Free Fair Catch - A Football Romance by Emerson Rose

Poppy’s, but I can’t wait a second longer. I pull the car over to the narrow shoulder and put it in park. I turn, and she is looking behind us and then out front to see why we’ve stopped, but the reason isn’t outside. It’s right here.
    “I’ve wanted to do this since yesterday,” I say. I reach out and caress the side of her face with my fingers. She closes her eyes and leans into my open palm, and I notice a tiny scar on the edge of her eyebrow and a mole on one of her round apple cheeks.
    The sight of her so relaxed makes stealing this first kiss much easier. I slide my other hand around to the base of her neck and guide her full, peachy lips to my mouth.
    When our lips touch, the energy I’ve felt the few times we have touched over the past forty-eight hours intensifies. I try to memorize the feel of our lips melding together in case she never lets me do this again. If there is a God, and I know there is, I pray that this isn’t a one-time experience.
    Our kiss is slow and sensual as we explore each other’s mouth and our hands have a mind of their own. Angel’s hand slides up my bicep, and I lace my fingers in her hair at the nape of her neck. A sigh escapes her glistening lips when I kiss the sensitive skin behind her ear.
    That faint, soft sigh makes my dick harder than any peep show, porn flick or stripper ever has. If we weren’t in my car on the side of the road on our way to dinner, I would let myself get so lost in her I’d never be found.
    Angel makes me feel invincible, like the adrenaline rush I get when the ball rolls off my thumb and fingertips into a perfect pass that wins the game. She is the prize, and I am the lucky winner.
    After trailing kisses and nips down her neck to a particularly sensitive spot on her collarbone, I feel my phone vibrating in my pocket. Angel hears it too, and the bubble of electricity we’ve been suspended in pops, bringing us back to earth with a jolt.
    We pull apart, and I slide my phone from my back pocket, but before I look to see who it is, I brush my thumb over Angel’s pouty bottom lip and press one last soft kiss on her parted lips. She is so beautiful. Her flushed cheeks and half-open bedroom eyes almost make me decline the call.
    “You’d better get that before they hang up,” she says.
    “I was hoping they would.”
    I do answer, though, when I see it’s my sister, Olivia, and her voice fills the car when the call connects.
    “Hey, little brother, are you still coming? Because I have someone on the other line who wants your table and you’re five minutes late.”
    “Don’t you dare. We will be there in less fewer than five minutes. If you give my table away, I’ll tell Mom about the time you set your comforter on fire smoking in your room.”
    “No need to make threats, River. I was just checking. We have a full house tonight, and my best table is sitting empty, making everyone jealous.”
    I straighten out in my seat and start the car.
    “They’re going to be jealous when they see me sitting at that prime table with my date.”
    “Oh, really? Now you’ve piqued my curiosity. I didn’t know you were seeing anyone. Have you been keeping her a secret?”
    I check my mirrors and ease the car back on the road.
    “No, we just met yesterday. I even asked her to come to Mom and Dad’s for dinner, but she can’t make it.”
    I shoot Angel my best sad eyes and stick out my bottom lip in an over-exaggerated pout. She laughs. I have a good feeling that with Olivia’s help, we can get Angel to agree to dinner with the Kellys tomorrow night.
    “Maybe after she tastes my cooking, she’ll be tempted to see where all that talent came from. Hey, Angel, be prepared to be ambushed. My brother never brings women home for dinner. You must be really special.”
    “Hi, Olivia, and thanks, I think.”
    “You’re welcome. See you both in a few minutes. Better hurry before Judge Patchouli takes your table.”
    “I’m two minutes away. Tell that law