
guard as they pushed their way past hoards of fans into the
sanctuary of the wide hallway near the locker room. Kelsie knew she
should leave, but she had nothing better to do. Sitting in a warm
bar beat shivering in her car, and deep down she hoped Zach would
join them.

Poor Zach. And maybe poor her. He was going
to kill her if and when the scheme they hatched during halftime
came to fruition. He’d see her stamp all over it. Next week, Rachel
planned to present Operation Team Unity to the coach. If HughJack
jumped on board, he’d call the men into his office and pronounce
their sentence, which was exactly how Zach and Tyler would see it.
Zach would be furious at her meddling and rightfully so, but it was
for his own stubborn good and the good of the team. For now, Kelsie
buried her worries deeper than the Titanic was buried at sea.

Derek and Tyler walked out of the locker
room together. Their hair was wet from recent showers. They weren’t
exactly the picture of happiness, more like pent-up
frustration.