Saving Grace by Katie Graykowski Read Free Book Online

Grace Kelley. Besides, I doubt Mary Poppins would have flashed her nipple on live TV.”
    “You have a point.” He opened one of the bottles of water and chugged half of it. “At the risk of a sexual harassment suit, it was a nice nipple.”
    “Thanks.” She should feel uncomfortable, but she didn’t. He wasn’t hitting on her, just stating a fact. “Apparently, I have a legion of Twitter followers who know me only as NippleLady107. I’d rather have been known for my stellar performance instead of my nipple.”
    “I hear ya.” He toasted her with the water. “I’d like to be known for my two Super Bowl wins instead of the fumble that tore my knee in the fourth quarter of my last game. In our society, it’s the mistakes that define you.”
    “I have a confession. I don’t know much about football.” She crossed her legs at the ankles and relaxed back.
    “Oh My God. How can you call yourself an American and not know about football?” He sounded honestly scandalized.
    “I’m not really an American. I’m British remember, Mary Poppins is too busy singing and dancing on rooftops to watch football.” She smiled. “From what I’ve seen of football fanatics in the bars I’ve worked, football involves consuming massive amounts of cheap beer, and yelling at the TV.”
    “What about high school? I can tell by your Texas accent that you grew up here. Didn’t you participate in those Friday Night lights?” He downed the other half of the water.
    “No, I was too busy partaking in the cheap beer portion of the Friday night ritual.” She picked at a stray thread on her jeans. “I tried very hard to make the small town of Bullard, Texas forget Uncle Vernon and Aunt Shirley were fantastic role models.”
    “What happened to your parents?”
    “They were killed by a drunk driver when I was two. I don’t remember them.” She didn’t mean to sound matter of fact, but she hadn’t really known them.
    “Sorry.”
    “Don’t be. I had a great childhood. I grew up on a farm with a large family full of laughter, no rules, and lots of Jesus. It was interesting.” She finally pulled the string and put it out of its misery.
    “That’s why you like rules.” He nodded. “I had the opposite. I grew up in Dallas and had lots of rules. My father was a big believer in ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’. It sucked.”
    “Maybe we can find a happy medium. It’s like on the football field. Do you let the players do whatever they want?” Since she knew as much about football as she did about nuclear physics, she hoped the answer was no.
    “No, if I gave them free rein, it would be anarchy.” He took a deep breath and relaxed back against the pillows. “I see your point.”
    He opened the other water. “But I never got to do anything fun growing up. It was all football and homework, hell, I couldn’t even date that much because I had to be home by ten.”
    “Yes, I can see that about you, virgin on your wedding night.” She laughed at the idea. If he’d made it out of high school as a virgin, she was a male stripper.
    “I might have missed out on a lot of things, but that wasn’t one of them.” One side of his mouth turned up in a shit-eating grin. “Lisa Davis took care of that for me my freshman year.” He took a long pull off the water. “Lisa had skills.”
    “Would she say the same thing about you?”
    Confusion muddled his grin, and then he shrugged. “Probably not. How about you?”
    “I don’t know Lisa Davis.” She couldn’t resist.
    He shot her a look.
    “Okay, I was also a freshman and his name was Brady. I don’t remember his last name. I’m not going to lie; it was disappointing. If I could go back in time, I’d tell myself to pick someone else…someone with more experience than I had.” She returned his shrug. “Well, water under the bridge. How about birth control?”
    Carefully, he set the water bottle on the tray. “I’m in favor of it.” He glanced down at her