Page 18 of Off Limits PUCK
My heart drops. Allie will never want to talk to me again given the way Kenz just portrayed that weekend. I mean, she’s right, I was in a tropical paradise with some bikini model. But we didn’t exactly get along. She wanted to take photos with me and of me to put all over her social media. Her main focus was growing her following and making it look like she was rich and famous. She wasn’t. I felt used, so I sent her home early and just chilled by myself on the islands.
Allie’s gaze is full of judgement and condescension when she looks at me. Then she tightens her ponytail and says pertly, “I think the two of you have issues. Why use people like that? Why not commit to just one person? I don’t get it.” She glares at me and then stares out the window.
“Ouch!” Kenz says, swatting Allie. “Careful or you’ll come across like a prude.”
Little does Kenz know, but Allie is not a prude. She’s sexually free and exciting, but it does sound like she is much pickier with her partners than my sister and I are.
She continues to lecture Allie on how her own dating app approach is the best because she gets to vet lots and lots of men and that one day she’ll find the perfect guy…
I’ve heard it all before. She tells our mother this every time we get together for a holiday. But I know better. Kenz was deeply traumatized when she was twenty. She dated a professional athlete who was eleven years older than her. He used her and then tossed her aside for an even younger girl. Kenz hates all athletes for this reason.
I glance at Allie in the rearview mirror. I know Kenz never told Allie the real reason she and the athlete broke up. I was half a country away working on my career, so I didn’t get the chance to stand up to the guy for Kenz. I don’t know if she’ll ever recover enough to trust a man again.
“You know what?” I say, suddenly deciding what I want to do tonight. “I will go out with you two tonight. It’ll be fun to meet a guy you’re dating, Kenz. But you better know that I’ll never approve of him, unless he’s some sort of saint.”
She snorts. “That’s the pot calling the kettle black!” she quips.
Allie looks at me, alarmed. We pull up to a huge house with at least ten cars parked out front. Lots of families hustle about as they unload their kids and toys from the cars and head around the side of the house to the huge backyard.
“You don’t have to go out after. You should stay here with your friends and teammates. I’ll just get an Uber back to your placeand Kenz can go on her date alone. We don’t all need to go out. That would be, um,” Allie’s voice drops off, then she shrugs, “weird.”
I see Gator just pulling up in a sports car, revving the engine and making all the kids jump up and down, demanding that he do it again. I look in the rearview mirror and catch Kenz looking at my friend from under lowered lashes. I shove the car into park and turn to both girls in the backseat.
“I’m sure it goes without saying that every single dude here is completely off limits to the both of you tonight.” I let my gaze linger on my sister. “You don’t even like athletes, remember?”
She wrinkles her nose at me. “I wouldn’t dream of it, big brother. I was just looking at that guy’s car. Not at the guy himself.”
My eyes move to Allie. She’s also looking over toward Gator, but unlike my sister, I would believe that Allie really is only looking at the car. Kenz gets out and immediately flounces over to the car, ever the extravert ready to make conversation. I lock eyes with Gator and shake my head, but he waves me off as he steps out of his car and grins at Kenz.
I trust him. He won’t try anything with her. Not that she’d let him actually do anything with her. She’s like a skittish horse around athletes.
“You think she knows?” Allie asks me as we get out of the car and meet at the front bumper, watching Kenz check out Gator’s flashy yellow car.
I look at Allie for a long moment, admiring the shine of her dark hair and the little tilt of her nose, and then when those baby blue eyes move to meet my gaze, I actually feel my heart do a flip-flop in my chest. I have no idea exactly when I started having strong feelings for her, but I know after learning about her crush earlier that I have to be careful with her.
I swallow my attraction to her and clear my throat. I try to tear my eyes away, but it’s like she’s gravity constantly pulling me to her in a grounding force that leaves me breathless and in need of more.
I force a cavalier look on my face, about to put a wedge between Allie and me so that I don’t end up totally crushing her by leading her on. I can’t give her what she needs. I think today reminded me of that. Kenz knows me well. She’s my sister. And she reminded me, in so many ways, that I am not the settling down type. And that means I can’t let myself get attached to Allie. Allieisthe settling down type, I’m very certain.
“Nah. I mean, there’s nothing to know anyway, is there?”
I watch as Allie’s walls go up. With a cold little nod of her head, she turns from me and marches toward Kenz. If letting her go—encouraging her to let go of me—is the right thing to do, why do I feel like an absolute monster who just made the dumbest mistake of his life right now?
Chapter eleven
Allie
Sounds of happy peoplefill the open air around me. The warmth of late summer makes little tendrils of sweat snake down my back as I shift in the lounger chair, deeper under the umbrella’s shade. The hosts, Darnell Roberts and his wife Tanya, are making the rounds and making sure everyone is comfortable.
I’m anything but comfortable. How could I be? Jake announced to me that there is absolutely nothing between us. And that’s that. My mind flashes back to the media room sex we had. Was that nothing? And the way he looks at me sometimes. Also, nothing? I cross my arms, glowering as I stare blankly at the pool where lots of kids are swimming and having the time of their lives.
“Allie, right?” Tanya’s voice brings me back to the present moment.
I blush red at the thought of being caught with RBF—resting you-know-what face. I force a smile and sit up, accepting the glass of lemonade she offers me. The cold ice sends condensation clustering on the plastic. I take a sip politely. “Thank you. Yes, I’m the new PT taking over from Juan.”
She smiles. “My husband has said that you’re very focused, unlike Juan, who was looking for reasons to slack off. Things like work ethic matter in a team sport.”
I feel immature next to this elegant and graceful woman and mother of two. I’m glad that of all my recent failings surrounding the Jake topic, at least something good still exists in me, in my work. “Yes,” I say, not sure how to keep the conversation going. My feelings are a train wreck right now.
