Play Maker (Bitsberg Knights Duet)

“I had a little help from my super-hot boyfriend.”

He laughed. “Oh, yeah?”

I tossed my hand. “Yeah, he’s kinda famous. Pulled a few strings.”

“Sounds like a good guy to keep around.”

“I think so too.”

“Good. ’Cause I’m not letting you go.” He pressed his lips to my ear. “Can I also just say how fucking sexy you looked working the judge up there?”

I laughed and looked up into his cool grey eyes. “You got all night, handsome.”

25

Ross

“So, what do you think of LA?” I asked Shelby as we lazily walked down the street, taking in the sights and lapping up some much-needed sunshine.

“I think I’m finally starting to defrost,” she teased, holding her arms out for the sun.

I scrubbed a hand along my jaw, battling with myself on whether or not to take the question one step further. We’d been in LA for four days, and while I spent most of the time at practice, we’d sneak off every chance we got to explore the city and spend time together.

“What’s on your mind?” she asked, narrowing her eyes as she glanced up at me. “You have your thinking face on.”

I chuckled. “What would you think about moving out here?”

“Moving?”

I slid my hand into the back pocket of her denim shorts and tugged her hip toward me. “It’s not official yet, but the Pelicans have been chasing down my agent pretty hard to get a meeting once the Super Bowl is over.”

“And this is what you want to do?”

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Ross…”

“All right,” I said, taking in a deep breath. “I want to go where I can actually play. The Knights won’t need me anymore once Brandon and Peters are back. Even if Peters retires, which, after his injury, is highly possible. I won’t get that much time once Brandon is back, and he should be by the time fall rolls around. Out here, I could be the big guy.”

Shelby nodded slowly..

“I’d keep my condo in Bitsberg, and we could stay there during the off season, enjoy the summers there, and then be out here during the season. It’s not that long on a plane, three, four hours tops. You could go back and forth as much as you wanted to. With the contract numbers people are speculating about, money wouldn’t be an issue.”

“I’d have to take the bar all over again,” she said. “For California.”

I nodded, my heart sinking. She didn’t like it. I was about to drop it, ask her opinion on dinner when she took my hand and rested her head against my chest. “If you’re in LA, then I want to be in LA too. Hudson’s case is resolved, and I feel good about moving on. Lacey and Chance have been asking me about joining the board of directors for their non-profit and providing legal advice as they branch out and grow. I would have a lot of pull and a lot of resources at my disposal. I wasn’t sure whether or not to take it but maybe that’s what I’m supposed to do. My next step.” She paused and looked up at me. “That is if you and Chance can still be friends once you’re on opposing teams.”

I chuckled. “I’m sure we’ll manage just fine. Why didn’t you tell me about the job offer? That’s amazing!”

Shelby tilted her head up, soaking up the sun as we reached the end of the sidewalk and stopped to wait for the light to change. “Because I wasn’t sure whether or not to take it. I just got started at the public defender’s office and didn’t want to walk away until I was really sure what my next step was going to be. The whole time I was in law school, I was planning to get out and help Hudson, but then to move on and help other people like Hudson who needed someone to give them a chance.”

“I get that.”

“But with an organization like what Lacey and Chance have built, it feels like I could make an even bigger difference. They even talked about expanding at some point in the next five years and arranging to have an in-house team of lawyers that could help people like Hudson, people from the system, and help them. I could do a lot of good and be a part of something big and moving and breathing.”

I traced my fingers down the side of her face. “Sounds like you’ve kind of made up your mind.”

Shelby met my eyes. “I guess I kind of have”

“Well, assuming Lacey and Chance don’t have a problem with you telecommuting, it sounds like you could work from LA, or Bitsberg, or even New York.”

“I guess that means you’re stuck with me for a while,” she teased.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Super Bowl Sunday came all too quickly. After saying goodbye to Shelby, I met up with the team, and we bused it over to the stadium. It was an odd kind of silence that followed up as we prepared for the game. Coach normally had to compete with all the different personalities to make himself heard, but on game day, sitting in the locker room, he could have whispered, and we all would have heard every word.