Free Last Play: Book 1 The Last Play Series by Taylor Hart Page A

and a tear fell down her cheek. “This is exactly where you should be, don’t you see that? Jim wanted you to come.”
    Guilt surged within him.
    She swallowed and nodded. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”
    When she said those words a strange thing happened, the certainty she felt seared into him. She was right. He was okay. He took in a breath. “You’re right.”
    Taking her hand back, she nodded. “It’s okay.”
    They both sat, saying nothing.
    Then she smiled. “So you’ll look into that?”
    “What?”
    “The ad space.”
    He hated lying to her, but he didn’t know how to tell her the truth. He looked out the window. “Sure.”
    “Why aren’t you looking at me?”
    He turned back. “I am looking at you.”
    “You’re not going to look into it.” She sighed and got out her phone.
    “What are you doing?”
    “I’m adding it to my list.”
    “No,” he protested. “I’ll do it.”
    “You will?” Her voice was doubtful.
    He didn’t know why, but he knew that if he told her he would, then he really would do it. “I will.”
    “Fine.”
    Letting out an exasperated sigh, she sipped the last of her water. “You would think that you weren’t the owner.”
    “Stop. Okay. I…you’ve just been going at this since I met you. Man, you should have been a coach, you’re relentless.”
    “Relentless?” She looked pleased at this description of her.
    “Yes.”
    She threw her hands up. “I’m just trying to let you be the boss.”
    Oh no. This sounded way too emasculating for him. The quarterback of the Dallas Destroyers didn’t need her permission for anything. “ Let me be the boss?” he grinned.
    She laughed. “Does that hurt your ego, QB?”
    Reluctantly, he admitted to himself that he liked the way she said ‘QB.’ “No, it doesn’t hurt my ego.”
    “Does, too.” She pointed at him.
    He swiped her finger away with his fork. “Does not.”
    They both grinned at each other.
    He put his fork down. “Fine, if I’m the boss, then I say we take a day off and go sledding today.”
    “You do?”
    “I’ve always lived in Texas, and one year we came to visit Uncle Jim for Christmas, and we…went sledding. It was the most fun thing I’ve ever done.”
    She scoffed, “You want to work on sledding?” She did not look amused.
    He drizzled syrup on the fork, reasoning that if he weren’t ‘courting’ Katie, it wouldn’t matter if he sucked down syrup like a teenager, right? It felt good not to worry about how many carbs were in the syrup. He grinned. “I want to work on sledding.”
    She shook her head. “Fine, QB, we’ll go sledding.”
    But before he could pay Tiffany and get out of there, Lou, the man from earlier, walked up to their table. He patted Katie on the back. “How are you?” His hand moved to her shoulder.
    She smiled and covered his hand with hers. “Hey, I’m good.” Her face became gentler when looking at Lou.
    Unexpectedly, Roman tensed.
    Lou turned to Roman, giving him an up and down. “So Roman Young returns to claim what’s his.”
    The way Lou kept his hand on Katie’s shoulder, felt like he was letting Roman know that he might be claiming the Inn, but he couldn’t claim her, too. Roman gave him an easy smile. “Yep, just here checking out the place and helping Katie get a few things done.”
    Lou turned to Katie, keeping her hand in his. “My dear, why didn’t you tell me you needed help?”
    If Roman hadn’t known better, he would think that Katie was actually blushing. “Oh no, it’s fine. Roman offered, and since he’s stuck here for a while....” She gestured to the snow falling. “I accepted his help.”
    “Hmph.” Roman hadn’t meant to contradict Katie. But really? Offered to help? He thought of having the list shoved at him and being told it was about time he got here.
    Lou spun back to him, giving him the same sizing up that Roman had given Lou earlier. “Did you have something to say, Jim’s nephew?” He glared at him again.