Fair Catch (Love and Sports Series) (4 page)

             
“No, I would not love to. Where the hell do you get off going around demanding what you want people to do? You can find yourself another date. Lord knows any girl will trade her left tit to go on a date with you.”

             
Her comment made Jake laugh, causing rage to take residence in Lexi’s body. “What is so funny?” She asked.

             
“You, you’re so stubborn.”

             
“I’m stubborn? Because I don’t want to go out with you? That’s not stubborn, that’s just knowing what I don’t want and I’m sorry to say but that’s you.”

             
Jake feigned an attack to his heart as he put his hands to his chest. “Your words kill me.” She rolled her eyes. He straightened up and said, “I’ll bet you for it.”

             
Lexi wanted to take out whoever told him all about her. How the hell did he know she never turned down a bet? It was her one weakness, whenever someone said they would bet her, it was practically impossible for her to refuse. She looked at Jake and knew no matter what he said, she wouldn’t be able to refuse because she wanted to put him in his place and wipe that damn smirk off his gorgeous mug.

             
“What are you thinking about?” She asked. She saw Margo rub her hands together in excitement next to her.

             
Jake stepped closer so he was inches from her. She had to crank her head up to look at him in the eyes because he was significantly taller than she was. He drew her in with those green eyes and his all-male scent pulled at her very core. Damn him.

             
“I challenge you to a race?”

             
Margo laughed. “A race? How is that fair?”

Lexi wanted to shut her friend up but she
knew she might be right. Yes, Lexi was the fastest girl in her conference but Jake was Jake Taylor, about to be a first round draft pick. She didn’t stand much of a chance.

             
“A race on the slide board.” Jake finished.

             
Lexi couldn’t help but smile. She owned the slide board, it was the one thing she could beat anybody at. When she was first introduced to the contraption she was intimidated by it, now she couldn’t get enough of it.

             
“You’re on! What are the rules?” Lexi was practically shaking with excitement.

             
“We slide for a minute. Whoever gets the most touches wins.”

             
“Sounds fair enough. What are the so called prizes?”

             
If it was possible, Jake got even cockier. “If you win, I’ll leave you alone.”

             
“Hallelujah!” Lexi shouted.

             
“And if I win,” He interrupted her celebration, “you have to go to the Alumni dinner with me, on a date, dressed up and everything.”

             
Lexi cocked an eyebrow. “What do you constitute as a date? I’m pretty sure we both have very different opinions of what goes into a date.”

             
“Just a date, maybe a casual touch here and there but nothing else.”

             
“No casual touches, you will keep your slimy hands to yourself.”

             
“I would think that I would be allotted a couple of touches.”

Lexi held up her hand to stop him. “Not that it
matters anyway, because you’re going down, Taylor.”

             
“We will see about that, Knox.”

             
They went back into the weight room and they each grabbed the plastic booties that helped them slide on the board and put them on their feet. Margo grabbed their trainer who had stop watches and Swiffer Dust to lube up the boards.

The board was a thick plastic surface with two rubber stops on each side.
The point of the exercise was to work on explosive lateral movements, which Lexi mastered two years ago.

They each would have their own board and start on the same side. When they were told to go they would have to slide from side to side and every time they returned to the side they started
at, that counted as one.

Lexi grinned as she thought about how she had this in the bag. Not only was she the quickest at slide board but she knew exactly how to work the
dust polish to her advantage.

             
“Are you ready?” Margo asked.

             
She looked over at Jake who held out his hand, as a good luck gesture. She took his hand in hers and tried to ignore the zap of electricity that flowed between them. She chalked it up to the adrenaline of a challenge.

             
“Ready.” Lexi said as she pulled her hand away from Jake’s and rubbed it on her shorts, trying to erase the feeling of his skin on hers.

             
“Go!” Margo shouted.

             
Lexi took off and started bouncing back and forth, reveling in the fact that she was kicking Jake’s ass. She didn’t even bother looking over because she didn’t want to feel sorry for the poor sap. Thank goodness Margo was counting for her because there was no way she could concentrate on counting how many times she hit the board. She was entirely focused on kicking Jake’s ass.

             
Her legs were burning from pushing off the rubber and her breath was labored but there was no way in hell she was going to lose to Jake Taylor, so she continued to push herself.

             
“Stop!”

             
Lexi slid one last time to one side and then hopped off. She put her hands on her knees as she bent over, trying to catch her breath. She stood up and put her hands over her head and looked over at Jake who was just standing there smirking at her. What was he so happy about? He didn’t even break a sweat.

             
“What…is…the…count?” Lexi heaved.

             
“You got 50.” Margo said, “I think that was your best.”

             
Lexi did a mental fist pump, knowing she rocked it.

             
“What did Jake get?” Margo asked the Trainer.

             
“Sorry girls, Jake got 66.”

             
Lexi nearly keeled over. “How the hell did he get 66?” She waved a hand at him. “He’s not even breathing heavily. You’re lying, he did not get 66.”

             
“I’m afraid not, sweetie.”

             
“How is that even possible, I’m the best at slide board?”

             
“Until I came along.” Jake said while puffing his chest. Lexi wished she could take a needle and pop all the air out of it.

             
Lexi sat down on a bench. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

             
“Sure it does short stack.” Jake said. “Look at your legs compared to mind. I have a wider range than you. Of course I would beat you.”

             
Lexi almost choked on his words. Holy hell he was right. How come she never thought about that? He knew all along that he was going to win, even with her speed there was no way she was going to beat him, all he had to do was lean over and his leg would touch the other rubber.

             
“You tricked me!” She shouted while standing up and charging toward him. She laid a punch on his arm.

             
“Hey watch it.” He said while rubbing his arm. “Don’t be such a sore loser.”

             
“I’m not being a sore loser. I just don’t like being tricked.”

             
“I didn’t trick you. I just knew my strengths that’s all, something you failed to realize. Maybe if you weren’t so caught up in yourself, you would have looked at the challenge logistically and realized that maybe that wasn’t the safest bet you ever made.”

             
“Caught up in myself? You have got to be kidding me!”

             
“Uh, can you two love birds take this little love spat somewhere else? You’re distracting the other athletes.” Their trainer said.

             
“We are not love birds!” Lexi said over her shoulder as Jake escorted her and Margo into the hallway.

             
He looked down at his watch and sighed. “As much as I would love to continue this little conversation, I have places to be. Margo it was nice seeing you. Short stack, I’ll pick you up at 6 tomorrow night. Its formal attire so wear something sexy.”

             
He took off down the hallway and Lexi went to charge at him but Margo stopped her. Lexi shouted over Margo’s shoulder, “I’m wearing a turtleneck and slacks!”

                                                        ***

              Jake went to the football locker room and planted himself on the leather couch right next to Mason who was watching SportsCenter on the big screen TV they had in their locker room. Mason turned and looked at Jake with slight shock in his face.

             
“Wow, I didn’t know you knew this morning hour existed.”

             
Jake watched Mason take a bite of an apple. “I told you man, I’m doing things different this year.”

             
“So waking up early is how you’re changing?”

             
“That and some other things.”

             
Mason waved his hand in the air, silently telling Jake to carry on. “And what would those other things be?”

             
“Well, I just won a date with Lexi. I’m taking her to the Alumni dinner tomorrow.”

             
Mason looked at Jake with honest surprise. “How the hell did you pull that off?”

             
“Won a bet against her, long story but she’s going. Not the ideal way I wanted to take her but I guess I’ll take what I can get.”

             
“Wow, I’m impressed man. I don’t think anyone other than Parker has scored a date with her.”

             
Jake thought about how beautiful she looked this morning. She didn’t have any make up on, her hair was up in a ponytail and she had on gym shorts and a softball t-shirt but he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She was beautiful, naturally beautiful. He had never felt like this before, he never felt such a strong attraction to another person. Ever since he laid eyes on Lexi, she was all he could think about. That was why he talked to Parker and scored some valuable information about Lexi.

             
Jake was actually surprised about the amount of information Parker was willing to divulge about his best friend. Jake didn’t care too much about the strong bond Parker and Lexi had but if it was going to help him get some alone time with Lexi then he didn’t mind too much.

             
“Earth to Jake.” Mason interrupted his thoughts.

             
“Sorry.”

             
“Man, you have it bad don’t you? You really like her.”

             
Jake shrugged and ran his hand over his face. “I don’t know. All I know is that I can’t stop thinking about her and I just want some time to get to know her. She’s beautiful and sassy and an amazing athlete. For a second I thought I was going to lose to her at slide board, she was good.”

             
“You challenged her to the slide board? That was risky, she owns that thing.”

             
“I know, she was damn quick but thanks to my long legs I edged her out.” Jake laughed. “And shit was she furious. I kind of get joy out of making her mad. She has quite the little temper.”

             
Mason laughed. “Yea, she’s a firecracker. I’ve watched some of her games and if she doesn’t get a call she likes, she nearly flies off the deep end.”

             
“I can imagine.” Jake pulled out his phone and started typing out a text message.

             
“Who are you texting.” Mason asked being nosey. He finished his apple and threw the core into the trashcan. “Nothing but net. I should have gone out for basketball.”

             
Jake looked up at the trashcan. “Because you can shoot an apple core into a giant trashcan from three feet away? Ok, keep dreaming bud.”

             
He sent a text to Lexi.

Jake: Had fun this morning, we should do it again sometime. See you tomorrow night

              Jake could all but hear Lexi gasp when she realized he had her phone number, another righteous score form Parker. He tried to give Parker something in return but he wanted nothing. All he said was to not hurt Lexi. For some odd reason, Jake got the impression that Parker actually approved of Jake making a move on his best friend. Hey, that was one less boundary he had to cross to get closer to her. Winning the best friend’s approval was always difficult, so he was glad Parker was so easy going. Winning Margo over was no problem either. She seemed eager and willing to throw Lexi at him.