Free One More Shot (Hometown Players #1) by Victoria Denault Page A

want to be with you.” I explain. “I broke up with Hannah.”
    She still isn’t looking at me, her head tilted down and her eyes on the floor between us. I can’t see her expression. I drop down, sitting on the end of my bed, hoping to put myself in her sight line. I catch a glimpse of her face and she looks sad. So sad. “I texted you today. Three times. You never responded. And when my car wouldn’t start, I called you but it went straight to voicemail. I assumed you were blowing me off.”
    “My phone died. Remember, I was in Boston with my parents meeting agents,” I explain.
    She blinks as guilt flashes over her pretty face. “I forgot. I’m sorry. How did it go?”
    “Fine,” I reply curtly. “Jessie, are you with him again?”
    “He showed up at the rink with flowers, trying to apologize. I would have ignored him completely if my stupid car had started,” she replies, and our eyes finally meet.
    Jessie’s eyes are the color of moss when she looks at me: dark and serious. I reach out and take her hands in mine. God, I love the feeling of touching her, even when it’s something small like this. I can’t get over how different it feels from touching her just last week, before we had sex. Before, the heat it caused felt exciting but awkward. Now it feels exciting and unnerving in a new way—a way I like.
    “You’re going to go high in the draft next week.” Jessie tells me something the media and my parents have told me a hundred times this year. “Like in the top five. And the first five teams to draw players are Brooklyn, Ann Arbor, Quebec City, Sacramento and Jacksonville.”
    “So?” I say, lacing my fingers through hers.
    “So, I applied to Florida State, University of Arizona and Nebraska State. They’re the only places that offer a full scholarship in kinesiology and sports therapy.”
    I already know this because I helped her fill out the applications. Being a physical therapist has been Jessie’s dream as long as I can remember.
    “None of those schools is anywhere near where you’ll probably end up next year,” Jessie whispers like this hurts to admit. “We’re never going to see each other.”
    I tug on her hands to make her look me in the eye again. “I’m going to be making a lot of money, Jessie. More than I’ll need. I can pay for you to go to school wherever I am.”
    “Jordan, no.”
    “Yes! I’m going to be freaked out in a new place with no family. I want you with me.”
    “I can’t take your money.” She shakes her head and her gorgeous hair tumbles into her face.
    I reach up and grab her hips and pull her toward me. When her knees hit the edge of the mattress I keep pulling—pulling her down. She knows what I’m doing and without hesitation she puts a knee on either side of me and lets me guide her into my lap.
    My body is roaring with hormones but all I really want to do is hug her, so I do. She wraps her arms tightly around my neck, burying her face in my shoulder.
    “I can’t use your money, Jordy,” she whispers. “I want to be with you, but I can’t do that. I won’t be that girl. I’ve watched girls in this town use hockey players to get a free ride my whole life, and I don’t want to be that.”
    I look up at her. “So, you don’t want to be with me?”
    Her green eyes are gloomy as she rests her forehead against mine. “I want to be with you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.”
    “Then who cares how it happens, Jessie?” I ask, and then I do the only thing I really want to do, which is kiss her.
    She kisses me back without hesitation. I feel her body relax, and I use my hands at the small of her back to pull her even closer. Her hands go into my hair at the back of my head and she pushes down just a little bit, making the space between her legs rub against my erection. I lean back, taking her with me.
    Her lips are so freaking soft and her tongue moves with mine so easily. And now her warm, small body is flat on top of