Page 19 of The Backup Plan
“I want to come with you,” Natasha said, whirling around in her desk chair. She pouted at her roommate. “Why can’t your brother invite whoever he wants to a party at his own house?”
“Weird-ass team traditions.” Avery plucked a stray blonde hair from her black sundress and bent to check her roots in the mirror. Natasha hadn’t stopped asking about meeting football players since the day she met Justin. “He lives at this place they call The Farm, and it’s a few sets of duplexes that have been rented to football guys as long as anyone can remember. Justin says a former player owns them. The deal is always that they don’t have wild parties there. It’s supposed to be chill and relaxed, without a ton of strangers. One guest per teammate, and no one is supposed to be on phones. No cameras.”
“That actually sounds pretty nice. Does your brother have another single friend I could borrow to chill and relax with?”
Avery patted concealer on an ominous pink bump on her jawline. “I’ll be on the lookout. This Isaac guy is apparently sent straight from heaven, but I’m already one hundred percent certain I’m not dating him.”
“Why not?”
“Justin says he’s a lot like me. Who wants a relationship with someone like themselves? Other than a similar sense of humor, which you need or there might be bloodshed, I’d like someone to balance me a little.”
“Like the broody boy in the orange hat.” Natasha spun in her chair again.
“Unlikely.” She reached for her sandals. “It was funny and maybe a little mysterious for the first week, but honestly, now he’s just straight-up rude. Tash, I sat there and read aloud in French for five minutes the other day just to be a pain in his ass, and he didn’t move. I didn’t even annoy him enough to make him leave.”
“You’re fluent in French. Try Japanese if you want to piss him off with pronunciation.”
“Maybe I will. He’s got something going on. Something is eating at that guy, and I guess I’m low-key obsessed with figuring him out.”
Low-key obsessed? Drawn to him like a magnet was more like it. Every day, she offered a greeting to the silence. And every day, she thought maybe the next day would be the one he spoke to her with more than brown eyes laden with hurt and lips that never curled into a smile.
“And you said he’s cute.”
Her palms tingled. “He’s sexy as hell, he always smells good, and I want to eat him. That’s not the point.”
“Eat him. I’d like to meet this Isaac guy if you’re not interested.”
She spotted him pacing outside the residence hall near the benches where they agreed to meet, and sized him up before he spotted her. He was built like her brother, another linebacker—tall and broad-shouldered, bulky enough to pass-rush and lean enough to beat a running back. His dark hair gleamed chestnut in the waning sun, and as he tugged at the starched collar of his shirt while he paced, Avery thought that the much-vaunted new best friend—Justin’s poorly disguised setup—looked downright nervous.
“Isaac?”
He stopped mid-stride and pivoted on his heel. “Avery. Isaac Fields. It’s so nice to finally meet you, and I hate parties.”
She shook his hand and didn’t miss a beat. “It’s nice to meet you, too. I hate oceans and boats. Do you want to get a taco?”
“A taco?”
“It’s not a party, an ocean, or a boat.”
“There are lots of things that are none of those,” he countered, relaxing his furrowed brows when he smiled. “Why didn’t you ask me if I wanted to get a cat? Or a popsicle?”
“Oooh, a popsicle sounds about right after a hot day.” She pulled her phone from the pocket of her dress. “Want me to find some? We’d be so badass, showing up at a party with bomb pops since we can’t BYOB like the big kids.”
“We can’t just enjoy our popsicles in peace while we deconstruct everything Justin ever told each of us about the other?”
She dropped the teasing facade. “Hey, new friend. He said you wanted to go to this thing tonight. It’s football people. Those are your people.”
He shrugged, forcing an awkward smile she saw straight through.
“I’m sorry if he made you feel like you have to take me. We don’t have to go.”
“It’s not that. Or you. I said I wanted to go, and I do, but I’m not great with new environments and people I don’t know,” he said, pacing again and taking measured breaths. “I’ll know people there from the team, but it’s different outside of football where we’re all sorted into who goes where and with whom, and it’s…” He faltered. “It’s a lot. For me.”
She put her hand on his elbow. Freshman anxiety in Avery wriggled with excitement, and in Isaac, in just a touch, she felt it vibrate with fear. “Let Justin have his stupid date, and we’ll go hang somewhere and make ourselves best friends without an intermediary or any pressure. You pick where to go.”
“I appreciate the offer. But half the team has been listening to him brag about you for the better part of two years, so your presence is expected.”
“Wait. I’ve got a receiving line of his making, and that bastard put it on you to walk me through it so he can go on a date with some random girl he met Tuesday? Oh, he’s asking for trouble. Let’s get him.”