Page 52 of Offside Rules

I turn to a clean page and write six flavors across the top. Chocolate caramel. Lemon. Banana. Vanilla with raspberry. Strawberry. Something with brown butter, if I can get it right before next Wednesday.

Then I draw a line through the words, banana without filling, on my notebook and put it back the way Wolf liked it.

Chapter Nine

Baylor

Juliet called Monday, and I’ve been thinking about tasting flavors ever since. This morning, I’m finally testing them.

I unlock Wolf’s door with a bag of ingredients in one hand, but something on the floor stops me before I get inside.

There’s a bra on Wolf’s floor.

A red one. Not mine, obviously. The fact that I feel the need to clarify that is probably a problem.

I stop with one hand on the open door and the other wrapped around my bag. The bra is beside the bench in his entry. Farther down the hall, there’s a pair of men’s sneakers and a cocktail dress.

Oh, no.

I yank my phone out of my pocket, nearly dropping it before I get our messages open. Please tell me he warned me. That I missed a text while I was loading the truck, and I can quietly back out before somebody catches me standing here inspecting their underwear.

Nothing. No message telling me to come later. No warning that somebody stayed over.

Wolf got back early yesterday morning. I finished baking that afternoon and left him alone for the evening. I figured he could use some peace and quiet after the away games.

Apparently, he found something better.

He’d almost kissed me Saturday… or at least I think he almost did. Now I’m standing here with ingredients for six cupcake flavors while someone else’s dress is on his floor.

Which is fine. He can do whatever he wants. I just asked him to warn me when it might involve a naked woman coming into the kitchen while I’m measuring flour.

I shove my phone into my pocket and take a quiet step backward.

"Baylor?"

Wolf stands at the end of the hall in a gray T-shirt and loose dark pants, his hair messed up.

"I’ll come back."