Fair Catch - A Football Romance Read Online Free Page A

just for you, Maria, because I love you and don’t want you to waste food,” I say, smiling down at my petite five foot two sister-in-law.
    “Ah, gracias, River. You’re a good boy. Why don’t you bring a nice girl home for dinner sometime? You’re so handsome and kind. Are there no more good girls left for you?”
    “Someday, Maria. I’ll find a good girl someday, I promise.”
    She smiles, making the tiny crow’s feet around her almond eyes more pronounced. Maria just gets more beautiful with age. I love her as much as my sisters, and I plan on keeping the promise I just made to her. I think I’ve already found a good girl to bring home to dinner. I just have to figure out how to ask her without scaring her.

Chapter 5
    A ngel
    “Cat, hey, come here,” I say, gesturing toward myself from across the coffee shop where she works. It’s late, and I’ve been practicing for hours, but I had to see her, and a cup of coffee wouldn’t kill me right about now either.
    She rolls her eyes and mouths, I can’t. I’m working . I sigh. They never give her a damn break in this place. I sink into a comfy chair and wait for the line to die down. Why do so many people want coffee at nine o’clock at night?
    I slide my phone from the outside pocket of my duffle bag and scroll through the newsfeed of Facebook. A few funny videos and a couple of TMI posts about people’s poor health and relationship problems later, Cat plops down across from me holding a large iced café Americano.
    “Here,” she says, thrusting it at me. “What are you doing here so late? Don’t you have to practice in the morning?”
    “I just left the studio. You’ll never guess what Miss Valentina made me do today.” It’s quiet while I take a long drink of the cold, strong coffee and wait for her to guess.
    “Well, aren’t you going to try and guess?” I ask.
    “No, you said I’d never guess,” she says with a deadpanned face.
    “True, you wouldn’t.”
    “Damn, woman, I only have a ten-minute break before we clean up and close. Tell me what the wicked witch made you do?”
    “I had to teach ballet to the San Francisco Sparks this afternoon.”
    Cat’s mouth drops open, and I swear I see stars in her eyes. She loves football more than any female I’ve ever met, and not because of the hot players and their tight ends—pun intended. She loves the game. With three older brothers, she was predisposed to being a fan. All of her brothers played in high school, and one even went on to play for the Washington Redkings.
    “Oh my God, all of them, in one class? You taught them ballet? Why?”
    She fires the questions at me in quick succession with only a couple of minutes left in her break.
    “Not all of them. I had three classes today, with six guys in each.”
    “Did they behave? Jesse says the guys on his team are crass, and he would never set me up with any of them.”
    Jesse is her very overprotective brother who plays for the Redkings. Prince Charming could be one of his teammates, and he wouldn’t set her up with him.
    “There were a couple of jokers and one or two who tested me, but I handled them pretty well, I think.”
    “Did any of them ask you out?”
    I knew this was coming. Cat is always on me about having more fun and meeting guys. She just doesn’t understand how much work it takes to prepare for an audition or how important it is to me. Nobody does.
    “No. There was this one, though . . .”
    Cat sits up on the edge of her seat with wide eyes. Her boss calls out that her break is over, but she waves her hand absently in his direction, keeping her eyes on me.
    “Be there in a minute,” she answers. “Go on. There was this one guy . . .?”
    “He was incredibly handsome, and he had the bluest eyes I’ve ever—”
    “River Kelly? You taught ballet to the River Kelly? Oh my God, he is the best quarterback the Sparks have ever had, and he’s gorgeous.”
    “How did you know it was him?”
    “His eyes are famous. He