Time of Possession (Seattle Lumberjacks #5) (13 page)

He could do this. He could win this game of
all games—the defining moment in his career. St. Louis was good but
not outstanding. On a really good day, they could beat a top team.
Brett’s job was to see to it that St. Louis didn’t have a good day
and the Jacks did.

His team.

They
were
his team. For the next few
hours or several weeks down the road he was going to lead these
men.

Brett called forth every ounce of military
training, every battle he’d ever seen action in. This was just
football, not life or death. He’d handled life or death as if it
were nothing. He could handle this. Yeah, he could do it.

He felt good. Damn fucking good. Invincible
good.

Grabbing his helmet, he waited on the
sidelines, bouncing on balls of his feet, ready to prove to the
world that it wasn’t the size of the guy but the size of his
heart.

Bruiser took his place on the field and ran
the kickoff back to the Jacks’ forty-five. Excellent field
position.

Harris grabbed his arm. “Watch out for the
right defensive end. He’s going to come after you on the first few
plays, hit you hard, and try to fuck with your concentration. Step
back in the pocket and get rid of the ball fast. Make a statement.
Let the fuckers know we can run and throw against them.”

Brett nodded and strapped on his helmet.
HughJack slapped his back. Zach nodded at him, looking as if he
were about to throw up. With the exception of Brett, no one on this
team wanted this win as badly as Murphy.

Brett barked out the signals in the huddle
like a field general giving orders to his men. The team reacted
accordingly, looking to him for direction. He took the snap,
dropped back a few steps and lobbed an easy pass to Bruiser, who
dragged half the Rams’ defense with him for six hard yards.

Second and four.

Another handoff and the defense was ready.
They dropped Bruiser for a loss of two yards.

On the next play, Brett stood his ground in
the pocket, even though he saw a linebacker bearing down on him
from the corner of his eye. Ramsey raced down the field, and Brett
put it on the money just as he was slammed to the ground by 250
pounds of straining muscle.

Brett raised his head in time to see Derek
catch the ball as if it were a Sunday game in the park and gallop
untouched for a touchdown. Brett leapt to his feet and sprinted
down the field to join the guys mugging Derek.

His teammates gathered round for back
slapping, fist bumping, and high-fives. Brett ran back to the
sidelines feeling on top of the world. He hazarded a glance into
the stands. Estie stood on her feet with the rest of the fans,
clapping and screaming. She was looking straight at him. Despite
the distance, their eyes met. Her beautiful face was lit up
brighter than the stadium during a Monday Night Football game. She
blew him a kiss.

Brett grinned and saluted her. Right now his
life could not get any better than this. The Jacks were on their
way, and Brett Gunnels was proving to the doubters what he’d known
in his heart all along—he was a damn good quarterback.

The Rams fought back in the second half, but
the Jacks held on to win twenty-one to seventeen.

Local and national sportscasters hijacked
Brett on his way to the locker room. When he finally got there, the
team was standing in a circle around HughJack. As soon as they saw
him, they cheered, and Brett had to smile. This was possibly the
best day in his life.

“Get your ass over here, Gun,” HughJack
motioned for Brett to join him in the center of the circle. Brett
did. Not altogether comfortable with the attention, he was too high
from the win to lay low. He deserved this celebration—the entire
team did.

HughJack blew his whistle to get their
attention. “So guys, we have two game balls to present. Murphy,
this one’s yours for those three sacks and pretty much disrupting
their offense every time it started to click.”

Murphy took the ball in his big hands and
held it close to his chest as if it were a baby. A big, broad grin
split across face.

“Gun, you outplayed them today. Showed what
you were made of. Kept battling, kept competing, and never let up.
You were on fire. This one’s for you.” HughJack tossed it at Brett,
catching him off guard. Brett juggled the ball but finally got
control. He held the ball up in the air.

The locker room erupted into cheers.

Brett Gunnels was going to the playoffs as
the starting quarterback of the Seattle Lumberjacks.

Chapter 8

Estie had blown Brett a kiss.

What had she been thinking? In front of her
sister and all the other Jacks’ women, no less. Freddie didn’t
notice. She been too busy arguing with Veronica over something, but
eagle-eyed Lavender did. She raised one eyebrow, flicked her gaze
to Brett and back to Estie, as if to say, “You two have something
going?”

Estie shrugged and avoided Lavender’s gaze.
Brett was just a friend, despite her attraction to the man. After
all, nothing wrong with considering a guy attractive as long as she
didn’t act on it. She looked up to find Lavender still staring at
her. “We’re friends.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that story before. Way too
many times. In fact, I wrote that story a time or two myself.”
Lavender snorted and drank from her beer cup.

“What story?” Freddie narrowed her eyes and
looked from one to the other.

“I never said anything about a story.”
Lavender was the epitome of innocence. “Did you, Estie?”

“Nope, not me.”

“I thought I heard—”

“How could you hear anything in this stadium
as loud as it is?” Estie graced her sister with her sweetest smile,
the same one she’d used as a little girl after she’d eaten the last
four cookies from the cookie jar.

Freddie shook her head and turned away from
her sister. Estie breathed a sigh of relief. She’d averted
that
minor disaster for now.

After the game, the little gang of
Lumberjacks’ women swept Estie along with them. Freddie declined
the invitation to join the group, which was fine with Estie. The
women had reserved a private room at the Pike Street House, a fun
pub a few blocks from the stadium. Before Estie knew it, team
members started flowing into the large room. She tried to hide her
disappointment when Brett wasn’t one of the gang of jubilant
athletes.

She didn’t dare ask if anyone knew where he
was, but Lavender read her mind, tugged on Tyler’s shirt and asked,
loud enough for Estie to hear. “Where’s your star pupil?”

Tyler grinned like a proud papa. “He’ll be
here. Doing another interview. If we don’t watch it, he’ll be
channeling Bruiser’s ego and modeling jock straps and boxers.”

“Hey, now. I heard that,” Bruiser, with his
arm around Mac, his wife, clinked beer glasses with Tyler. “I’m
retired from modeling. If Brett wants the job, he’s welcome to
it.”

“What job?” As if his ears had been burning,
Brett pushed through the crowd, big grin on his face and happier
than Estie had ever seen him.

She waited, not too patiently, for everyone
to have their time with him before she slid up to his side. “Good
game. I knew you could do it.”

“Thanks.” He tipped his beer glass to hers
and cocked his head. “You helped me. Did you realize that?”

“I did?” She pointed at her chest and did
her best impression of a lil ol’ me southern girl.

“Yeah.” He almost seemed embarrassed as he
struggled for words.

“I don’t think I had a thing to do with it.
That win was one hundred percent you.” She couldn’t help beaming.
She was proud of him, so proud.

“Not really.” His sexy smile set off little
bottle rockets inside her.

A sad, quiet Brett was sexy, but this
confident, grinning version set her heart on fire, melted her
limbs, and travelled directly south of the zipper on her jeans.

“Hey, I’ll take credit if it makes you feel
better. A win is a win.” She jerked her head in Tyler’s direction.
“My brother’s acting like the master with a protégé who’s finally
come into his own.”

“I’m not sure I’d call me a protégé.” Brett
chuckled as his gaze swept to Tyler, who was recounting his role in
the last several plays and how Brett did it just like Tyler taught
him. “He’s eating this up, isn’t he?”

“Ty’s always been an attention slut.”

“But you’re not like that. You’re more like
me. You’d rather fade into the background.” An astute observation
from a man who saw a lot and said little.

“That comes from being sandwiched between
two overbearing siblings.”

“Yeah, I know that story.”

“You’re a middle child?” She didn’t know a
thing about his family. He never talked about them. Ever.

“Sure am, and from a blended family. My dad
and stepmother married when I was five. I have two older siblings,
one younger, and then two half siblings.”

“Wow, that’s a full house for holidays.”

Brett nodded and actually laughed. “You have
no idea.”

“Where do they live?” She had this
overwhelming urge to know everything about him.

“My parents live north of Everett, but the
rest of the family is all over the place, including Seattle.”

“They don’t come to your games?”

Brett shook his head, and his expression
closed off. “We aren’t close. I only hear from them if they want
something.”

“That’s too bad.” Estie swatted down her
urge to pry further. Brett was a very private guy and obviously, he
didn’t want to talk about it.

“It is what it is. But, hey, tonight we
celebrate. Tomorrow I get back at it. Could I buy you another
drink?” He indicated her now-empty glass.

“Sure. Flat Tire Ale.”

“You got it.” He grinned, showing off
dimples she hadn’t realized he had and lighting up those pale blue
eyes.

She watched Brett weave through the crowd,
stopping several times to accept his teammates’ praise as he moved
to the lone bartender manning a small bar in the corner.

“He’s cute, isn’t he?”

Estie jumped guiltily, knowing she’d been
caught red-handed lusting after Brett. With an innocent smile
pasted on her face, she turned to Lavender. “They’re all cute.
Except Tyler, and he doesn’t count because he’s my brother.”

Lavender laughed. “He counts to me.”

“I know.” Why Lavender put up with her
asshole brother she never did quite understand, other than love
must definitely be blind. She had to admit she loved watching
Lavender put Tyler in his place and make him heel on command. Estie
had no doubt Ty loved Vinnie, as he liked to call her. You could
tell by the way he looked around the room for her when she wasn’t
at his side, and the goofy smile he wore whenever he caught sight
of her. She wished Richard looked at her like that, but it wasn’t
in his makeup. Not Richard. Not in a million years.

“It’s okay to be attracted to him, you know.
Maybe your body and your brain are trying to tell you
something.”

“Like what?”

“Like plans can change.”

“I’m doing what I want to do with my
life.”

Lavender shook her head, her red mane of
hair bouncing with every shake. “No, you aren’t. I’ve been around
this family long enough to wonder why you’re with Richard.”

“Everyone wonders that.”

“Then why are you?”

“He fits in my life. We complement each
other.”

“Seriously? I don’t buy it. Maybe it’s a
case of the boring devil you know is better than the sexy devil you
don’t. You aren’t a risk taker. You like control, and Richard is
more than happy to perpetuate your illusion of control.”

“He puts up with my penchant to have every
‘I’ dotted and every ‘T’ crossed.”

“Life has a way of forcing change. Just
wait. You’ll see.” Lavender sighed. “Let’s grab a table before
they’re all gone.”

Estie nodded, grateful to drop the
conversation, and followed Lavender to a tall table with barstools.
She slid onto the one next to Lavender with a clear view of the
room, especially Brett. Only Lavender, by the look on her face,
wasn’t done yet after all.

“Just keep this in mind: do you want to wake
up next to Richard the rest of your life or a yummy man like Brett?
A man you can truly share your life and your love of animals
with.”

Estie opened her mouth to answer, but
clamped it shut when Ty and Brett came over. Ty was talking Brett’s
ear off with a running play-by-play analysis of the game, good and
bad.

Brett glanced at Estie and raised one
eyebrow, one corner of his mouth lifted upward as he tried to keep
from smiling.

Lavender rushed to distract Tyler as the two
men took seats at the table for four. “I’m hungry. Let’s order
dinner.”

Tyler blinked a few times, as if trying to
acclimate himself to life beyond football. “Uh, sure.” He picked up
the menu and buried his dark head in it.

Estie winked at Lavender, and Lavender
winked back.

Brett seemed oblivious to any of it,
probably still flying high from the win. Estie couldn’t blame him.
He deserved to bask in the glory.

Both men ordered bacon burgers and fries.
Estie had chicken strips and Lavender, being cursed with a petite
body she obviously wanted to keep that way, settled for a
salad.

“We’ll move Brett in on Tuesday.”

Estie’s attention shot to her brother, and
she blinked. She’d been too busy staring into Brett’s eyes to
process what Tyler had said without taking a moment to think about
it. “Oh, okay. That sounds great.”

“Sounds good to me, too. I’m almost all
packed. I don’t have much stuff anyway.” He didn’t take his eyes
off Estie.

She wanted to grab his hand and hold onto
it, but she didn’t dare. “I’ll come over early and help you with
the animals. Bongo will be neurotic for a while in his new digs.
African Grays don’t like change.”