Dating the Defensive Back (The Nash Brothers Book 1)

Food Network and Doritos

I toss my phone down on my bed with a frustrated grunt that might have come out louder than I intended for it to.

“You okay?”

My head whips to my best friend’s voice in my doorway, and I sigh. “Yeah, I’m okay. I’m just tired of fighting with Colin.”

Kelly sits on my bed next to me. “What was it about this time?”

“Can I just say I love that you come in here, sit down, and get ready to listen when it’s the same old thing time and again?” I ask. She has the patience of a saint as a kindergarten teacher. I do not.

She laughs. “Well, if you’d prefer me to get to the bottom line, then break up with him.”

“You think I should?”

“Babe, we’re not getting any younger. You have a boyfriend halfway across the country who’s been married to his job for three years when he should be planning his wedding to you.” She shrugs a little at the end as if it’ll soften the blow of her words. It doesn’t.

“Don’t forget I also have a job I love in my favorite city in the world and the best friend-slash-roommate a girl could ask for. Oh, and that closetful of Radiance Skincare products nobody wants.”

She giggles as we both think about the company we somehow were lured into by one of Kelly’s old high school friends. It’s really not all that funny that we both blew a boatload of cash on the product line, in particular because it set me back a few years on my actual dream of saving enough to open my own bakery, but if we can’t laugh about it, we’ll just cry.

“Want to watch Food Network and eat Doritos?” she suggests. It’s our favorite pastime when we’re down in the dumps.

I nod. “Yes please. But add some vodka or something to that.”

“You got it. But first, what was tonight’s fight about, really?”

“He was supposed to fly out next weekend, and I just had a feeling this was going to be the time.” I say the word this meaningfully since we both know what I’m waiting for. You don’t date the same guy for five years without thinking a proposal is coming at some point.

But that feeling seems to keep slipping further and further away, especially since it’s been an entire three months since I’ve even been in the same state as him. “But he has some work thing he has to go to, so he canceled.”

I don’t say it, but it’s starting to feel like there’s something inherently leave-able about me. First my dad, though it wasn’t his fault he passed away, then two of my brothers, who scattered to different states for college, and now Colin.

“Do you love him?” she asks me point-blank.

My jaw slackens a little.

“Does he give you butterflies?” she amends. “Does he rev your engine? Make you want to lay back on your bed and kick your feet in the air while you giggle with delight?”

I twist my lips as I bite the inside of my cheek.

I’m not sure I should voice the immediate answer that springs to mind.

“Well?” she asks.

I sigh. “Butterflies, revving, feet kicking…those things are for crushes, not long-term relationships.” I think back to the childhood crushes I had on my brothers’ friends. With three older brothers, I had plenty of nice material to choose from.

There was one in particular who I always crushed the hardest on, but he was seven years older than me and didn’t give me the time of day. I haven’t seen him since my oldest brother, who was like a father to me, graduated from college. He came by the house to attend the party. I stared at him with hearts in my eyes, and then later I saw him kissing Mindy Ward behind the old shed. I didn’t stand a chance. Mindy Ward had big boobs, long hair, and, you know, seven or so years on me.

“What if you could have it for both?” she asks.

“Have you ever had that?”

She presses her lips together and shakes her head. “That’s a negative, my friend. But if I ever did, then that’s how I’d know. Meet me on the couch. I’ll get the vodka, you get the Doritos.”

I grin. “Deal.”

When I meet her on the couch, she turns on the television, and we settle into a battle of the bakers on a Food Network show.

“That’s so not how you make ganache,” I say.

Kelly rolls her eyes. “If you’re such an expert, you should apply to be on this show.”

“I should.” I pick up my vodka drink from the table in front of me and take a long swig. “It would be my chance to show the world my skills, and I’d win the grand prize and have enough to open my very own dream bakery on the Strip.”

“The cash prize is only, like, twenty-five thousand. I feel like you’d need way more than that to start a bakery on the Strip. Maybe somewhere off-Strip. Or downtown.”

I set my jaw as I shoot her a glare. “Strip or bust.”

She laughs, the vodka clearly already getting to us a little. “You might have to strip to make enough for that.”

I burst into giggles, and I set my drink down on the table, accidentally bumping into the remote on my way. The channel changes, and suddenly we’re watching the sports segment on CBS.

“Rumors from multiple sources say your Vegas Aces have made a big offseason move, trading a second-round draft pick to the Chargers for Coach Lincoln Nash’s younger brother, Grayson Nash,” the reporter tells us.

Kelly moves to grab the remote, but I snatch it out of the way before she can change the channel back. A video of Grayson in his Chargers uniform is on the screen, and if that isn’t the very thing those engine revving, butterfly dreams are made of, I’m not sure what is. He’s running along with a wide receiver, and then the footage cuts to another game, and dang…he looks good in those tight pants.

Even better than he did a decade ago when I last saw him.

And he’s coming to Vegas?

Game. On.

My boobs are bigger now than they were back then. My braces are gone, and my pearly whites are nice and straight. I took up yoga when I was in college, and I’ve never looked or felt better despite my penchant for sweets. He might not have given me the time of day back then, but I bet he would now.

Except…Colin.

Oh, right.

The guy who just told me his job is more important than his girlfriend.

The guy I’ve given the last five years of my life to.

The guy I thought I was going to marry…the guy I think I’m going to break up with.

The guy I think my heart broke up with as much as a year ago.

I should do it in person…but who knows when that’s going to happen? I should just do it. Get it over with. Rip off the bandage. Be done once and for all since I’ve been done emotionally for months at this point.

“You don’t care about football,” Kelly says, interrupting my thoughts and reaching for the remote.

“Oh, but I do, my friend. I care very much about football when it’s Grayson Nash we’re talking about.”

“Who the hell is Grayson Nash?” she asks. She’s more of a baseball gal herself, and to be honest, I am, too. I gave up trying to understand football years ago, mostly because I always thought of Grayson and how I never stood a chance with him. I buried it in the past with the rest of New York when I moved to Vegas for college.

I’m sure I still don’t stand a chance…but if we’re going to be in the same town, there’s a better chance than there ever has been before.

I nod toward the screen. “Him. The six-foot-four rugged heartthrob on the screen. The football star moving to Las Vegas. And…my oldest brother’s best friend.”

Her jaw drops. “Your brother is best friends with an NFL player? How have you never told me this?”

“Well, they were best friends way back in the day. They went to high school together. I don’t really keep up with Beck’s friendships these days considering I haven’t even seen him since Christmas.” I don’t go back to New York very often these days, and Beck is in Manhattan.

When our dad died when I was eight, Beck stepped into the role of caretaker since our mom checked out emotionally. And even now that my other two brothers and I are grown adults and have moved away, Beck stays in New York to be closer to Mom.

He’s a good guy.

When I first moved to Vegas to attend college, I assumed I’d end up back in New York once I graduated. But then I fell in love.

First with Vegas, and then with Colin.

I could take or leave Colin, who’s in Chicago now. I’m not giving up Vegas, though—something I made clear when Colin moved away.

But now that my first crush is moving to town?

Even more of a reason to stay in this city that’s become a part of my heart.

Maybe even more of a reason to break up with Colin, too.

Stat.