Blitzed (The Alpha Ballers #3) by Lucy Snow Read Free Book Online

of wandering in my direction just as mine happened to wander toward him every few minutes. If I’d been watching us in a movie I’d have been yelling at the screen already, trying to get the hero and heroine to move faster.

    “Great turnout tonight,” I opened with, trying to get something going.

    Steve looked around. “Yeah, not too bad. Listen, I ran into one of your players just now.”

    “Oh yeah? That’s not surprising.” I looked around the room quickly. “I think all 53 of them are here tonight, and all the coaches too.” It was actually an impressive turnout. Aside from practice and games, it wasn’t easy to get these guys to do anything all at the same time. “Which one?”

    “The Mountain himself, Hudson Asher.”

      My ears pricked up, and suddenly I was really paying attention. “Oh yeah?” I asked, taking another sip of my drink. “How was that?”

    “Dude’s even bigger in person.”

    “Yeah,” I smiled, “Hud really is something else when you get close to him. What did you guys talk about?”

    “Oh, nothing too big, just business stuff.”

    “Yeah?” Like all professional football players who had stuck around this long, Hud definitely had some money, so it made sense that he and Steve would have something to talk about besides football.

    Hud had never struck me as a guy who spent too much time focused on the Wall Street Journal, though. I figured him for more of a hunting and fishing kind of guy. All I really knew about his personal life outside of the facility was that he rode a giant motorcycle, and even that part was sexy as hell.

    I looked back at Steve. He would never be caught dead on a motorcycle, I could already tell.

    Still, though, I might as well make the most of our evening. I had had fun on our earlier dates - Steve might be a little uptight in a room full of athletes, but so far he had been a nice guy, very polite. Each of our dates had ended with a polite and chaste kiss, and after each one I had looked forward to seeing him again.

    “Yeah, he’s looking for places to park some of that money you keep paying him.”

    I laughed. “You sound as if you think his contract isn’t worth it?”

    Steve looked at me. “Asher’s? Where would you get that idea? He’s an old linebacker past his prime. You could draft a replacement in the 5 th round and pay him peanuts for a few years, probably get better play out of him too.”

    I crossed my arms under my breasts, not really wanting to get into work stuff at a charity event, but unable to resist Steve goading me into it like this. “Have you actually looked up Hudson’s contract? It’s a lot more team friendly than you think.”

    “I haven’t. All I’m saying is with the new rookie pay scale, you could save yourself serious money by kicking him to the curb and getting a younger guy in.”

    I narrowed my eyes. “These aren’t just entries on a spreadsheet, Steve. These are real people we’re talking about. They have lives and families and it’s more than just his production on the field.” I stared directly at Steve. “Which, by the way, has been great these last few years, even above expectations.”

    Steve took a sip of his drink, and I saw the spark in his eyes. He liked to argue, and I liked that about him. I wasn’t exactly the most confrontational person, far from it, but I didn’t have a habit of backing down from a verbal spar if the other person wanted to go. “Oh really? It’s more than just what’s on the field?” He squared up his posture, standing at full height and just barely looking down at me.  

    I didn’t know why, but I looked down really quick to check which heels I’d worn tonight.  

    “What else is there? Football is just a set of rules and statistics. It’s a game you can play with numbers.”

    “You can’t possibly believe that.”

    “I really do, though. You have contracts that cost a certain amount of money and give you a chance at a certain amount of