Pinned Down: A Triple Threat Sports Romance by Lexi Cross Page A

couple of other people I need to convince that I’m settling down,” I told Kendra over the phone.
     
    It had been a few days since we had dinner together at my place. I had seen some cracks in the wall she tried to put up in front of me, and I knew that there were some easy ways to get around her defenses. Plus, my parents had called and were very concerned that I hadn’t been on the field yet. They were not happy to see the backup out there doing my job.
     
    I couldn’t blame them. I wasn’t happy about it either.
     
    “The guys from your old team?” She sounded like she expected me to be joking.
     
    “No, not them. I really haven’t talked to them lately, but I’ll probably call them this weekend. No, I was thinking more along the lines of my parents,” I told her. I listened to her shocked silence as she let the idea of meeting my family sink in.
     
    “Your parents,” she repeated.
     
    “Yep, they are very concerned about me. I haven’t been on the field yet this season, and they also don’t believe I have a steady girlfriend. I really need their support, to be honest with you, if I want to keep moving forward. I mean, I know I don’t talk about them much, but they are really important to me, and they’ll tell you they’re my biggest fans.”
     
    Kendra liked it when I opened up to her, so I tried to make it sound like I was sharing something really personal. I hoped she bought it, because I really wanted to take her to meet my parents when I visited them for the weekend. I wasn’t playing, and I wasn’t going to be at the stadium for the game, so I figured I’d go see my parents and watch the game at their house.
     
    There were so many reasons to take Kendra with me. I wanted her to see my parents’ successful marriage so she knew that beneath it all, I came from a committed background. Also, I wanted her to see that I was interested in more than just getting her into bed. She’d shown me that there was so much more to a real relationship than I had realized.
     
    We had already done more together than I ever did with any of my exes. That was a big deal to me. I wanted her to see what we could have if we just kept at it.
     
    Plus, I needed a driver. That wasn’t a short drive, and I wasn’t all that confident in my driving ability just yet.
     
    “Am I your pretend girlfriend this weekend, then?” she asked me.
     
    I had to seize the opportunity. “Only if you don’t want to be my real girlfriend,” I told her.
     
    “Nice. Classy even,” she said, laughing. “Yeah, I’ll be happy to go with you. But don’t think this means I want to be your real girlfriend.” I could imagine her winking.
     
    “Awesome. Do you mind driving?”
     
    She cackled at the question. “That’s the real reason you want me to go, isn’t it?”
     
    “Baby, you can see right through me.” No, the real reason was because I wanted to get her in bed and use my parents’ love for each other to do it, but I wasn’t going to admit that to her. Hell, she probably already suspected what I was doing anyway. She really could see right through me, but as long as she agreed to it, all was good.
     
    “Yeah,” she said humorlessly. “When are we leaving?”
     
    “Whenever you get here. I don’t really have an itinerary, so whenever you’re ready to go, I am,” I told her.
     
    “I can’t just take off like that whenever I want to, Lucky,” she told me.
     
    “No, I didn’t mean like that. Just whenever you feel like it, I’m ready to go,” I told her.
     
    She started laughing. “I’m just busting your balls. Start getting ready. I’ll let you know when I’m on my way.”
     
    We hung up and I started getting my shit together to go. I put my suitcase by the door. It was already packed. I had packed it when I decided to take her to meet my parents.
     
    We drove overnight, crossing the state line a little after midnight. I could already feel us getting closer to the guys, my parents, my