Face Off (D.C. Stars, #1)

by Chelsea Curto

“Pretty sure I wanted to bark when I saw her for the first time,”

A smile—the tiniest, faintest smile I’ve ever seen—pulls at her lips, and I’m the proudest motherfucker in the world. I want to set off a confetti cannon. Hang a banner from the rafters of the Civic Center that says I MADE EMERSON HARTWELL SMILE. Put it on a T-shirt and wear it around town.

That earns me another half smile from her, and I want to collect them all. Shove them in my pocket and keep them for myself.

“Are we classifying tiny extraterrestrials as kids? I guess we should. It’s inclusive and better than calling them skin dogs—since we all call dogs fur babies, you know?—or something like that.”

Birthing a life form that looks like a potato spud was probably really traumatizing.” “Almost as traumatizing as standing here and talking to you for the last ten minutes.”

Emerson’s eyes meet mine. “There are worse people to be stuck with, I guess.” I touch my gloved fingers to my temples, concentrating. “Probably the highest compliment I’ll ever get from you. I need to commit it to memory.” “Is he always this weird?” she asks. “Always,” Hudson says.

I never really felt like I had a home. But with Emmy next to me, I think home is wherever she is. A place I’d like to stay forever.

I don’t want her as a teammate or someone I fuck multiple times a week. I want her as so much more—a partner. A girlfriend. My best friend. I don’t know if we lose the game or not.

I have her, and she’s the greatest prize of all.

I tried to tell him he doesn’t have to do those things, that this isn’t an all or nothing arrangement, but the man picked up one of my romance novels, flopped on my bed, and told me he was learning how to be the perfect boyfriend by reading my books.

GOALSSSS