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

“I thought it was a good call to go with Dumont in the big game. He did an excellent job.”
    The muscles in Roman’s jaw flexed and adrenaline shot through him. One thing a quarterback easily recognizes when he looks at a man is when that man wants to hit him. He sees that look on the field all day, almost every day. Every part of Roman became very still, just like when he was about to throw the best touchdown of the game. Instantly, he knew. He knew Lou, indeed, had planned to mark his territory with Katie Winters. Roman put on his best media boy smile and laughed. “You’re right. He did win it for us.” he conceded.
    Touching the side of his mustache with his other hand, Lou swallowed. “I guess I would be more on team Roman if you’d had the decency to show up to your uncle’s funeral.”
    The floor scraped as Roman shoved out of the booth and the table shifted on the cement floor. He was tired of everyone assuming that he’d had a choice in the matter.
    “Roman!”
    He and Lou were now facing each other. Both of them had their fists clenched. Roman knew his agent would not be happy when this story broke—Destroyer’s Quarterback takes out small town waiter.
    “Roman!”
    He swerved to face her, pulling back on his temper. “What?”
    She pushed out of the booth and moved in between him and Lou. Her face was desperate. “Don’t you remember you were going to take me sledding?”
    Roman teetered between giving in to his temper and being better than that. Finally, he pulled his wallet out and dropped a hundred dollar bill on the table. He turned and shoved past Lou. “Then I guess we’d better go.”

Chapter 6
    T he hill she took him to was…big. In Texas it would be considered a mountain. Here, it was considered a hill. Neither of them had talked about what had happened.
    Katie had quickly gone to Jim’s front closet and outfitted them both with better gear for sledding. She’d tried to crack some jokes, but he’d simply given tight smiles. He knew why Lou’s comments ticked him off so much…because they were the truth.
    They parked at the top, and then she handed him the tube. “You go first.”
    He didn’t move. “Why did you do that?”
    “What?”
    “Back there with Lou.”
    Her face went serious. He couldn’t help noticing that, even though her hair looked all fuzzy from the hat, her skin was flawless and a few freckles dotted her nose. He could honestly say she was one of the most naturally beautiful women he’d ever met. “I didn’t think it was worth it.”
    He sucked in a breath. “You mean me blowing my top?” The media coverage had shown some not so nice scenes of him after the accident—drunk and frightened, which had translated into a fist into the side of his Ferrari. The dent mark had been all over the news.
    “No.” Her voice was clipped and she stuck her chin up. “I don’t think it’s worth it to defend something you know the truth about.”
    He frowned.
    She pointed at him. “You know that you would have come if you’d have know.” She gently tapped his chest. “You know. It doesn’t matter what I thought, what everyone else thinks because you know the truth.”
    Chills washed over him. Her certainty filled him with a measure of hope. Pride. Something that he hadn’t felt about himself in a long time. He liked it. He blinked and looked around. He didn’t remember sledding on such a big hill. Nervous jitters wound through him. “That’s a long way down.”
    She cocked an eyebrow. “Come here, would you mind if I took your picture for my son?”
    He could tell that she didn’t like asking for things. This made him want to give it to her. “Only if you’re in it with me.”
    She hesitated.
    He motioned her over to him. “C’mon, bachelorette, pretend like you want a rose tonight.”
    This made her laugh. They posed, and she snapped a picture.
    “Thanks.”
    He liked being able to do something for her, even if it was just taking a picture.