Running Home to You (The Running Series) by Suzanne Sweeney Read Free Book Online Page A

where will I sit when I come to a game?" I wonder out loud, gazing around the stadium, trying to gauge where the best seats are.
    Evan stands and pulls me up to join him.  He holds one hand over his brow as he scans the seats, looking for something.  Once he finds his mark, he points to a section of the stadium just beneath the highest seating deck.  There are glass-enclosed suites lining one complete side of the stadium wall. 
    "Carlo Rivera and Shaun Marise invited me to join them in their suite.  Sometimes players will get together and rent a suite for their families for the entire season.  We have suite number eighteen, which is just to the left of the fifty-yard line.  You'll love it."  He looks down at me and I can see the sparkle in his big blue eyes.  He's so easy to read.  He wears his emotions across his entire face, and right now, I can see the joy etched in his dimples and hope reflected in his smile.
    We spend the next hour and a half exploring the rest of the stadium.  I get to see the locker room where all the players’ equipment is kept.  It looks more like a massive walk-in closet than the metallic locker room with chain-link cages for equipment storage that I pictured from the movies.  It's stellar.  We tour the team's private gym where they work out, and he shows me the offices and meeting rooms where they gather to watch films and discuss strategy.  I can only imagine what it's like when these places are fully staffed and bustling with the energy of the entire team and coaches.  No wonder Evan's been so preoccupied.
    We finish our tour where we started, back out on the field.  Evan takes me to the end zone which has the team name, Sentinels, proudly painted beneath the goal post.  Standing there, in the very place where history is made week after week, is both exciting and exhilarating.  Evan looks at me and I can just imagine him in his sexy uniform, all sweaty and dirty, on this very field making the play that wins the game.  I can hear the crowds chanting his name and I can picture fans wearing replicas of his uniform filling the stadium.  The man that ignites hopes and dreams in the minds of so many men and women is standing here with me, and I'm feeling a sudden need to take him right here and right now.
    "Juliette, you can't just look at me like that," Evan pleads.
    I can feel my heart racing and my pulse quickening.  "Like what?" I ask.
    "Like you're ready to rip my clothes off."
    "Very perceptive," I acknowledge.  “It’s you own fault, really.  I can’t help it if you’re so extremely fuckable.  Seeing you here, in this place, has my imagination on overdrive.”
    "Baby, there are a thousand fantasies I'd love to act out with you right here and right now, but the cameras on this field are always rolling and this is one performance I'd rather not broadcast to the world."  He grabs me, lifts me off my feet, and I wrap my arms around his neck.  "But there's no law against making out in the end zone."  He kisses me deeply, and then breaks our bond momentarily to add a final thought.  “Lucky for you, I never felt the urge to kiss anyone in the end zone before.”

    J ust a short drive south, and we enter the city limits of Atlantic City.  This time, Evan is in charge of our destination.  He parks at Caesar's Palace and we take the elevator to the main floor.  After a brisk walk right through the casino, Evan escorts me to the boardwalk.  It's a beautiful spring day and it feels glorious to walk the boardwalk.  We hold hands and stroll along, carefree, enjoying the sights and smells of the ocean.
    "Oh my God, Evan, look.  It's an old-fashioned pushcart.  I can't believe they still have those things.  My grandparents took me down here once when I was in elementary school and we took a ride on one of those carts.  I thought they would be long gone by now."  We watch as a young man pushes a cart down the boardwalk with an older couple sitting inside the wicker