Flip the Field: A BWWM Love At First Kiss College Romance Read online

  “Sweetheart,” He grabbed my hand. I pulled it out of his grip.

  “What did you say?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “What am I worth?”

  My dad rubbed his face. “Amerie. He is a boy with anger issues. He’s not the type of person I want dating my daughter. He’s dangerous.”

  “No, he’s not.”

  My dad threw his hands up. “He sent a young cop to the hospital.”

  “Why?” When my father told me that Brady had a record and had been to jail, I had been so upset that Brady hadn’t told me himself, but I knew him. There had to be more to the story. I hadn’t given Brady a chance to explain.

  “Why what?”

  “In your extensive research, did you find out why he did it?”

  “It shouldn’t matter why he did it,” My dad sighed. “It’s not like he was some young Black man getting gunned down in the middle of the street by police. He and his gang of friends—”

  “Gang?” I recoiled. “Dad, Brady wasn’t in a gang. He was a four-star recruit coming out of high school, for God’s sake.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that,” he huffed. “I just meant that his friends harassed the police and things got out of hand, and out of all of them, Brady was the one who went to jail.”

  “This doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Keep your voice down,” He gestured toward the back of lobby. “We’ll deal with this after dinner.”

  I turned and headed for the elevator. “I’m going back to school.”

  My dad followed me. “Amerie!” he yelled and then peeked around to see if his outburst had been noticed. “Don’t embarrass me.”

  “But I’m so good at it.” I stepped around him and went up to my room to pack.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Brady

  The taxi drove me to Sag Harbour about thirty minutes away. I couldn’t afford to go any further. I guilted Matthews into coming to pick me up. As we approached campus, we passed by Amerie’s house, and her SUV sat near the curb.

  “You want me to stop?”

  “Naw,” I waved him on. “It’s over.”

  The next day, we left for our game against the University of Rhode Island. The game was a welcome distraction. We won, and while we wouldn’t be playing for a championship anytime soon, the team was hopeful about next year.

  Back on campus, I stayed away from Amerie, and she didn’t call me, either. She was apparently laying low, because even before we had been together, I used to see her all the time. Thackeray College was a small campus. Whenever I passed by her place on my way to the practice facility or because I wanted to be near her even though I couldn’t bring myself to see her, her house seemed empty. It was the week before finals; maybe she was hiding out and studying.

  It had ended as I feared it would, but it somehow still felt so incomplete.

  I found myself in the gym most nights. The workouts helped quiet my brain and exhausted me so I could sleep.

  I came out of the locker room on Thursday evening and ran into Cal Chase.

  “Hey, man,” He frowned and held out his hand. I shook it, but he didn’t let go. He pulled me in for a quick hug. I stepped back and narrowed my eyes. What did he know?

  “You okay?” He nodded at me.

  “Yeah, I’m good,” I nodded back. “You?”

  “Good.” He nodded more aggressively.

  He and I had a strange dynamic now. He and April had something going on and April was Amerie’s friend. What was the protocol?

  “How’s April?” I felt that was safe enough.

  “She’s not your biggest fan, but she’s good,” He chuckled. “Amerie’s good too, by the way.”

  I shook my head and held my hands out. “I’m…” I pointed toward the door. “Going to go before this gets weird.”

  “Too late for that.” He smirked and chuckled. “Let me just say one thing and we can pretend this odd encounter didn’t happen,” His eyebrows rose. I nodded for him to continue. “You need to talk to Amerie.”

  I opened my mouth.

  He held his hand out. “She wants to talk to you, but she doesn’t know what to say. She told her father off after he tried to buy you out of her life, and man, she just looks so sad, which makes April sad, and you don’t look too good either.”

  “Thanks, man,” I crossed my arms over my chest.

  “Okay, I know. I’m done,” He stepped back. “I’m heading over to meet them at Tasker. A pre-exam gathering. Come join us.”

  She’d seen her father try and buy me off? She had told her father off? Why hadn’t she come to me? She’d been so close the whole time and didn’t feel comfortable reaching out. Why?

  Because I was a fucking idiot.

  Cal headed out the door. I pulled on my jacket and followed.

  We entered Tasker Hall a few minutes later. Students gathered in the lounge on the first floor. “I’m going to drop some stuff off in my room,” Cal said. He hit my shoulder. “I’ll be back down in a minute.”

  Tables full of junk food were set up around the room. There was a hot dog station and a sundae station. It looked more like a four-year-old’s birthday party than a university event. At Thackeray, even the junk food seemed fancy. I grabbed some popcorn and flopped onto a couch.

  The couch bounced next to me. “Hey, Brady,” Her blond hair obscured her face. Her hand on my thigh registered danger in my brain.

  “Hi, Theresa.”

  “You here alone?” she whispered in my ear. I cringed as she rubbed her lips against my jaw. I politely tried to guide her away from me, but I was too late.

  The room went quiet. I looked up and Amerie stood in front of me. Instead of saving me, she turned on her heels and walked away. April leveled me with a death stare before going after her.

  I pushed off the couch and followed them both.

  Amerie

  “Amerie,” April called after me. I stopped in my tracks a few feet outside the building’s entrance. No. I am not running away anymore. This was my school. I was here first, and Brady was my man. I turned around fast and April and I ran into each other.

  “Owee,” She clutched her chest. “Slow down. Where are you going now?”

  “To snatch Theresa’s blond hair off her head one strand at a time,” I huffed.

  April giggled. “As much as I would pay to see that, it’s not necessary.”

  She pointed. Brady stood just outside the door with a sexy smirk on his face. I grunted in his direction and took off back toward my house.

  “Amerie, wait,” He caught up to me, grabbed my hand, and spun me around.

  “What?” I yelled in his face. He smiled. “What are you smiling at?”

  “You’re really hot when you’re jealous.”

  “Jealou—” I covered my mouth with my hand and bit my palm to keep from screaming. “You think I’m jealous.”

  Brady stepped back and looked around. “Well, not anymore.”

  “I’m not jealous,” I stepped toward him. “I’m so pissed off at you, I can’t think straight. First, you lie to me about being in prison,” I counted on my fingers. “Then, your stubborn ass ignores me for a week. And now, you think so little of my intelligence that I would be jealous of Theresa, who throws herself at every man on campus twice.”

  “Fuck, Amerie,” he gritted out between his teeth. “I spent six months in county jail, not fucking Pelican Bay. Calm the fuck down. I get it,” He rubbed his face. “You’re not jealous. And I didn’t ignore you.”

  “You didn’t call me,” I was not going to cry. “You didn’t even call and check on me.”

  A crowd had formed outside the dorm entrance. Brady took my hand and led me toward my house. When we were far enough away from prying eyes, I pulled out of his hold.

  Brady signed. “Amerie, baby. I’m sorry. I just didn’t know what to say to you.”

  “How about the truth?”

  “It’s not that easy, and I was scared,” He whispered the last part.

&nbs
p; “Scared of what?”

  He turned away from me.

  I stepped in front of him. “Scared of what, Brady?”

  “That once you found out, you’d stop looking at me the way you do,” He caressed my cheek.

  I gripped his hand and pulled it away from my face. I held on to him, though. I needed the connection as much as he did. “You think I’m that superficial?”

  He shrugged.

  “Why did you even come after me in the first place?” I dropped his hand.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Brady,” I shook my head. “How did you think it wouldn’t come out? My father is on the freaking intelligence committee. If your goal was to keep it a secret, you should have stayed far away from me.”

  “Yeah, well, it wouldn’t have stopped me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I love you.” He stepped into me and pulled me toward him. “From that very first kiss.” His lips landed on mine.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Brady

  She didn’t kiss me back. I pulled away. “I love you, Amerie, and I didn’t want to lose you.” I turned away from her again, but I couldn’t stop talking. “I wanted to tell you so many times. I tried. I opened my mouth, but the words wouldn’t come out because I knew as soon as you saw the real me, you wouldn’t want to be with me. So, I held off, knowing eventually you’d find out. I just hoped you’d fall in love with—”

  My words were finally cut off by her lips on mine. I stiffened and pulled back, but she persisted. I gave in and wrapped my arms around her. She tilted her head and deepened the kiss.

  She pushed me back into a tree and stood on her toes as she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me down to her. Her tongue licked where my lips met, and I let her in. We explored each other, reacquainting ourselves by taste.

  She reluctantly pulled away and ran her fingertips along my lips.

  “You did it again,” I kissed her fingers.

  “It’s the only way I know to get your attention,” She slid her hands down my chest. “And to get you to shut up.” She pinched my nipple.

  “Ouch.” I grabbed her hand.

  “I love you, too.”

  I stared into her eyes and knew she meant it.

  “I wanted to tell you about what happened, but it’s not easy for me,” I rested my forehead against hers.

  “It won’t change the way I feel about you.” She hugged me to her and I held her tight. “It had something to do with Tarrick, didn’t it?”

  I leaned back. “Come on,” I took her hand. “Let’s get out of the cold.”

  We walked back to her house hand in hand. She knew the worst thing about me and she wasn’t running away.

  We climbed the steps and Amerie opened the door. I inhaled the familiar scent of her home and it calmed my spirit more. It was a mix of vanilla from the candles she burned mixed with the cinnamon syrup she put in her coffee.

  We peeled off our coats and flopped down on the couch. I rested my head on the back and ran my hand over the plush dark green fabric.

  “I know it’s hard,” She rested her hand on my leg. “It might be good for you to talk about it. I want to be with you, Brady, but if you’re dating me, it’s going to come out.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I know my dad threatened to expose you. He won’t, but it won’t keep someone else from finding it out to try to hurt him politically. They don’t seem to care about the collateral damage.”

  “Tarrick says the same thing,” I rubbed my chest. “That I should talk about it. He says I witnessed a racist cop beating up a defenseless Black kid and did something about it.”

  “That’s good.”

  “No, it’s not, because it didn’t matter,” I took a deep breath to keep the demons at bay. “Tarrick still got his face smashed and his arm snapped in two.”

  “Oh, my God.”

  “I was the cocky shit mouthing off to the cops,” I blinked and it took me back to that night. “We were in Miami for the state championship. We won, but we couldn’t go back to north Florida because of a freak ice storm. We spent another night in Miami and I talked the guys into leaving the hotel and celebrating on South Beach. We were all drunk and high except for Tarrick. He didn’t drink, so he always looked out for us. We were talking to a group of girls outside a restaurant and the cops pulled up on us. I was being a smart ass. Tarrick tried to get me to shut up and leave. I still don’t know why the cops went after him.” I squeezed my eyes shut. “I mean maybe it was because he was smaller and seemed to be in the middle of the chaos even though he was trying to diffuse the situation, but when the cop started calling my friend the n-word and a thug, I got in the cop’s face. Tarrick stepped in between us and the cop took him down so fast. Time stopped.”

  Amerie covered her mouth with her hand. Tears welled in her eyes.

  “He smashed his face on the ground and his nose exploded,” I shivered as the night played on repeat in my head. “The cop pulled one of his arms behind his back and just like that,” I snapped my fingers. “It broke. I can still hear that sound in my head. And I went off. Next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital cuffed to a bed.”

  Amerie blinked away tears. I ran a thumb under her eyes and cupped her cheek.

  “They’d arrested all of us. Tarrick was in surgery most of the night,” I sat forward. “The next day, the DA and a public defender came to the hospital and they said if I pled guilty, they would drop the charges against everyone else.” I shrugged. “I took it. The judge gave me a year in Miami Dade County. Schools withdrew their scholarship offers. I got out in six months. I got my GED in jail and moved to Arizona and played for coach Wilcox. Finding recruits who needed a second chance was kind of his thing. And eventually that brought me here.”

  “Wow,” Amerie blinked. “For someone who didn’t know how to talk about it, you did it perfectly. You have to keep telling it.”

  “Why?” I was confused.

  “Because it helps.” She took my hand. “Me as a Black woman. Tarrick and Matthews as Black men. We need to see and hear about stuff like this. It helps us feel less crazy about the world. More hopeful that at least others see it, too. And you saw it firsthand, and you did something,” She cocked her head to the side. “It wasn’t a smart thing, but you did something.” She squeezed my thigh. “And it’s how you can explain it to my dad.”

  I narrowed my eyes.

  “I know. He was completely out of line with offering you money and he knows it,” She shrugged. “He also loves me and was protecting me. Not to mention public perception is kind of his thing. A white man who spent time in county jail is dating his daughter. How did you expect him to act?”

  I rubbed my chin. I didn’t see Amerie’s dad welcoming me into the family with open arms, but I wasn’t going anywhere and the last thing I would want was to come between her and her dad. “I’ll try.”

  “Maybe in DC over winter break?”

  I chuckled and rubbed my head. I pulled out my phone. “I want you to meet someone.” I pulled up Tarrick’s contact and pressed FaceTime.

  “My boy,” he answered as his image came into focus. I held the phone up. “Oh, hello beautiful.”

  “Hey, watch your mouth,” I glared at him. “That’s my girl you’re talking to.”

  “Amerie,” Tarrick leaned in. “You do exist.”

  “Hi, Tarrick,” Amerie waved. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

  “You, as well,” Tarrick grinned. “I guess if we’re meeting, he finally got off his ass and told you the truth.”

  “Yes, he did,” Amerie took the phone. “And, although I’m still pissed he didn’t tell me before, I’m proud of him for what he did.”

  “My dude has done some stupid shit in the years I’ve known him,” Tarrick’s voice got soft. “Going to jail for us was at the top of the list, but the man is as solid as they come. His intention about everything he does is pure.”

  “God, you�
��re such a fucking girl,” I took the phone back.

  “Just because you’re not comfortable sharing your feelings doesn’t mean I can’t tell you how much I love you, man.” Tarrick blew me a kiss through the phone. The guy was odd, but women ate that shit up.

  “Babe, you didn’t tell me Tarrick was so charming,” Amerie stole the phone back. “And handsome.” The doctors that had repaired his face had made him even better looking somehow. The scars gave him an edge his nerdy ass hadn’t had before.

  “Well, he told me you were beautiful, but beautiful doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

  “Okay,” I grabbed the phone and stood up. “That’s enough. Say goodbye, T.”

  They both exploded in a fit of laughs. They knew exactly how to push my buttons.

  “When am I going to see you two?” Tarrick asked. “No way I’m dragging my ass up to Maine in the winter.”

  “How about DC over Christmas break?” I looked at Amerie and she nodded.

  “I can make that happen.”

  “Bet. Talk to you soon.” I hung up.

  Amerie wrapped her arms around my waist. “I’m so glad we worked things out,” She lifted her face and I kissed her. “Can we have sex now?”

  “I knew it,” I picked her up and threw her over my shoulder, grabbing her ass. “You only took me back because you missed the D.”

  She giggled. I shuffled across the apartment and threw her on the bed.

  She scrambled to her knees and grabbed me by the collar. “I took you back because I love you,” I leaned in to kiss her, but she pulled back. “The D is just a bonus.”

  More “Love At First Kiss” Novellas

  While each story can be read as a standalone, characters from within the world make appearances throughout the series.

  Read on for a summary of each book and get those one-click fingers ready!

  Flip the Field by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle