Dirty Player - A Football Romance (A Maxwell Family Romance) Read online

  “It was nice meeting you,” I said as we stepped out.

  “You too. I’ll see you around,” she said and smiled her beautiful smile. I reminded myself to say a big thank you to Professor Jackson for choosing me to be her partner. Maybe I really was his favorite student after all.

  I saw her in class later that day, but I didn’t get a chance to talk to her because I was swept away to practice quickly. I had hoped to see her around school, but I didn’t. Later that night, as I lay in bed, I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering to her. It had been a busy day, one filled with classes and a long practice session of football. And yet, all I could think about was the beautiful red-haired vision with the soulful eyes. What was it about her that was so familiar to me? I lay there, trying to figure it out, but nothing came my way. I was sure she just looked like an actress, but even that wasn’t bringing up any results. Maybe she just had one of those faces. But as I closed my eyes and fell asleep, I couldn’t help but wonder why there was a familiar pang in my heart as her face flashed across my mind's eye.

  Chapter Four

  Candice

  “How’s college going, my darling?” my mother asked on the phone. She knew about my trepidations, although I tried to keep them to a minimum so that she didn’t worry too much. I didn’t want her going to tell my father how I was really feeling. Anyway, it was still the early days, and I had to at least give myself a chance to settle in.

  “It’s going okay. Nice place,” I said neutrally.

  “Made any new friends?” she asked. I knew she worried about me. I wasn’t like all the other girls my age. I didn’t have a bevy of friends to hang around with on the weekends like I probably should. But she didn’t understand. It wasn’t easy when your father was so well known. I’d had friends before but they’d all been friends with me for the wrong reason. My father had a lot of work colleagues with kids my age, but I had never gotten along with them. The friends I did like, however, were never good enough for my father. So I could never win. I learned how to just spend time with myself. If only I had a brother or sister, that might have made all the difference in the world.

  “Yeah,” I lied. “The people here are great.” I’m sure they would be, once they got to know me and once they gave me a chance to get to know them. Early days, I told myself over and over again.

  “Oh, darling, that’s great to hear,” she said, and I felt bad for deceiving her. The truth was very different. I had yet to meet anyone that wanted to get to know me. The teachers had been nice though, especially Professor Jackson, but that wasn’t the same. Nevertheless, my mother seemed relieved that her daughter was doing so well.

  “And how’s Derek doing? It must be so nice to be right by him,” she said.

  “He’s good. Actually, he’s heading over here now. We’re going to have lunch together.”

  “Oh, that’s wonderful. I’ll let you go then. Please send him my love. Daddy sends his love too.”

  “Thanks, Mom,” I said and tried not to groan. My father loved Derek. If he knew that I was having second thoughts about him, he wouldn’t be happy. I wasn’t sure what my mother thought about Derek. She’d told me that she liked him, but I often got the impression that she was just saying that to placate my father. I could be wrong, though. Maybe she was telling the truth.

  I put the phone down and waved Derek over. Again, it surprised me that I wasn’t more excited to see him. I needed to make more of an effort with him, so when he came over, I stood up and planted a big kiss on his mouth.

  “Nice one, babe,” he said and grinned. “I hope everyone saw that. I like having a girlfriend as hot as you. I swear, nobody believed me when I said you were my girlfriend.”

  I laughed. “Oh, I’m sure that’s not true.”

  “So, how’s your first week been? Enjoying it here?”

  “Yeah, it’s not bad. I have lots of work already. They don’t really let you ease into it, do they?”

  “No way. Not at all. It’s all work, work, work here. That’s why there are always so many college parties. Nobody wants to work all the time. So, any favorite teachers?”

  “I like Professor Jackson.”

  He laughed. “You do? He’s such a dork, though. Do you know he’s only a few years older than us? Did you see the way he dresses? It’s so embarrassing. And those glasses. I mean, why doesn’t he get contacts? It would look so much better on him.”

  “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the way he dresses,” I said defensively. “I think it suits him.”

  “Do you have a crush on the professor?” he asked, but I could see that he was teasing. I didn’t have a crush on him, but if I did, I didn’t see anything wrong with it. He was interesting at least.

  “No, I don’t like him. Not like that. But he seems cool. You’re cruel. It’s nice to be different.”

  He laughed. “I’d rather not be different if it means dressing like him.”

  I shook my head and took a bite of my sandwich. We were sitting outside to have our lunch rather than in the cafeteria, and I was enjoying the feeling of the cool air on my face. I had never wanted to go to college, but as I looked around at the clusters of people around the field, I had to admit that there was something nice about it. Every now and again I actually felt like I was just another student, living just another normal life.

  “Oh, by the way, do you know who Dominic Aarons is?” I asked.

  He looked at me strangely. “Yeah, the linebacker. You mean him?”

  I shrugged. I remembered Dominic saying something about that. “Yeah, I think so.”

  “What about him? I don’t know him well, but I know of him.”

  “Oh, well I’ve been paired up with him for a project, and he just looks so familiar to me. I was wondering if maybe he was well known or something?”

  Derek scoffed and as he did so, a piece of bread flew out of his mouth. He didn’t seem to notice, or if he did, he didn’t care. “Well known? No, I don’t think so. I mean, he walks around strutting his stuff. The girls seem to love him, although I’ve never seen him with a girlfriend so who knows what is up with that. Poor you, paired up with a dumb oaf like him.”

  “Why do you say that? He seems perfectly nice to me.”

  “He’s a football meathead, that’s what he is. Those football guys have nothing between their ears. It’s all about football and nothing else.”

  “Oh, well,” I said, suddenly wanting to change the subject. “I just thought he looked familiar.”

  “Probably just looks like all the other dumb jocks on the team,” he said.

  I didn’t say anything. I just continued to eat my sandwich. Was Derek right? Was Dominic really just interested in football and nothing else? It didn’t seem likely. He’d seemed kind and intelligent when I had met him. Also, Professor Jackson had specifically said he had put me with him because he was smart and that we’d work well together. I highly doubted the professor would be wrong. As we stood up to leave after lunch, I told Derek that I was heading to the library to work on something. What I didn’t tell him was that I was on my way to work on something with Dominic. I didn’t think he would approve, even though there was nothing that I could do about him being my partner.

  “See you later, sexy cheeks,” he said as he kissed me on the cheeks.

  I smiled and walked away, wondering again why I felt so uneasy around him. He was my boyfriend. I wasn’t supposed to feel this way around him. I put the thoughts aside as I walked to the library. Dominic was already waiting there when I arrived, and he smiled when he saw me. Again, I had the impression that I had seen him before. Was that why I got a slight tingling feeling through my body when I saw him? I took a seat and grinned at him.

  “I see you’ve already started,” I said and looked at the notes around him. This did not seem like the action of a man who was only into football. He took me through everything that he had already come up with, and I was surprised at home much he had done.

  “I hope you don
’t mind me starting without you. I had already started this before you were assigned as my partner. Like I said before, Sam is a nice guy, but I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I was going to do most of the work. But if you have another angle, I’m more than happy to change this.”

  “Are you kidding me? This is great. Saves us a lot of time actually. It’s usually the planning that takes up the most the time. I appreciate this, and I’m very happy with it. Thanks for doing this. To be honest, this is exactly the sort of direction I was thinking of taking. I have a few ideas myself too, but they’re all going to be branching off what you have already done.”

  We sat like that for an hour, just going through notes and taking time to work on things. It was nice to work with someone that had a similar mindset to me. I was so used to doing things myself, and not used to working as a team. But Dominic made things a lot easier for me. We worked well together. Every now and again, I caught him watching me, and I wondered if he was also wondering where we knew each other from. I was still sure that I had met him somewhere before. But every time I thought of bringing it up, I stopped myself. I wasn’t sure why. I didn’t want to harp on about it. Maybe he really just did remind me of someone from TV.

  So far, Dominic was the only person that had been nice to me, and it was nice having someone to talk to at the college. I had Derek, of course, but it was nice finding someone else to talk to. And Dominic was certainly very easy to talk to. I felt a connection with him that I didn’t often feel with many people. Although, I had to remind myself that it wasn’t like he had gone out of his way to talk to me. He was only spending time with me because he had to. I glanced up at him and caught his eye. I smiled quickly and looked back down at my notes. If he didn’t want to be around me, it didn’t feel like it. I got the impression that he might feel the same way about me as I did about him. Things felt easy with us and I was glad that we’d been partnered up. It could’ve been a lot more awkward if I had been paired with someone I didn’t get along with.

  “I can’t believe how much we’ve gotten done in such a short span of time,” I said to Dominic as I surveyed our work. “At this rate, we’ll be finished before the deadline.”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, that would be good. Then we can just meet up for coffee and pretend to work.”

  I smiled at that, and was just about to say something when Derek showed up. He frowned when he saw that I was sitting with Dominic.

  “What’s going on here?” he said, and I immediately felt the heat rising to my face. There was a strange tone to his voice that I hadn’t heard before, and I didn’t like the way he was looking at the two of us. I felt embarrassed at how rude he was being.

  “Hey, Derek. I’m just working on my project. The one I got from Professor Jackson.”

  “With him?” he said and glanced at Dominic.

  “Uh, yeah, we’re partners. Dominic, this is Derek. I . . . I’m not sure if you know each other,” I stumbled.

  “Yeah, I’ve seen you around. Hi,” Derek said. “I’m Candice’s boyfriend,” he said and moved closer to me. I had never seen him act so jealous before. It was absolutely crazy considering I was clearly sitting in a library doing work. There was nothing for him to be jealous about. I felt mortified by his reaction, and Dominic was giving me kind of a weird look.

  “Cool, yeah, I’ve seen you around too,” Dominic said calmly. “Well,” he said to me, “thanks for meeting up with me today. I think we got tons done. Want to meet again soon to carry on? I think we’re onto something good.”

  “I’m not sure, man; I think I’ll be keeping the woman very busy, if you know what I mean,” Derek said and pulled me in again. I hated the way Derek spoke sometimes. He was always so different in front of my father. If my father could only see what he was like with his friends he might change his mind about him.

  I frowned at him. What the hell was his problem? I ignored what he said and smiled at Dominic. “Sure, just let me know what day and time works best for you. And thanks for everything you’ve done already. See you soon.”

  He gathered his notes and walked out, and I looked at Derek and grimaced.

  “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “You were so rude,” I said to him as I picked up my notebooks.

  “Rude? I wasn’t rude. Anyway, why do I have to be nice to him? And why does he have to be your partner? I bet you he just chose you because he wants you.”

  “He didn’t choose me,” I said with a deep sigh. “Professor Jackson put us together. Why are you acting so jealous? It’s just a project.”

  “I’m not jealous,” he said. “But I just wanted to show him who the boss is around here. He can’t think he can just come in and take my girl away like that.”

  I groaned. “And I take you’re the boss?”

  “Nah, you’re the boss, of course,” he said and laughed. I didn’t say anything more as we walked out. Derek didn’t seem to notice, and he changed the subject and started talking to me about baseball.

  Chapter Five

  Dominic

  My body ached. It was a feeling I was used to though, but it didn’t make it any easier. We were practicing twice a day at the moment, which was a little exhausting considering I also had to cram in as much work as possible in between. I loved and hated this time of the year, and my body went from loving me to hating me throughout the day. When I was playing, I always felt energized. No matter how tired I was, the moment I stepped out onto that field, I felt ready to take on whatever was thrown my way. It was only when I wasn’t playing that I felt the effects of fatigue. I was in the shower now, scrubbing off the dirt from the second, and last, practice of the day, and my body screamed at me to slow down. But I wouldn’t. Nothing would stand in the way of me achieving my goals. And I wanted nothing more than to play football for the rest of my life.

  Someone had asked me once what I wanted to do with my life. I couldn’t remember now who it was, a relative that I hadn’t seen all that often. I remembered the conversation more than the person I was having it with. I’d told them that I wanted to play football. They had laughed and told me that football wasn’t a career. I looked at them strangely and began to list off all the people that football was a career for.

  “Yeah, but just because you play football doesn’t mean you can turn it into a career,” they said. “I mean, you have to be really good to be one of those guys.”

  “Well, then I’ll become really good,” I had said.

  “I hope so, for your sake. And then, say you do become this famous football player, what happens later in life? What happens when you’re too old to play?”

  “I’ll stay in the business. Football will be a part of my life whether I’m playing or not. You’ll see,” I had said. I had felt determined then. They’d made me promise that I have a backup plan and I’d promised that I would. I believed that it was good to have studied, and to never be too confident in life. But, deep down, I knew that football was the only thing that I really wanted to do. Even now, with my body begging me to take a break, I still found myself looking forward to the next practice or the next game. I loved it.

  I got out the shower and changed. The best thing for me to do would be to go back to my dorm and get some rest. Instead, I was taking the guys to see Axel. They all loved Axel. He was a street racer and a member of the motorcycle club. He was the sort of guy that all men wanted to be, and all women wanted to be with. Strong, crazy, and full of life, he was always so much fun to be around. I loved going to watch him race, and so did the other guys.

  “So, who’s all coming with me?” I asked the guys.

  Hands shot up in the air, and I laughed. Looked like I was going to have a bigger crowd than usual. Axel would be happy. He loved nothing more than a crowd around him.

  “I just hope the cops don’t break it up again. That was so disappointing the last time,” said Sam.

  “Forever the negative one,” Tim said, and we all laughed.

&nbs
p; It was true. The last time we’d gone to watch Axel, the whole thing had been broken up by the cops before it had even gotten started. But Axel had promised that this time would be different. I assured Sam that everything would be fine even though I truly had no idea, and off we went. Thankfully, I wasn’t wrong. The race went by without even one cop coming our way. We all stood on the sides and cheered them on. There was something very exciting about drag racing even though we all knew it was illegal. The guys were all having the time of their life, cheering and hollering throughout. You wouldn’t think that they had all just come from a football practice with the amount of energy that seemed to abound from them.

  Afterwards, we all headed out for a beer, and I caught up with Axel at the bar.

  “Let me order something for you,” I said. “That was incredible.”

  He beamed. “Thanks, man, and it’s good to see you again.”

  “Poor Sam was so worried that the cops were going to come and break it up like last time.”

  “Yeah, so were we, to be honest,” he said.

  I looked at him in surprise. “You were? I thought you said they definitely wouldn’t be there.”

  He laughed. “I only said that so you would all come.”

  “What? We would’ve come regardless.”

  “Thanks, man,” Axel said. “Yeah, who knows with the cops hey. That’s the problem with what we do. There is always a chance it will get broken up. But hey, you know me, I like living life on the edge like this. And it’s way too much fun to give up.”

  “Good for you. Life is too short, I say.”

  “So, how’s life been on your side of the world? Still practicing like crazy?” Axel asked.

  “Always. You know me, I’ll never give up on the dream. It’s going well. I’m looking forward to this year ahead. I have a feeling all my hard work is going to pay off.”

  “I’m sure it will. No girlfriend?”

  I shook my head. “Who has the time for that?” I said and laughed. “How about you?”