The Wrong Quarterback (The Wrong Player, #1)

by C.R. Jane

Cole: I knew you were going to use it.

Cole sent me a link as soon as I’d finished, and I hesitantly clicked on it, hoping he hadn’t sent me blow-up doll porn, like the last time.

Not to yuck on anyone’s yum…but that shit wasn’t for me.

Only Casey was for me, I thought dreamily as I waited for...

Cole: The consensus is that you’re a copycat, Parkie. Look at that pretty poll I made.

Cole: Hitting me with the…you’re getting a little edgy in your old age, Parkie.

Cole: I just lol’d. Every time you say that, it’s definitely code for “fuck.”

Walker: Olivia and I were trying to sleep!

Maybe it was weird that I’d chosen to rent a house by myself, right next to the one that Jace and Matty shared, but I liked my sleep…and I liked my privacy. And having someone knock on my door when I was supposed to be sleeping violated both of those things.

“I can’t do it,” he said, sounding a bit…panicked.

“I can’t go into that graveyard. Everyone knows that one is haunted.”

“Alright, well I’ll be sure to protect you from any—ghosts—that we see,” I said soothingly.

“Now is not the time to inform us that you’re terrified of cemeteries,” I snapped, putting all of my team captain’s energy behind my voice.

“Maybe offer him a cookie or something. His blood sugar could be low,” said Jace…beginning to munch on his own cookie that he’d pulled from who the hell knew where.

“Could you be any louder?” I hissed. I didn’t know it was possible to eat a cookie like you were working a chainsaw, but Jace was showing me how it was done.

He stuffed the entire thing in his mouth, resembling a man-bunned chipmunk as he grinned at me. “Sorry, Q...

“There’s no ghosts,” I told Matty. “Jace is way too annoying. They’ll get fed up immediately and leave the premises until we’re gone.”

“You didn’t even blink when we watched Silence of the Lambs,” I said incredulously, resisting the urge to hit him over the head with a shovel. Jace and I had been about to wet our pants, and Matty had fallen asleep while a guy wore someone’s skin on his face.

can kill a serial killer. I can’t kill a ghost!” Matty snapped back, like that should be obvious to me.

“Matthew Clay Adler, get your fucking ass out of the truck, or I swear, I will find a ghost, and I’m going to sic him on your ass ...

“Let me know if you see any ghosts,” Jace muttered to Matty, followed by an oomph as Matty punched him in the arm. “Or not,” Jace grunted,

“So, I guess I should blame you for the fact that Matty’s about to pass out?” I asked, nodding my head to where Matty was pale-faced as he walked,

“Don’t back out now, Mr. ‘Of Course We Want To Be Sphinx Psychos,’”

“You kind of sound like you might have personal experience with that, buddy. Anything you want to share?” I asked.

Jace froze and stared at us in horror. “This was not part of the job description!” he snapped, beginning to freak out.

“I signed up for skeletons, not Night of The Living Dead corpses! I want a refund!”

“Suck it up, Thatcher. You’ll be fine. Just think of it as a really screwed-up scavenger hunt.”

Matty groaned, throwing a handful of dirt at Jace. “Would you shut up? Can you not make this worse?” Jace just grinned. “Whoops.”

And yes, a little afraid Eleanor was going to start haunting us.

The grief, the anger, the frustration of everything I’d been holding inside, everything I hadn’t allowed myself to feel—it

“What are you doing here?”

“Oh, baby,” I said, feeling like my heart was breaking because hers obviously was. “Tell me what hurts?”

“And then I was in an accident… and I hurt my hand.”

She moved her fingers, and every time the trembling started, I would press her fingers down against the keys, steadying her, until the tension in her hand slipped away.

Fuck. She was unreal. Her starry eyes. Her perfect pink lips. I needed her.

“I know you feel this. Like something has happened to my fucking soul. Like I can’t breathe without you anymore. Tell me it’s not just me that’s gone crazy. Tell me you’re right there with me,”

Get ready, baby. I’m coming for you.

“I wonder when this will get easier. People always say that time heals all wounds, but I’m pretty sure they’re full of shit.”

“I feel like I’m forgetting you,” I whispered. “I can’t hear your laugh anymore. The way that you smiled is fading from my memories unless I look at a photograph.”

“And I’m so afraid of the day that it’s all gone, you know? Because you deserve to be remembered, Ben. I wish the whole world could have known you, how special you were. It feels like I’m letting you down every day that goes by.”

“I’m angry that grass has grown here. I’m angry that so much time has passed that when I left home, there was even dust covering your bed. What happens one day when I wake up and I can’t ...

“And it kind of feels like I’m trying to live your life…and I’m messing it all up. You would have done all of this so much better than me. You would have already had a million friends. You would have been making the most of every opportunity

And that maybe…I should be in the ground with him.

“Love you, Case,” he whispered, and I blinked up at him, in disbelief that the words had come out of his mouth.

For the first time, I hoped I wouldn’t see Gray that day.

“You had it written on your cup the other day,” I said, shrugging like it was no big deal, and I hadn’t taken a photo of her cup in her hand so I could make sure to remember it always. I also was obviously not going to tell her that I had gotten that exact drink every day, just in case she looked like she needed it.

Peppermint mocha with extra whip and a shot of espresso was, in fact, not my favorite drink.

“I’m obsessed.” She snorted, and I grinned. She thought I was joking…

“Yeah. Every time I’m thinking of you, I’ll turn my hat backward,”

“I mean that could work, except you could forget, and then I would get confused about whether you were thinking about me or not.”