A pink blush covers her throat and cheeks.
I step off the ball and let out a sigh. “I’m just teasing, Penny.”
Relief flashes in her eyes, which makes my heart ache. She picks up the ball and dribbles away. I catch Tierra watching me with a black eyebrow arched high.
“Let’s run some drills,” I bark out, ignoring my cousin’s probing stare.
Practice went well. The girls are all aggressive and eager. I quickly learned who plays best together and who doesn’t. It’s clear Liv and Penny have some bad blood, so I kept them away from each other as much as possible. Whenever I paired up Penny and Tierra against anyone else, they dominated. Unfortunately, that was low for morale, so I switched it up a lot. During a game, though, those two are going to kill it.
“Okay, ladies,” I say. “Bring it in. Let’s get some housekeeping stuff sorted.” I pull a piece of paper out from my pocket. It’s a copy of the roster of names. “First things first. We need to choose numbers for your uniforms. I need to get those ordered ASAP.”
“I’ll be number one,” Liv says, waving a hand in the air.
The girls go around me, calling out the numbers they want while I scribble them down. Tierra and Penny are locked in a quiet conversation, so they’re the only two left.
“What number?” I ask them.
“Ten,” they both say at once.
“No, girl, ten is my lucky number,” Tierra says. “Find a new one.”
Penny rolls her eyes, her lashes fluttering as she makes an annoyed face. “One?”
“Already taken,” Liv sneers. “How about zero?”
Several girls snigger. Tierra shoots Liv an icy glare, but Penny doesn’t seem to notice. Penny shrugs in agreement. Oh, fuck, no.
“Penny,” I bark out. “What number?”
“Zero, I guess.” She’s distracted. Her eyes erratically dart over to the girl next to her, who keeps hitting the bottom of her shoe against the gym floor, making it squeak.
“Seems fitting,” Liv agrees, her minions laughing.
“That’s what you want, English? To be zero?”
She shrugs again. “I don’t care. Are we done here because I want to leave?”
I let out a heavy sigh. “Yeah. We’re done. See you all at practice after school tomorrow.”
Everyone files out of the gym, but before Penny can leave, I call out her name.
“I would stay and shoot the shit with y’all, but Grandma is watching me like a hawk,” Tierra complains. “Catch up later.”
As soon as we’re alone, Penny picks up a ball and dribbles it over to the rack of balls. I scoop one up and limp my ass over there. Her eyes narrow on me, sweeping down my frame.
“You’re hurting.”
“Nah, I’m good.” I shrug and pick up another ball. “What’s wrong?”
She grabs up a ball. “You’re not good. Are you going to physical therapy?”
“Way to evade my question,” I grumble. “And no. I can do all that shit at the gym.”
“Stubborn boy.”
“Not a boy. All man here.”
She does her cute eye roll, but her cheeks turn pink again. Goddamn, she’s adorable. We finish picking up the balls. Before she can escape, I stand in front of her, peering down at her.
“Tell me what’s wrong, Zero.”
She smirks. “Nothing now that Ginny is gone.”
“Ginny? What did Ginny do to you?”
“She’s annoying.” She scowls. “Noisy.” Her chin lifts as she searches my stare. “I think you need to go back to physical therapy.”
“I said I’m good.”
“You’re not good, Smash. You’re broken. Sometimes you have to rely on others if you want to fix yourself.”
I dart my eyes down to her pink lips that are supple and begging to be kissed again. “Can I rely on you?”
“Duh.” She pokes my chest. “I have to go.”
“Why?” I ask.
She stiffens. “I have stuff to do.”
“What stuff?”
“God, Terrence,” she snaps. “Girl stuff. Period stuff.”
Liar.
I’m not stupid. She’s avoiding the topic.
“Maybe I should come with and help you do your period stuff,” I offer, challenging her with a stern glare.
“Gross.” She flips me off, storming over to her bag.
“Penny, wait,” I call out, limping my ass over to her. Maybe I will call and make an appointment. “I’m sorry.”
She whips around, her blond ponytail swinging. “I need to do this alone.”
What is this?
“Okay,” I say, holding my hands up in surrender. “I’m here if you need help. I know it’s not period shit, but whatever it is, it has you upset and distracted.”
She frowns, uncertainty flashing in her blue eyes. “I can handle it. I have to.”
“Promise me you’ll text me or call me if you can’t. I’ll be there, okay?”
“I promise.”
As she swivels to leave, I playfully tug at her ponytail. She swats at my hand, scowling at me, but the corners of her lips tug slightly up.
An almost smile.
With, Penny, I’ll take whatever I can get.
We walk outside. I lock the gym door while she continues walking. When I turn around to look for her, she’s storming toward her Jeep where two guys are leaned up against it. My entire body tenses, getting a creepy-ass vibe from these fuckers.
“Make like a tree and get the fuck off my car,” Penny says.
That’s not how the saying goes, but Penny makes up her own shit.
“Feisty,” the meaner of the two guys says, tossing his cigarette to the grass before stubbing it out with his shoe. “Just wanted to say hi.”
I walk up behind her, glaring at the motherfucker. “Hi. Now go home.”
His eyes narrow. “Fuckin’ Hoodlum.”
This Hoodlum is about to fuck him up.
Penny lifts her keys up, a can of Mace pointed at his face. “If you value your eyeballs, get the fuck away from my car. The last asshole who messed with the Hoodlums lost his eyes.”
The dude’s jaw clenches and he fists his hands. I will fucking destroy him if he lays one finger on my girl.
“I’m not afraid of you or your sister or your delinquent fuck boys,” the guy snarls. “But I do think my boy Ryan deserves a little vengeance,” he spits. “Let’s go, Eli.”
They saunter off like they didn’t just threaten everyone I care about.
“Who the fuck was that?” I growl, my hand clutching Penny’s hip. “And why in the fuck is he threatening you?”
She shudders at my touch, but I think it’s the good kind of shudder. Like my touch feels good.
“Grayson is just a pussy who thinks he can push around girls like his fuckface friend Ryan. He’ll learn really quick he can’t push around this girl.” She turns around, her chest brushing against mine. “I can handle him.”
Not alone.
Over my dead body.
“You let me know if you need help,” I murmur, dipping down to press a kiss to her forehead. “I will beat the shit out of both those motherfuckers and not even break a sweat.”