Read Online Scrimmage Gone South (Crimson Romance) by Alicia Hunter Pace - Free Book Online

I’m about to have. And I’m not above using that money to get what I want.”
    Then he went to his closet and handed me a jersey with his number and name on it. He told me it was the jersey he’d been wearing in the Sugar Bowl last January when he was named most valuable player. He pointed out a little tear at the neck that was a result of what should have been a holding penalty but was never called.
    Then he gave me a ticket to the last game of the season, the Alabama/Auburn game, and said he wanted me to wear that jersey to the game, like the other players’ girlfriends. The ticket was for the student section and he said he would arrange for me to sit with a girl he’d gone to high school with, who is dating Harris Bragg. Her name is Missy and he’s pretty sure I’ll like her because she is classy and smart like me.
    God, help me. I have written all this down and I still haven’t figured anything out. I’ve got two weeks. Maybe if I read it, something will come to me.
    • • •
    And that was all. Tolly had never written another word in the book and she’d never figured a way out of her mess. It caught up with her less than a week later but, even if she’d had more time, she couldn’t have fixed it without walking away from him. And her heart wouldn’t let her.

Chapter Six
    The diner was empty except for Lou Anne behind the counter. Not surprising for two o’clock on a Thursday afternoon. Tolly slid onto a stool at the counter.
    “Hey, baby. Your girls were in earlier. Where were you?” Lou Anne poured her a glass of iced tea.
    “Court. I’m starving.”
    “What can I get you?”
    “Maybe just a little chicken salad and some crackers?”
    “Sure thing.” Lou Anne plopped a scoop of the salad on a lettuce leaf. “But that’s not much for someone who’s starving.”
    “If I eat much more than that I won’t want any dinner and now that I have a teenage boy to feed … ”
    Lou Anne laughed and set the plate in front of her. “I can only imagine what a change — ” The bell on the door rang and Nathan Scott came barreling through like an angry missile — if a missile could be all caramel and butterscotch with a great ass.
    He marched up to Tolly and said, “I was looking for you.”
    “Then you have met with success — ” She took her time lifting her napkin to her lips. “ — for here I am.”
    “Nathan,” Lou Anne interrupted sternly. “You are under my roof.”
    “Oh.” He looked sheepish and removed his Merritt High Bobcats baseball cap. “Yes, ma’am. Sorry.” Then he turned full throttle back to Tolly. “Harris said you were here.”
    “Oh? Then Harris also gets a person locater prize.” She took a sip of her iced tea. “What brings you into my presence, Nathan?” Out of the corner of her eye, Tolly saw Lou Anne slip into the kitchen.
    “We just had weigh-in. Seven has lost two pounds since he moved in with you. Two pounds!” He slapped his baseball cap against his knee. “That’s five pounds in all since his grandmother died. I can’t have it.”
    “Then I suggest that you stop working him so hard,” Tolly said coolly. “For starters you can stop having him come clean up that stadium on Saturday mornings. Those boys should get to sleep late after playing the night before.”
    “What? Did he complain about that?”
    “Complain? Kirby complain about
you
? Oh, no I can assure you he did not. You are a god among men — maybe
the
God. If you say it’s an honor and a privilege to play football and a football player should keep his house clean, let it be written because it is the gospel. No. I decided the stupidity of that arrangement all on my own.”
    “Stupid? I’ll tell you what’s stupid. You aren’t feeding that boy right.”
    “He’s getting a balanced diet.” And that was true — most of the time.
    “Really? What did he have for dinner last night?”
    Oh, she had him now. Last night had been a good night. She had, with the help of the Crockpot,