Who knew there was a heart under all that bullshit? Sure, he’d been nice to her when he discovered she’d been receiving threatening notes, making sure she went to the cops and filed a report. When the notes stopped, she’d hoped that was the end of it. But no, it wasn’t.
Who’d have thought the asshole who hated her would be her knight in shining armor, saving her from her stalker who was going to do God knew what to her once she was in his car?
Luckily Trey had been there to verify Butch’s story with the cops, or he’d have been charged with assault.
Sitting in the courtroom, she waited for her stalker’s bail hearing to start. She didn’t have to be there but she needed to know if he’d be released. When her stalker was led into the courtroom, she let out gasp. She knew Butch had hit him but the guy looked like he’d gone a round with the heavyweight champion. His nose had obviously been broken, both eyes were blackened, and his jaw was swollen and might be broken. Holy shit, Butch had beaten him badly. He’d done that for her. Probably because she was a teammate, but still.
A hand settled on her shoulder. She looked back to find both Butch and Trey sitting behind her, Trey with his hand on her shoulder. “Thank you,” she mouthed silently. Butch winked at her. What did that mean? She turned back to watch the hearing. That Butch had shown up surprised her. Hopefully they’d both be cleared to practice.
The crack of the judge’s gavel brought her attention back to the hearing.
When the judge allowed her stalker to speak, her stalker glared at her and shouted, “This is all your fault, you bitch!”
She heard both Butch and Trey drag in a breath.
The judge swung his gavel again, declaring that bail was denied. Her stalker sputtered as his face turned red.
She headed out of the courtroom, stopping when she heard Butch call after her, “Rocky, wait.”
“What?” she asked, curious why he wanted to talk to her.
“Let me walk you to your car.”
She nodded and he took her arm.
Butch
He was glad they’d decided to go to the bail hearing when he heard Rocky’s stalker yell at her across the courtroom. Resisting the urge to jump up and go pound on the guy some more, he glared at him and saw him wince. Good, fucker better be scared of him.
Relived that the fucker would be sitting in jail for a while, his thoughts turned to his feelings about Rocky. Snarled and tangled, he needed to unravel them and figure out what was real and what was just infatuation. He’d been infatuated with a few women over the years but nothing more than that. He wasn’t sure he was even able to feel more than that about a woman. Maybe if he discussed how he felt with Rocky, it would clear some it up for him so he could concentrate on football instead of wondering what she was doing every minute of the day they were apart.
When he followed her out of the courtroom, he blurted out, “Let me walk you to your car.” Why had he done that? He wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. But here he was, his hand on her elbow as they walked toward the parking lot. “Since we’ve been excused from practice for the day I thought, maybe, we could talk.”
“Talk about what?”
“I thought we could clear the air between us.” His stomach dropped when she didn’t answer right away. Maybe he’d try again another time…
“I guess. There’s a coffee shop down the block,” she said as she turned to look at him.
“I was thinking somewhere more private. This might take a while and I really don’t want anyone else hearing it.”
He watched her think for a minute. “Okay, I get that. We’re never really alone out in public, there are fans everywhere.”
“I want you to feel completely comfortable, so you choose where.”
“I’m kinda hungry, how about I make us something at my apartment. I do owe you for saving me from that creep.”
Her apartment? That sounded risky with the way his feelings were jumbled but, if that’s where she’d feel safe... His mouth went dry at the thought of being in her apartment. “Okay. I’ll follow you.”
When they got to her apartment complex, he was glad to see it was in a decent area. Pulling into a visitor’s parking space, he got out and walked over to where Rocky was waiting for him.
“It’s a bit of mess,” she said as she unlocked the door and stepped into the apartment.
He looked around. There was a hoodie draped over the back of the couch and a blanket on the floor in front of it. Some framed posters on the walls and a bookshelf full of books and girly knickknacks. It suited her.
Rocky picked up the blanket and tossed it on a chair. “We’ve got the place to ourselves, Kylie is working late tonight. Let me text her real quick and let her know how the hearing went.” She motioned to the couch.
He took a seat and stared at her as she texted. How was she still so beautiful with a swollen cheek and a black eye? Yep, infatuated, that had to be it.
