“I’ll agree to that, if you’ll agree that tonight, you’re with me.”
She flushed at the insinuation of my words, then nodded and replied softly, “Okay.”
Now, although I was excited to kick the asses of the college-aged counselors at football, I was more than ready for the evening to be over so I could spend the night showing Zoey what she’d be missing down in the other cabin.
“Are you ready to get your ass handed to you, old man?” one of my counselors, Antoine, asked as I strolled onto the field.
I didn’t respond. I simply smirked at him as I passed and walked toward my cousins.
The football field was the place where I felt absolutely at home. I’d grown up on fields just like this one. I’d won, I’d lost, I’d gotten in fights and been injured, made great friends, and great enemies. If there was one place where I had one-hundred percent confidence in my abilities, this was it.
“Hey,” I said as I reached the huddle.
“Hey, Gabe,” Dillon said, thrusting his chin out toward the huddle of twenty-something guys. “The tweens are talking all kinds of smack already, say they’ve been practicing for this all year.”
I grinned and replied, “Well, hopefully they at least give us a challenge this time.”
I looked around at my cousins, dressed out in their athletic gear, ready to throw down. Serena and Jasmine had tied back their hair and put black marks under their eyes. We’d been playing the game together since we were old enough to throw a ball, and our girls were always ready to play. The first year the kids had underestimated them, and the girls wiped the field with their asses. The guys never made that mistake again.
“Where’s Zoey?” I asked when I realized she wasn’t in the group.
“Over there,” Jasmine replied, pointing to the bleachers. “She’s not going to play.”
I started to jog over, just as I saw Jeremy, one of my counselors, stop and start stretching right next to where Zoey was sitting.
She looked hot in her tank top and short running shorts, her hair pulled back and her face sun-kissed. I knew exactly what Jeremy was up to, and as I got closer, I knew I was going to have to make a statement to let my hormone-driven counselors know what was up.
“It’s nice to meet you, Zoey,” Jeremy was saying. He leaned to the side as he stretched, then put his hands to the hem of his shirt and lifted it off in one quick move. “You wanna play on our team?”
“No thanks,” Zoey answered quietly, looking over and up at me as I stepped up.
“Easy, killer,” I said, my voice teasing as I clapped a hand on Jeremy’s shoulder. “You aren’t putting the moves on my woman, are you?”
Jeremy shot a look between me and Zoey and started backing away, his hands up in surrender and a big grin on his face.
“Definitely not, Coach, just testing the waters. I didn’t know she was spoken for.”
“Spread it,” was my reply, then I turned to see Zoey looking up at me, confusion spread over her face.
“What was that about?”
“I’m letting the boys know that you’re with me, so they can stop flirting and trying to get in your pants.”
“What?” Zoey asked, her eyes disbelieving. “They
aren’t flirting with me.”
Just then Antoine yelled out, “Hey, Ms. Zoey, you gonna play?”
I looked over my shoulder and saw Jeremy run over to Antoine and say something, then Antoine turned his eyes to me and shouted, “Sorry, Coach!”
I turned and looked pointedly at Zoey.
She waved her hand and said, “Stop, they aren’t flirting. They’re just trying to be nice.”
“Babe,” I said, leaning down to keep her eyes on me as spoke. “They’re young, horny, college football players. They’re used to having any girl they want, and right now, you sitting here looking sexy as hell, you’re what they want.”
“But I’m ten years older than they are.”