Jayden shot both of us the stink eye. “Fuck you, assholes. I fill fucking orifices, not the other way round.”
My eyes shot up, and I gaped before I laughed so hard I was sure I was going to curl over.
“The fuck, that’s not what I meant,” Jayden shouted, backtracking unsuccessfully.
“So women don’t have orifices?” Sutton looked at me with a smirk and threw me a wink before settling his gaze back on Jayden. “You don’t need to explain yourself to me why you’d jump to that conclusion. You know the association has strict guidelines about supporting everyone and being inclusive,” he said, and my laughter died away as he spoke, knowing while that may be the party line, a “don’t ask, don’t tell” culture was very much true.
I glanced away and grabbed my toiletries, listening in as Sutton continued. “We all know that’s a crock, but anyone with big enough balls to come out inourteam, they’d get our support 110 percent.”
At some point, all amusement had gone. Jayden listened intently, no longer protesting, and a few other guys were clearly listening in too. Me? My whole body froze in a rush of fear. Why the fuck was he saying this? Was it me? Was he saying it for my benefit? Regardless of the reason, what he said was amazing, but still… had I said or done something that made him suspect?
Nausea grew thick and fast in my gut, a balloon of lead expanding, becoming heavier and heavier, and the sweat already covering my skin doubled its efforts.
“Too fucking right they would. One of ours will always be one of ours.” The fire in Jayden’s voice took me by surprise, but there wasn’t a chance I’d look his way. I couldn’t.
“Shower,” I said, a little too loudly, drawing more than Jayden and Sutton’s attention to me. I needed to chill out. “Get your asses into gear before Coach comes looking.”
And thankfully, I wasn’t wrong.
Coach had his own pregame routines he expected us to follow, and showering after our early drills was just one of them.
***
By some miracle, we won. While I wouldn’t usually assume divine intervention, after the weird pronouncement from Sutton, my head wasn’t where it should have been. I’d had two hours pregame to sort myself out, and while I’d shaken off most of Sutton’s words, his voice echoed on repeat in my head.
While I didn’t know if he was on to me or not, my nerves threatened to spill over and screw up my performance. One stumble, I’d thought that was it, but it had also been enough to shake me and remind me this was my job, my life…, my career.
I couldn’t screw this up.
The game against the Knights had been tight. They’d had one too many breaks, making us pretty even at the half. With some smooth… hell, even enviable moves from Blake in the third quarter, the game finally tilted in our favor; by the fourth, we were on a roll, despite the last five minutes of always being in a clutch. Those five points rode us all heavily until a three-pointer from Jayden set us up for the win.
Tension—a combination of relief, anxiety, and a blast of fucking joy—buzzed in my veins as I left the stadium. There wasn’t a chance I’d head out with the guys tonight. Jayden hadn’t even pushed for it when I’d refused either.
A new message alert grabbed my attention, and I asked Siri to read it.
“Nate. Good game. Nothing like leaving it till the last second, though. Deakin is a turd. What the hell with that foul?”
I grinned as Siri read Nate’s text to me. Not allowing myself to overthink, I directed Siri to call Nate. He picked up immediately.
“Shit, man, how’s your ankle?”
I chuckled lightly. “All good. Nothing to sweat about. Deakinisa turd,” I agreed. The asshole in the Knights had shoved me hard. My ankle had twinged in the fall, and for one heart-stopping moment, I’d hesitated over moving it, too terrified I’d sprained it or done a whole heap worse.
Thankfully, it was little more than a pinch. A quick strap during a time-out had meant I was good to go.
“Thank Christ for that. You heading out?”
“Tonight? No. On my way home. Tomorrow we’re heading to Memphis for the game the day after. I need some downtime.”
“I can’t even imagine.”
“What’s that?” I ask.
“The traveling, the chaos during the season.”
“It’s something.”
“You doing okay? Really?” The last word was offered tentatively.
