Pucking Parker (Face-Off Legacy/Campus Kings 1)

We drop our plates to the table and get comfortable. I have no idea what to say after Bex made everything so damn awkward. But leave it to Tucker to make small talk. He has a big mouth—like his father.

“So…” Tucker says to Bex. “You’re on the women’s basketball team? I hear you’re pretty good.”

She nods. “Yeah. I’m a shooting guard.”

I lift the greasy pizza from my plate. “Like my mom.”

“Bex has a little crush on your mom,” Coach says, and she swats at his hand, telling him to be quiet.

I turn to look at her, a smile on my face. Maybe this is my way into her closed-off world. “You have a thing for my mom?” I can’t even get out the words without laughing.

Bex shields the side of her face with her hand. “Dad, seriously, you’re so embarrassing.”

“What?” Coach Bryant seems unfazed. “It’s true. Bex has been studying your mom’s crossover for years. She was planning to go to Villanova, too, until I persuaded her to come along with me to Strick U.”

To the sports world, my mom is Coach, one of the best agents in the business. Her face has been on covers of magazines, her deals talked about for years. She saved my father’s career, and then she saved him, too. When they met, he was lost, not realizing he needed help until my mom came into his life. Twenty-five years later they’re still together.

“Do you want to meet her?” I offer. “I help her coach a little league basketball team at a rec center in South Philly if you want to come along for the ride.”

Anything to get some alone time with this girl. I’ve never brought a girl home to meet my parents. My mom will go nuts over Bex. She’ll probably have my aunt Sydney planning our wedding by the end of the month. I don’t care.

This is my in with Bex. So, why not? I don’t see the harm. Plus, I’m used to people wanting to meet my parents. It comes with the territory of having a famous family.

Bex slowly lowers her hand from her face, and our eyes met. “Um… yeah. I would love that. Thanks, Preston.”

Now, it’s Preston. Not Mr. MVP.

“I’ll pick you up on Saturday.” I remove my cell phone from my pocket and hand it to her. “Text me your address.”

She adds her number to my phone, texts me her address, then slides it along the table to me. Her smile is so wide it reaches her eyes.

It’s almost too easy.

I slip the phone back into my pocket. “Be ready by seven.”

Her eyebrows rise in confusion. “In the morning?”

I laugh. “Yeah. The first game starts at eight thirty. My mom has a thing about being late. She’s kind of a stickler when it comes to pre-game.”

“So, I’ve heard.”

A moment of silence passes between us, before her dad interrupts. “Bex is starting this year.” His voice oozes with pride. “It’s about time that coach of hers wised up.”

“Oh, yeah. How come just this year?” Drake mumbles with his mouth full of food.

“Because my coach had a massive hard-on for Vicki Peterson. Stupid skank.” She says the last part under her breath.

I knew Vicki. Every guy on campus did. Bex isn’t wrong about the skank part. Almost every guy on our team went a round with her. If the rumors last year were true, her coach did, too.

“Bex!” Coach’s eyes and mouth widen in shock. “Don’t talk like that about your teammates.”

“Former teammates,” she corrects.

He frowns. “Whatever.”

“It’s not like everyone doesn’t know that Vicki has been passed around more times than the Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy.”

I try not to laugh and fail. Soda shoots out from Drake’s nose from laughing so hard. Even Coach Bryant joins us because Bex’s comment is funny as shit.

Bex shrugs. “It’s true. Coach couldn’t stop staring at her boobs for the last three years. I was happy to see her go. Players shouldn’t get special treatment because of how they look in a uniform. His choice in starters was completely biased. I should have been starting since freshman year—not her.”

Coach pinches the bridge of his nose between his fingers and sighs. “Either way, I’m proud of you, honey. Just not that mouth of yours. Stop talking like that in front of people.”

“Okay, I’ll just wait until you’re not around.”

She winks at him, and I can’t help but smile.

Jamie almost chokes on his pizza from laughing.

Bex is doing my head in big-time. Her feistiness is such a turn-on.

I shove the last bite of pizza down my throat, needing to get out of here. The longer I sit next to Bex, the more I want to touch her again. Her bare legs are close to mine, her black shorts riding up her thighs. She’s tall, built like a basketball player, and now because of her comment, I keep stealing glances down her top, wondering how her tits would look in my jersey.