Free Offside: A Bad Boy Sports Romance by Abbey Foxx Page B

awful.”
    “They’re a good side.”
    “Are you kidding me? Did you watch the same game I did?”
    “Jaguars were semi finalists last year.”
    “That team?”
    “It’s over, English. We lost. Forget about it. Let’s go for a drink, you know how to do that right?”
    “We need to talk.”
    “It’s up to Dad whether he starts you or not. I just handle the finance.”
    “Not just that, Penny. I know this isn’t my game, but I know how a team should work, and this, from what I’ve just seen, isn’t a team.”
    “You’re an expert now, right?”
    “You should be ashamed of yourself, Topher.”
    He shrugs his big shoulders at me. “You want to talk to the offensive line. I throw the ball and I can’t do that if they don’t stand up.”
    “Tell me something. You want to win?”
    Topher gives me that lurching fake laugh again and Penny and I catch eyes for a moment.
    “You know about that do you?”
    “Actually I do.”
    “In football?”
    “In sport.”
    “Right.”
    “Tell him to play me, Topher. I’m ready. Penny?”
    Penny shrugs. She doesn’t look right with him. She’s hanging off him like it means something, but she doesn’t look right with him. I hate seeing good looking girls get messed around.
    “You reckon you can do better than Jackson?”
    “I reckon my grandma can do better than Jackson.”
    “Training, Jasper. You prove it in training and we’ll see.”
    “This club is falling apart and you’re doing nothing about it.”
    “So what do you care? Aren’t you only here because you have to be?”
    “I don’t like losing.”
    “Maybe you’re just going to have to get used to it.”
    Topher uses that moment to pull Penny closer to him and to make sure I’m looking.
    “So, you coming?”
    “Where?”
    “To get drunk of course. Fuck, Jasper, don’t tell me you don’t know how to do that?”
    “I thought you didn’t drink.”
    “I don’t drink during the week. I get drunk on game days. What do you think I am, a fucking animal?”
    “You coming Penny?”
    Penny pushes herself away from Topher. “Nah it’s a kind of guys thing. Tradition. You’ll see why.”
    “You do this every game?”
    “Whether we win or lose. Don’t you?”
    Something tells me Topher can’t hold his drink. He looks like he’s barely old enough to be able to afford to buy one.
    “So, what, I come with you?”
    “That alright with you, English? Your mom not going to complain?”
    “Fuck you.”
    “Don’t get too drunk”, Penny warns.
    “That it? No debrief, no warm down, no fucking talk from the manager?”
    “You really don’t know how this works, do you?”
    Penny fills in for him. “We’ll go through the game on Monday. Until then you’re free to do what you want. Have fun. Don’t get too drunk. Don’t end up in the papers or in jail. Whatever the fuck you do, I don’t want to have to explain that to Dad.”
    This club is severely lacking basic communication skills.
    “That’s you riding with me, English.”
    Penny either looks sad she’s not coming, or sad that we’re going.
    “Everybody else?”
    “Everybody who else? They’ll all be there to kick your stupid ass, don’t worry about it. Now, do you want to get in the car or do you want to run? It’s the same to me.”
    We say goodbye to Penny - Topher in the way I want to and the way he doesn’t seem like he should deserve to be allowed, and me in my way, much more formal and fucking English - and then we get in his car, this time me alongside him in the front instead of way behind running against the choking fumes of his exhaust.
    “She’s alright isn’t she, Penny? Hot.”
    I nod. I know this fucker is just testing me.
    “Tight pussy. She shaves it clean just for me. Tastes like a fucking ripe peach. I’m her first as well, you believe that. Broke her in. Penny knows her place. You like pussy?”
    “What kind of question is that?”
    “Stay away from Penny, English.”
    “You already told me that