CHAPTER 161

Joel walked out wearing shorts that showed his scraped up legs, a red t-shirt molded to his chest, and his bag slung over his shoulder. I wanted to thread my fingers through his wet hair. He gave me a relieved smile when he saw me waiting outside the locker room.

He planted his arms against the wall behind me, caging me in. “Thanks for waiting.” His head dipped and he kissed me with an intensity that had my pulse soaring.

“Get a room,” was shouted from one of his teammates and the others laughed.

I blushed, but Joel didn’t look their way or acknowledge them at all. “We’ll be drinking heavily tonight. Are you ready?”

“Ready?”

“You didn’t stick around last week. I want you with me tonight. I just need to warn you that it gets rowdy.”

“I can handle rowdy.” His teammates forgotten, I went up on my toes and kissed him.

We walked to the bus hand in hand with a few other players joining us. Before the bus took off, cold beer cans from a cooler in the back were tossed to all the players. Joel