“Good, well, keep your cool and don’t screw this up.” A light laugh filtered down the line, and I grinned.
“No chance of that. I’ll speak to you soon.”
After we said our goodbyes, I managed to eat breakfast in between some fast-paced texting with Pearce, Eddie, and Coach. All three I’d spoken to last night, and we’d texted a lot over the past couple of hours.
“You ready?”
Max startled me from scrolling through my messages. “Is it time?”
His brows shot high. “Just a couple of hours ago, you were sneaking out. Now you’re worried?”
I shrugged and stood, feeling so nervous I was going to puke.
What I planned was so not me, but it had Jayden written all over it. It was that knowledge that had me wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans and taking one step in front of the other to get to the elevator.
Max, a stoic presence at my side, clapped me on the back. “You’ve got this, man.”
Somewhat numbly, I nodded, and with each step I took, I questioned my sanity.
This was crazy. Fucking ludicrous. My hand shook when I pressed the call button. Rather than Max pointing out the obvious, he remained quiet and passed me a cold bottle of water.
“The hotel’s organized a car. It’s waiting for us in the underground garage.”
I nodded, watching the numbers count down, the movement feeling ominous. Shit, was it like a countdown to my doom, my humiliation?
I huffed out a breath and cracked my neck. This wasn’t just about me. Sometimes it was necessary to put yourself out on a limb and hope like fuck it wouldn’t break so you plummeted to the ground. At the end of the day, I’d handled yesterday badly. Again.
Today was about living my truth, this new version of myself, and finding the comfort and love in that.
More resolved than just thirty minutes ago, by the time we were secure in the car and heading to the academy, I found a reason to smile.
Jayden.
He was going to go nuts over this. He loved this shit, and since I loved him, I’d do pretty much anything for the man.
* * *
Like clockwork,Eddie, who was proudly wearing his pink, purple, and blue pin, and Milo had distracted the press with an impromptu conversation, talking to them about the Pride Youth group due to arrive in the next few minutes. It was the distraction we’d hoped for so they couldn’t swarm me, while having the added bonus of focusing on the Pride Youth group, what their mission was, and how this year’s program at Montview was supporting it as a whole.
Once inside the main grounds, Max and I headed to the court.
Today, with the group’s visit, a short game was going on between the staff and the college kids. After that, the college players were spending time with the group, running some fun drills, answering questions, and spending time with them. After that, a movie was planned, obviously a basketball movie, complete with popcorn and other candy, before the group left.
It was something I’d been excited to be a part of. Still was.
“You know what you’re doing?” Max asked before I entered the court.
No.“Yeah, I’ve got this.” God, I was going to make such a prick out of myself.
Max’s laughter wasn’t reassuring, but he was clearly entertained by my pending humiliation. With a quick slap on the shoulder, he left me to it, heading into the small court to sit and watch.
There were no other guests attending today. The only people watching the game were Pride Youth. We’d agreed to their recording and doing basic social media about the game as promo, but the focus was on us and the game only, rather than the more personal stuff with the kids later on. All I knew about the group was that about forty kids were attending, all between twelve and seventeen, and all identifying as LGBTQ+.
I thought the whole thing was awesome, and with what I planned, I hoped they got a kick out of it.
“Didn’t think you were going to show.” Pearce shook my hand and hugged me, a wide grin on his face.
“No chance of me missing this.”
