Dating the Defensive Back (The Nash Brothers Book 1)

I Thought D Meant Dick

I take a final look at myself in the mirror, and I hope my skinny jeans and Vegas Heat tee are good enough for me to appear on the arm of Grayson Nash. I curled my hair, put on a little extra makeup, and went over Ellie’s advice a hundred times in my head.

I’m ready for this.

Our first official date.

We’ll be with his teammates, including at least one of his brothers, and I think we’re set to have a really good time.

If I can get my nerves in check, anyway.

I only have about fifteen minutes before he’s going to pick me up, so I head to the kitchen to find the vodka. I could use a shot to calm my nerves.

I hear the garage open, which means Kelly’s home from work. As far as I know, Austin didn’t invite her to the game. They’ve only been together the one time, and we haven’t had a chance to talk about his intentions with her yet—or about how their night together went.

I know I need to warn her, but I’m also a little afraid to have that talk. We’ve only seen each other in passing since she had late nights with parent-teacher conferences this week and I had early mornings at the bakery—on top of late evenings so I could leave early today and go in late tomorrow morning. I’ve been working seven days a week lately because I could use the paycheck, and frankly, while I love it, it’s also exhausting.

I guess it’s now or never, though.

She walks in with a bright smile. “There you are!”

I smile nervously, glad I took that shot. “Here I am. How was work?”

Her smile fades a little. “What’s wrong?”

Leave it to your best friend to correctly read the situation. “I don’t know how to say this, so I’m just going to say it. Grayson doesn’t trust Austin and is worried he’s using you to get to him. I just want you to be careful.”

The smile that faded drops completely off her face. She’s silent for a few beats, but then she asks, “Why would he think that?”

I sigh. “You know Grayson and Asher’s brother is the coach of the Aces, right?”

She nods.

“Well, Asher and Austin play the same position, and Lincoln was going to start Asher over him until he got suspended. So Grayson thinks Austin might have a grudge against the Nash family.”

Her brows dip. “I didn’t really get that vibe from him, but I’ll be careful.”

“I’m sorry I had to be the one to tell you.”

She walks over and hugs me. “Don’t be. I appreciate you looking out for me, really.”

I squeeze her. “Love you.”

“Love you, too. And have fun at the game. Tell Austin hi for me.” She winks at me, and then she shrugs. “Hey, if he’s using me, then I can use him right back. That night we shared…”

“You never really gave me all the details,” I press.

She grabs the bottle of vodka and helps herself to an after school on a Friday afternoon kind of swig. “It was good.”

“Good?”

“Good.” She nods meaningfully as she holds her hands out to indicate his rather generous size, and I giggle.

“Nice. Just be careful.”

“I know the reputation a lot of these guys have, so I’m going in with eyes wide open, don’t you worry. What about you? What’s been going on with you and your man on D?”

“Man on D?” I repeat.

“Yeah. You know, D. Defense?” she says, as if she knows a damn thing about the game.

I laugh. “I thought D meant Dick.”

“It does, depending on context. Just like my man on O definitely was on the O the other night.” She looks up at the ceiling dreamily. “Multiple times.” She wiggles her brows.

The doorbell rings before I can respond to that, though before we got on the subject of orgasms, I was going to tell her about my nightmare the other night and how sweet Grayson was as he held me through it.

“Well, thanks for all those details,” I say dryly. “Looks like my date is here.”

“You look gorgeous, and you’re going to smash your way into his heart. Guaranteed.”

“You’re the best.” I head toward the door to answer it, and there stands Grayson Nash, here to pick me up for our date.

He’s wearing jeans, a white Nike T-shirt, and a hat…backwards.

What is it about a guy with a backwards hat on his head? He has great hair, but tossing on a hat and turning it around turns him into this sort of bad boy. A bad boy who I want to rock my entire body like he did that night at the Palms.

Sometimes I think I’m in some alternate reality. This man who is talented, hilarious, absolutely gorgeous, and…endowed…is here to pick me up for our date.

But then the truth clobbers me right smack dab in the middle of the nose. We may be going on a date, but we’re not really together.

And it sort of pops the balloon that I was starting to float up toward the clouds upon…until I remember my promise to myself.

I’m going to get him to fall in love with me.

“Hey,” he says, and his blue eyes seem extra bright for a beat. Maybe it’s the sunshine behind him, or the white shirt, or the backwards hat.

And then his eyes flick down my figure before landing on mine again, and they’re just a little darker than they were before.

“You look…” He trails off, and he clears his throat. “Wow. You look great.”

One side of my mouth lifts in a smile. “I was just thinking the same about you.”

We sort of just stand there staring at each other for a few beats, taking each other in.

And then he seems to gather his wits about himself again. “You ready to go?”

I nod. “Come on in. Let me just grab my purse.”

He follows me in and spots Kelly in the kitchen. They exchange pleasantries, and then we head out after I tell Kelly not to wait up.

I’m not sure why I say it other than the fact that I’m hoping this date ends up in his hotel room.

I’m certain I won’t get that lucky tonight, though.

We hop into his truck and cruise down the highway toward the stadium. It’s the first time he’s actually driven us somewhere, and I can’t help but notice a few things. First, his car is spotless. Second, his car smells like him. And third, the second we got in the car, he shut off the radio so we could talk.

There’s something really sweet about that last one. And it gets even sweeter when he says, “What did you do to my phone?”

I can’t help a giggle as I shrug as if I have no idea what he’s talking about. “When’s your house supposed to be ready?” I ask instead.

“Around the first of May. Less than a month now, and it’ll have everything I want when I move in, but it’s kind of a pain in the ass to live out of a hotel for the next few weeks,” he says.

“I offered for you to stay with me,” I point out. I don’t dare look over at him. I’m not sure my heart could take hearing the rejection or seeing the look on his face that tells me he’s not interested.

He clears his throat. “Uh, yeah. About that.”

My brows dip as I glance over at him. “About that?” I prompt.

He sighs. “Ellie thinks we should be living together if we want this to look genuine.”

Oh. So Ellie thinks that. He didn’t say what he thinks, but if this is my chance to spend more time with him, I’m going to grab the hell on with both hands.

“Then let’s do it. I can stay with you at your hotel, or you can move in with Kel and me for now.”

“I can’t impose on you and your life like that, Av.”

Av.

He’s never called me Av before. Kelly sometimes calls me Avelina, and my brothers call me Avabear, which my dad used to call me. But Av…it’s really just my name turned into one syllable, the second syllable dropped, and it used to be my least favorite nickname if I’m being honest, so I told people not to call me that.

In any event, because he is the one who said it, somehow it’s hot as hell. I want to hear him rasp it when I’m naked beneath him and he’s driving into me.

Whoa.

All that from just simply abbreviating my name? I’m in deep here.

“It’s not imposing when I’m inviting you to, Gray,” I say, abbreviating his name, too.

He chuckles a little. “You sure?”

How the hell else am I supposed to execute my little plan here if we hardly ever see each other?

“I’m sure.”

“What about sleeping arrangements?” he asks.

“You can stay with me. We’re two grown adults. We can handle it, don’t you think?”

He glances over at me, and I swear there’s a little smirk there, but he looks away so quickly back to the road I think maybe I imagined it.

But the truth is…maybe he doesn’t think we can handle it. And if he thinks that, maybe I’m closer to reaching my goal than I first thought.