“Don’t act like you were an angel with your concussion at the beginning of the season, Eric,” Bette counters.
“I love when she hits him with an Eric,” JT stage-whispers to B.
“Oh yeah, crack that whip, B Boss.” B mimes cracking said whip, adding a woopah at the end for good measure.
“Children…the lot of you.” Though tired, there’s a smile tugging at the edges of Bette’s lips as she and Em make their way to the door once again. Before they reach it, though, it swings open, letting in my motley crew with a looking-far-too-awake Trav leading the charge.
The smells of grease, eggs, and coffee follow in the wake of my teammates, and it’s then I notice each has a white paper bakery bag or cardboard coffee carrier in his hands.
“Damn, Short Stack.” Trav whistles through his teeth as he comes to a stop at the foot of Kay’s hospital bed.
“Is that your charming way of telling me I look like shit, QB1?”
“No way, babe.” My jaw tightens at my best friend’s blatant attempt to fuck with me by flirting with her, especially when he moves in to drop a soft kiss to the crown of her head. “You’re still too pretty for this asshole.” He hooks a thumb my way, and I flip him the bird.
“Move your ass, McQueen.” Alex hip-checks him out of the way.
“For reals…” Noah does the same to Alex as soon as he pulls away from giving Kay a hug. “Stop hogging all the attention.”
“Always acting like he’s her favorite because he’s Nova’s best friend,” Kev adds.
Quinn pushes her way through the idiots sharing a three-way exploding fist bump, and hands Kay one of the paper bags. “Wasn’t sure what you’re cleared to eat, so I got you—”
“We,” a quartet of football players corrects.
“—a bunch of soft options,” Quinn continues, ignoring the guys completely. “There’s a yogurt, a banana, some apple sauce, and a blueberry muffin in here. I figure you eat what you can now and the rest will keep if you want it later.”
“Thanks Q,” Kay says around another yawn, fading fast.
Noticing a bottle of orange juice—Kay’s second-favorite morning beverage—amongst the coffees on the carrier, I get up to grab it, my palm gliding across the condensation collecting on the plastic and twisting to crack the seal.
“Hey!” Trav holds his arms out in a What about me? gesture, doing his best to play up being hurt. “Where’s our thank you?”
“Aww…” Em drags out the word playfully as Quinn squeezes onto the chair with her. “I think someone’s looking to have their ego stroked.”
“I’m not stroking anything on Trav,” Kay deadpans.
I try to bite back my smile and fail miserably. When I first tried to get to know Kay, she was a ball-busting spitfire. To be fair, she still is. She can hurl insults as well as any guy in a locker room.
“What are you smiling about?” There’s laughter dancing in Kay’s gray eyes as she shifts her attention my way.
“You know I love when you give him shit.”
“HA!” Grayson barks out a laugh, coffee spewing from his nose.
Em and Quinn screech, jumping up in an attempt to avoid the java spray while JT reaches out to slap Grayson between the shoulder blades as he works to clear his throat. Once he has himself under control, he says, “I love how you sit there acting like you’re immune, Nova.”
That has the older people in the room sitting up to take notice.
“Ooo.” Jordan lowers her iPad to the tops of her thighs, bracing her elbows on her knees and leaning in closer. “Do share with the class.”
The back of my neck prickles, and for some reason, my cheeks heat as all the attention turns my way.
Delicate fingers start to trace the black designs inked onto my arm, and I drop a hand over them, stroking across the now bare skin where my ring usually rests. It’s only been a few weeks that I’ve had the honor of being one of the birthstone bands Kay wears to represent those who mean the most to her, but I hate that it’s absent now. Yet another thing I can blame Liam Parker for.
“I feel like there are too many good ones to choose from.” Noah taps the tip of his chin in thought.
Flashes of the playful insults, the digs taken in jest, and, at the very beginning, the blatant dismissal of me dance through my memory. Inside my pants, my dick twitches, and like many times before, I wonder what is wrong with me that that side of my girlfriend gets my engine going.
“Remember how many times he failed at getting her to agree to go on a date with him?” Trav asks the room at large.
It’s true. Kay did her best to try to make it impossible for me to crack her shell. Even after I finally got her to acknowledge my existence and engage in conversation with me, she made me work to get her to say yes to a date. Good thing I’m a determined-as-hell guy who doesn’t know the definition of quitting.
“My favorite was when she called him herpes,” Em says with a shit-eating grin.
“Noooo.” Jordan’s jaw hinges open.
“Yup. Thought the Hawks were going to need to start their second-string quarterback with the way Trav choked on his water when she said it.”
I hate Trav a tiny bit for the way he’s cackling behind me. If I didn’t have to worry it would jostle Kay’s hospital bed, I would swing my arm back and nut-check him to shut him up. That particular urge only grows at his breathy “Good times.”
Instead of risking causing my girl discomfort, I crane my neck to send my best friend a glare promising a painful payback at the first opportunity.
“Alright, Caveman.” Trav snickers around Kay’s nickname for me before composing himself. “Before you get your panties in a twist more than they already are”—he lifts a duffle I didn’t realize he had with him—“I grabbed you a few things from your room.”
That right there, thinking to do that, having my back without question…that’s why I don’t actually beat him up for his constant flirting toward my girl.
“We also swung by to talk to Coach like you asked, which was a good thing—man was losing his shit.”
Looks like one of Jordan’s theories is proving correct. I wonder if her suspicion about Coach Knight trying to reach out to me was right too.
“Hope you’re prepared to run suicides all week, bruh,” Noah cuts in.
Trav nods his agreement and confirms my earlier thought. “He’s pissed you’ve been ignoring his calls.”
I lift my dead phone from the bed and wave the dark screen for them to see. Again, without needing to be asked, Trav hands me his.
“He’s doubtful we’ll be able to keep this fully quiet given that photos of you and Kay in the ambulance are already circulating—”
Kay tenses and I reach for her hand again, lending my support in the only way I know how for now. I wish I could take her in my arms and shield her from everything going on around us, but I can’t. The best I can do is stand beside her and help her weather the storm. There’s not a force on this earth that could keep me from doing exactly that.
“—but he pretty much wants to tell you to answer ‘No comment’ if asked about anything regarding last night.”