“I wish I didn’t have to leave.”

“I wish you didn’t, either.” He let out a long breath. “So, we’re meeting in Portland next Monday afternoon?”

She had personal days. It wasn’t a great thing to take a day off at the height of football season, but she was going to do it if it meant meeting up with Drew and spending some more time with him. “Maybe I should come back here,” she said. “You can show me around Seattle.”

“It’s a date, if we make it out of my house.”

She let out a laugh. “That might be a challenge.”

AN HOUR LATER, Drew pulled up in the departures lane at Sea-Tac Airport. He maneuvered his Subaru Outback into one of the parking places closest to the curb. The departure lane at Sea-Tac was crowded. Passenger cars and taxis wove in and out of the vehicles slowing and stopping to disgorge those flying to destinations all over the globe on an overcast October Monday morning. The announcement that all parked cars would be impounded and towed droned on the overhead speaker in the background.

There were hundreds of people on the sidewalk feet away from Drew’s car, but nobody seemed to notice the tall guy with the long blond ponytail and the curvy dark-haired woman who’d wrapped her arms around his neck.

“I don’t want to say goodbye to you,” she said. Her voice broke as her vision blurred with hot tears.

“We’ll see each other next week,” he murmured into her ear. “I promise.”

“I’ll miss you.”

“And I will miss you. So much.”

Drew’s mouth covered hers. He angled his head to slide his tongue into her mouth, and she tasted the water he’d been drinking a few minutes ago. His kiss was tender and gentle. He didn’t need to eat her face off for her to realize how much he wanted her. She fisted one hand into his ponytail. He leaned his forehead against hers to catch his breath. Her heart was pounding, her knees had turned to water, and she didn’t want to go.

They heard a knock on the driver’s side window and an unfamiliar male voice.

“Is this your car, sir?”

“Excuse me?” Drew said. He hit the button to lower the driver’s side window.

“Is this your car?” A cop nodded toward Drew’s Subaru. “You have thirty seconds to move it or I’m giving you a ticket.”

“How much is the ticket?” Drew asked.

“A hundred and fifty dollars.”

“Go ahead. I’ll pay it.”

Drew’s mouth touched Kendall’s again. He pulled her closer. She let out a little moan. She couldn’t get enough of him, he couldn’t get enough of her, and the cop spoke one more time.

“Okay. Here’s your ticket. Move your car in the next thirty seconds, or I’ll have it towed, Mr. McCoy. And, oh yeah: Go Sharks.”

Three hours later, Kendall hurried through San Francisco International Airport to the baggage claim area. She needed a cab to get to the office. She grabbed her phone out of her bag and hit Sydney’s number.

“Hi there. How’s it going?” she said when Sydney answered.

“Your lunch meeting cancelled, so if you’re here by one PM, things are cool. You got another phone call from Sherman Washington’s agent.”

“That guy’s aggressive, isn’t he?”

“His client wants to leave the Sharks. Does Drew know anything about him? You might want to ask before you talk with the guy.”

“That’s a thought. How are you doing? How was your weekend?”

“It was great. I went out, I had fun. I got away from the studying for at least a couple of hours. I loved it.” Sydney paused for a moment as Kendall stepped out onto the sidewalk where the cabs were lined up. “There’s one more thing. Cell phone pictures of Drew McCoy kissing a dark-haired woman in his car at the Seattle airport have been trending on Twitter for an hour or so now.”

“Oh God. Oh, no.”

“You’re ‘unidentified’ so far, but the hunt is on to figure out who the woman is.”

“That ought to make the afternoon meeting fun and interesting, don’t you think?”

Sydney let out a snort.

DREW STROLLED INTO the practice facility after making his way through surprisingly hellacious traffic. He was still on time to get checked out by the trainer and the team doctor, so he hurried to his locker to pull on some warm-ups and a team logo T-shirt. He could lift afterward.

If he didn’t know Kendall’s schedule was more insane than his (and there would be serious consequences if he blew off today’s health check) he would have followed her onto the plane this morning. He’d be fine lounging in her backyard with a book until she came home from the office. He wanted to spend more time with her. The memory of last night on his couch was enough to make him turn his back and face his locker until his dick settled down a bit. Getting laid was a great thing, but he wanted to spend more time talking about almost anything with her first.

He hung up his street clothes and grabbed some cross trainers out of the drawer beneath the bench. He heard Derrick’s voice before he saw him.

“Well, look who’s here, Taylor.” Derrick let out a belly laugh and sang out, “Drew and Kendall Tracy sittin’ in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G.” He swiveled his hips and made a thrusting motion to accompany his words, which caused Seth to hoot with laughter. “I told you I’d find out who you were staring at, dawg. No wonder you didn’t want to go to Element with us last night. You’re all over Twitter now.” He waved his smart phone in Drew’s direction and nudged Seth with an elbow. “Does Coach know you’re sleeping with the enemy?”

Drew’s stomach dropped out. He knew there was a pretty damn good chance that somebody else was going to put two and two together when he’d kissed Kendall in the drop-off area at a busy international airport, but he was hoping against hope the people at the airport this morning were too fixated on getting where they needed to go to care. He couldn’t regret kissing her, but he regretted the fact she was probably going to pay for it with her colleagues. His teammates would give him shit until someone else started dating someone even higher profile. Luckily, this happened on the regular.

“You’re kidding me. Kendall of the Miners? The MINERS? You couldn’t find yourself a nice Sharks fan to spend some time with, McCoy?” Seth plunked himself down in the locker next to Drew’s. “How long has this been going on?”

Zach Anderson strode into the area. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Our boy Drew was in a lip lock this morning at Sea-Tac with the lovely Kendall, interim GM of the Miners.”

Zach rolled his eyes a little. “That’s all you’ve got, Collins? From the way you were carrying on, I thought he did the horizontal mambo with your ex.”

“Don’t mention her,” Derrick warned. “Just stop now.”

“Too soon?” Zach shot back. Drew had to laugh, and Zach gave him a hard stare. “Oh, laugh it up, buddy, but your ass is in a sling. Is this true?”

“No comment,” Drew said.

Derrick tapped the screen on his phone a couple of times. “Such a lovely picture, and so classy. Wait until your mama sees your hand on her breast in front of God and everybody.”

“You think you have problems now?” Seth said to Drew. “Forget about the coaching staff. Wait until the fans find out. All those women who’ve tried to pick you up . . .”

This was greeted with uproarious laughter and more shit from his teammates, who were drifting in to start their day.

“Works for me,” Clay, the rookie, shouted from across the room. “I’ll take his leftovers. I’m not proud.”

“Some woman told me McCoy turned her down because he’s ‘sensitive.’ ”

“It’s too bad he couldn’t find someone who isn’t with a piece of shit team . . .”

“You’d want her too,” Terrell, the safety, chimed in. “Who gives a fuck who she works for?”

One of the assistant coaches waded into the scrum. “Go see the trainers. McCoy, you come with me.”