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My excitement turned to shock when I turned and saw Abraham striding down the hall toward me.
He hadn’t seen me yet. He was joking with one of his teammates. He wore gym shorts and a black Leopards T-shirt that showcased his powerful arms; a towel was slung around his neck. His hair, like usual, sprung about untidily.
Four other guys surrounded him, guys I’d studied up on as soon as I took this job. Famously redheaded Mike O’Connor, an enigmatic charmer who generally had a moment to appease the press. He’d given a whole story to my predecessor Jane, which was what promoted her out of my position. I supposed I should thank him at some point.
Next to him strode tall and stunningly gorgeous Dylan Pierce. Diamonds glinted in his ears and wicked humor in his caramel eyes. Only Malcolm Lindsey stood taller than him, a powerhouse of a man who had all the quiet authority of a monk. And to Malcolm’s left was Ryan Carter, one of those quarterbacks so genetically blessed he made women swoon just by breathing. Though he’d been off the market for two years now.
Behind them, Jensen Clay jogged to catch up. Usually, I would have smiled at that; Clay was a recently drafted second-string quarterback, and rumor had it he was a pain in Carter’s side.
But I didn’t smile today, because I was too surprised by Abe standing in the middle of all of them. I knew they were teammates, of course, but knowing was different than seeing, and I supposed in my heart of hearts I’d still thought he was the boy from down the street.
The other five slowed when they approached me, and then Abe’s head swung toward me. It all happened in half a second that lasted half a year. He stopped abruptly, and his teammates, so attuned to each other’s motions, also froze.
Abraham couldn’t seem to decide if I was mirage or reality. I could see the questions in his eyes—had something bad happened to me? Did I need his help? “Tamar. What are you doing here?”
I spread my hands. “Open locker room. ”
His concern morphed to remembrance. His gaze dropped to my press pass. “Right. ”
We hesitated together for a moment, caught in limbo between our childhood and our present, and then Ryan Carter stepped forward. His grip was strong when he shook my hand, and his blue eyes were like fragments of sky. “I’m Ryan. You a friend of Abe’s?”
I glanced uncertainly at Abe, not sure if he wanted me to claim a friendship, but he was already nodding. “We grew up together. ”
Carter glanced at Abe. “Didn’t know you had any childhood friends in the city. ”
What an interesting statement. So Carter expected to know Abe’s friends?
Abe was nodding. “Tamar just moved here. ”
Carter looked at Abe a moment longer, and then shone one of his famously swoon-worthy smiles at me. “See you around, then. ” He nodded and then headed off, quickly trailed by all the other Leopards except Abe.
I watched them go, wide-eyed, and then collapsed against the wall in a fit of giggles. Abe came close up to me and frowned. “What’s so funny?”
I waved my hand after his disappearing teammates. “You’re like—on and off the field—like ducklings or something! They all just followed him off. ”
His lips quirked up and his eyes crinkled down. “I’m imagining Ryan in a Mother Goose bonnet. It’s not his usual look. ”
I kept laughing.
He tugged on my ponytail reprovingly. “They’re being nice. Giving us some privacy. ”
I smiled up at him. “And why do they think we need privacy?”
He raised his brows.
Oh, of course. I blushed. “Well, that’s silly. Besides, this is basically your workplace. It’s not like. . . ”
His brows arched even higher, and his grin shone with delight. “You think that’s stopped anyone?”
I snapped my mouth shut a moment. “Uh. No. I suppose not. ”
He smiled. Heat curled in my stomach, heat I wasn’t prepared to deal with right now. I wasn’t prepared for him to be standing so close to me, so easy to touch with just a whisper of movement. I aimed my gaze at the floor near his feet. “It’s strange, being here. In New York. ”
He spoke lightly. “I always thought you’d visit at some point when you were seeing your aunt and cousin. ”
What? Why would he think that? “I’m sure you would’ve been too busy. You had—you know—the whole Leopards thing. ”
His brows went back up. “I wouldn’t have been too busy. ”
A strange fluttering had begun in my stomach. Why was he saying things like that? To be polite?
I lifted my face. “I can’t decide. Is it weird that we’re friends?”
“Of course not. ”
Of course not.
We stood in silence a few feet, and he took a step closer. “What is it?”
It was nothing, really. Only that it had occurred to me, for the first time, that there were things about Abraham Krasner that I didn’t know. That he’d lived a whole other life in these years away from California. That he could be an entirely different person from the one I once knew.
I shrugged. “Nothing. ”
He gave me a knowing look, and it was my turn to frown and say, “What?”
And his to shrug casually. “Just that I can read your face, too, you know. ”
Could he? When had that happened? I’d always been the one studying his face intently throughout the years. “And what’s it saying?”
“That you’re having thoughts you don’t necessarily like. And they’re about me. ” He cocked his head. “So I want to know what they are. ”
Shock pulsed through me that he’d called my emotion so spot-on. “It’s just. . . It’s funny, that’s all. ”
“What’s funny?”
“You. ” I waved at him, suddenly embarrassed to make eye contact. “You’re famous. ”
He didn’t say anything for a moment, just stared at me with an oddly blank expression, neither affirmation nor denial. I would’ve expected sheepish embarrassment with an undercurrent of pride, but when he spoke, he kept strictly factual. “Guess so. ”
I didn’t like the way he said that, and my eyes narrowed. I’d been so focused on making sure he know I’d changed that I hadn’t bothered noticing if he had, too. “What’s it like?”
He didn’t even glance at me. “It’s great. ”
“No, Abe—” I placed my hand on his arm without even thinking, and when he stilled and stared down, I snatched it back. Still. . . “Really. ”
He met my gaze, his own conflicted. “It’s. . . it’s consuming. ”
I tilted my head. “Are you happy?”
He searched my eyes for an aching stretch of time. My breath caught in my chest, like I could keep time from moving forward—but then he laughed and looked away, a dazzling smile on his lips. “Where did you come from?”
Unexpectedly thrown, I wavered back and forth. “What do you mean?”
He shook his head and started walking again. “You’re like some pixie from my past. I feel like time folded over and brought you here from when we were nineteen years old. ”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. ” He glanced at the wall, at the photos of men in the same uniform he always wore. “You see the guy I was before I was drafted. ”