Full Coverage: Boys of Fall by Erin Nicholas Read Free Book Online Page B

anyway.
    “Why do you love this game so much?”
    She looked up. He was watching her with true interest. That wasn’t about football. That was about her.
    But she wanted to answer. “My grandpa.”
    “He taught you about the game?”
    She nodded and moved to the other side of the car so her back, or rather her butt, was to him. Maybe if she didn’t look at him while she told him personal things, she wouldn’t sound silly. “When I was little, he went to all of the Titan football games and he took me with him. I’d sit on his lap and eat popcorn and drink soda—the only time I got soda—and I’d just cheer along whenever he did. I also learned to cuss at refs from him.” She looked over her shoulder to shoot him a grin.
    He was grinning back. And not looking at her ass. She straightened in surprise. She hadn’t realized that she’d been expecting him to be looking at her ass. But guys always looked at her ass when they were in the shop and she was working.
    She appreciated that Nolan wasn’t, more than she would have thought.
    Ironic, considering he was one guy she wouldn’t mind looking his fill.
    Randi propped a hip against the car and wiped her hands on the rag she kept tucked in her back pocket. “As I got older, I started watching it with him on TV too. Part of it was that I was starting to understand more about the game. Part of it was that it was the only time I could get away with swearing. I could cuss and yell things that, any other time, would have gotten my mouth washed out with soap, but during a football game, Mom and Grandma just ignored it. Plus, I learned to love chicken wings and nachos and beer.”
    “You got to drink beer during football games as a kid?” Nolan interrupted.
    She laughed. “I got a sip of Grandpa’s beer at the start of each quarter. It probably ended up being a mouthful total. But I thought I was really getting away with something.”
    “You had a wild streak even then.”
    She shrugged. She wasn’t sure she’d been wild ,but she definitely liked the thrill of breaking a rule here and there. “Anyway, I kept going to games with him until I was about ten. I even pulled his oxygen for him. But then he got really sick with the COPD and couldn’t walk that far or climb the bleachers, so I would go to the games and call him, and we’d stay on the phone for the whole game, with me giving him the play-by-play. He also wanted me to fill in the downtime during timeouts and halftime with a game analysis. So I had to know what I was talking about.”
    “How’d you do that while you were cheering?” Nolan asked.
    Randi felt her heart clench. “He died the summer before our sophomore year.”
    “I’m sorry, Randi.”
    For a split second, she wished that he’d called her Ladybug again. It was a silly little nickname that didn’t even fit her, but when he’d called her that, she’d almost melted into a puddle.
    She’d never almost melted into a puddle for a guy before. Ever.
    “I miss him like crazy,” she said with a nod. “Football became a way of feeling close to him after that. And by then, I was hooked. Hard.”
    Nolan looked like he wanted to say something else. Or maybe hug her. She really wanted him to hug her. But instead he asked, “So there’s more to your obsession than your grandpa?”
    “Oh, for sure.”
    “Explain that to me.”
    She pulled in a breath and turned back to the car. But she was able to move around to the other side, not feeling like she needed her back to him now.
    “I love how physically tough it is. To be a star, you have to be strong, flexible, have amazing reflexes. But there’s a ton of mental toughness needed too. You get banged up but you have to stay in there. And then there’s the trash talk.” She shot him another grin. “It’s just such a guy thing.”
    She watched as Nolan’s eyebrows went up and for a second she grimaced. Oops.
    “That’s not to say that a guy has to play football for me to like him.”
    Then