Fair Catch (Love and Sports Series) (2 page)

              He shook his head and said, “Jesus Lexi, I can’t remember that last time I saw you so dressed up. Damn girl, you look hot!”

             
She smiled and did a little turn for him. “So you approve?” She asked while holding her hands up.

             
“I defiantly approve.”

             
“Good, let me write a quick note to let Margo know I’ll be out and then we can get going.”

             
“Awesome. I hope you’re ready to kick some beer pong ass tonight. I’m counting on you Lex. I want to own that table.”

             
“Come on, if there is one social gathering I’m good at, that is beer pong. We’ll own those football douchebags tonight!”

             
“Just the comment I wanted to hear.

Chapter 2

              The last thing Jake wanted to do right now was go to a party hosted at the football house. Last year he would have been the one hosting the whole damn thing himself but this year was different. This was his senior year and he needed to make sure he had one of the best seasons of his life. His plan was to move onto professional football and so far his plan was working out. There was buzz on the streets that he would be a first round draft pick. He led his team the past two years to division championships and he planned on tacking on a third. Being the quarterback and one of the team captains for the very popular football team at Cal U. was a ball of pressure but it also had its perks.

             
He was friends with everyone, even the local patrons. He had every girl in the school throwing themselves at him and he had possible future endorsements already lining up for when he graduates, but nothing set in stone since it was illegal to take any kind of endorsement compensation while he was still playing in the NCAA.

             
He had one hell of a college career, his choice of girl, his choice of party and his choice of what happened on and off the field with his teammates. The past three years he lived in the football house, goofed around when they didn’t have practice or games, slept with almost the entire female athletic department and drank his fair share of beers. They were good years but now that he was moving on to his senior year and looking back on what he accomplished the last three years he was disappointed in himself for not taking school more seriously.

             
Football only took athletes so far, what would he do if heaven forbid he wasn’t drafted or if his career was short lived? He needed to take his last year more seriously so he had an option when football was over for him. That was why he moved out of the football house and moved into the villas. He had his own place there, it was more expensive then splitting rent with five other guys but his scholarship paid for it and he liked having his own place. The villas were mainly for athletes, which was nice because even though he was living on his own, he was still surrounded by his peers.

             
He walked up the path to the house he spent three amazing years in and sighed. It was going to be a long night especially since he was not in the mood for his senior year to start and the start of every new year was shot off by the football team throwing one hell of a rager.

             
“Jake, over here man.”

             
Jake’s teammate, Mason, waved him over. Mason was also a captain on the team and Jake’s best friend. They were scared freshmen together and made it through the past three years barely holding on by a thread from the pressure of popularity, football and school.

             
Jake grabbed Mason’s hand and gave him a half hug.

             
“How was Hawaii you lucky bastard?” Jake asked. Mason took the summer off with his steady girlfriend to explore the islands of Hawaii. His girlfriend’s family was extremely well off and Mason couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit the tropical islands.

             
“Amazing. Brooke looked so damn hot in her plethora of bikinis.”

             
Brooke wasn’t an athlete but she was a sorority girl and was hotter than hell with her perky breasts, brown hair and green eyes. How Mason was able to score her, Jake would never know.

             
“I’m sure she did. Was her family cock blocking you the whole time?”

             
Mason laughed, “No, we actually had our own hut looking over the ocean the whole time.”

             
Jake shook his head. “You lucky, lucky bastard.”

             
A freshman came up to them and handed Jake a beer. Jake nodded to the kid he didn’t know, popped open the beer and took a long swig.

             
They were surveying the party when Mason asked, “Why are you so late? Everyone has been asking where you were. I was afraid you weren’t going to show.”

             
Jake shrugged. “I don’t know man, this whole scene isn’t really me anymore.”

             
Mason snorted. “Who you kidding, bud? This scene is because of you. Are you going soft on me?”

             
Was he? How was Jake supposed to explain to his best friend that he wasn’t really looking for the party scene anymore? He was more interested in becoming serious with his life. He was still young but the fact that he was going to be going through some of the biggest changes in his life and he had no one to share it with, freaked him out. He lost his parents in a serious car accident right after he left for college, leaving him alone, completely and utterly alone. That was one of the reasons he lost himself in beer, parties and women, he was trying to fill an empty void. He was smart enough to pull off good grades to continue playing football but he never actually applied himself. He would graduate with a major in English but would have nothing really to show for it.

             
“Uh, hello, earth to Jake?”

             
Jake shook the thoughts out of his head. “Sorry, forget what I said.” He gestured toward the beer pong table. “Competition good this year?”

             
“Oh man, this one team is on a roll…”

             
Jake didn’t hear anything else Mason said because in that instant he laid eyes on the most gorgeous blonde he had ever seen and everything faded black, besides a spotlight on her. She was gorgeous with her long blonde wavy locks, piercing blue eyes, so light they were almost white, and her tight body. Jake thought he was going to burst from the seams of his pants from the way his body was reacting to her.

             
He watched her every move as Mason rambled on about the tournament the football team hosted every year. Parker, Jake recognized from the baseball team, came up behind the gorgeous blonde and scooped her up around her waist. Jake instantly wanted to send his linemen in for the kill to take out Parker, even though Jake didn’t even know the girl. She laughed as Parker twirled her around. That was when he noticed they were the team Mason was talking about. The “Unstoppables” they called themselves.

             
Jake interrupted his friend. “Mason, who the hell is that?” He pointed at the beauty in front of him.

             
Mason gave him a puzzled look. “Have you been dead the last three years?”

             
“What are you talking about?”

             
Mason pointed at the girl, “That is the infamous Sexy Lexi, man.”

             
Jake’s jaw nearly hit the floor. “I thought that was some locker room myth bullshit that some lonely guy made up.”

             
The guys always talked about “Sexy Lexi” but he never thought the image the guys built up in the locker room was an actual living, breathing human person. Now that he looked at her, what the guys said didn’t even do her justice.

             
“No, she’s the real deal.”

             
“How come this is the first time I’m ever seeing her?”

             
Mason laughed, “Well word on the street is she hates the football team, calls us a bunch of douchebags and she doesn’t go out much.”

             
“Well, we are douchebags, look at us.”

             
They both looked around the party and took in all their teammates, it was a conglomeration of idiotic asses parading around, showing off their muscles to the ladies, doing beer bongs and acting like adolescent morons by daring each other into stupid antics.

             
“Dear God,” Mason said, “I hope we never acted like that.”

             
Jake clinked his beer with Mason’s and said, “I’m afraid we did.”

             
“That’s embarrassing to think about.”

             
Jake chuckled. “Slightly. So tell me more about Lexi. She’s a senior?”

             
Mason laughed at him. “Forget about it man. She is the type of girl you aren’t used to. She is no one night bang. There is no way you are getting in her pants.”

             
Annoyed by his friend’s assumption, which would have been accurate last year, he got up and headed into the kitchen to get another beer. Was he really looked at as a guy who just banged any girl he saw? Jake shook his head in disappointment, he was that guy and he only had himself to blame.

             
Mason caught up to him. “Dude, I didn’t mean to insult you back there.”

             
Jake shook him off. “No, don’t worry about it. Something changed for me over the summer. It’s hard to explain but I don’t want to be that guy anymore.

             
Mason grabbed them both another beer. “Any guy would want to be in your shoes, you know? And you just want to throw it away?”

             
“Out of everyone, I would think you would understand the most, being in a serious relationship and all.”

             
Mason’s face went sober. “I do understand. It gets lonely, I always wondered how you did it man.”

             
Jake shrugged Mason’s comment off. “Well I’m tired of being alone.”

             
“You know you’re not alone.” Mason put his hand on Jake’s shoulder.

             
Ever since Jake found out about his parent’s accident, Mason had never left his side. Mason invited him to every holiday and made him a part of his family, something Jake will be forever grateful toward Mason for. Mason’s family took him in when he had nowhere else to go.

             
“I know, thanks.”

             
Mason shivered and said, “Alright, I need to get wasted now because we’re looking like a bunch of pansy ass fairies right now.”

             
Jake laughed. “Before you get wasted and lose all ability to hold a decent conversation I have one question.”

             
“Shoot.”

             
“Is Lexi dating Parker? They seem awfully chummy.”

             
“Chummy? Really? Did you lose your balls this summer or something? You better clean up your act and get your bad boy image going before we get back on the field. Lord knows the guys won’t let that kind of shit slip.”

             
Jake rolled his eyes. “Just answer the damn question.”

             
Mason smirked. “Not that I know of. She hasn’t really had any kind of relationship I don’t’ think. She’s been untouchable but she has been starring in every male athlete’s dream that lives and breathes near her.”

             
Jake could imagine that easily. One look and he was hooked on her. He had an incessant need to get to know her, to hold her, to touch her. He watched Lexi walk out on the deck after her and Parker won the last game in the tournament. Parker was trapped by one of the girl lacrosse players who wasn’t actually too bad to look at, so Jake decided to take the opportunity to make his move with Lexi.

             
She was leaning against one of the pillars on the deck when he approached her from behind and what a fantastic behind she had. Her jeans fit her like a glove and glided over every single curve she had, as well as the purple shirt she was wearing. Her hair was cascading over her shoulders urging his hand to reach out and run his fingers through it. She wasn’t wearing heels like he normally preferred from a girl but the flats she was wearing made her seem oddly fragile, given her tough girl exterior she displayed for the world.