“I have my ways.” She glances up at me, her eyes peeking through her thick lashes.
“Why does that scare me?”
Her laughter fills the air and I panic. “It should.” She tugs her bottom lip between her teeth, releasing it slowly. “One dayI might use my powers on you.” She points at my chest and my gaze follows before lifting back to her eyes.
“What powers?”
She stares at me for a second before taking a step closer and hitting me with a devastating frown, the sadness in her eyes something I haven’t seen before. “I don’t know what to do.” She sucks her lips into her mouth as her eyes water and my heart breaks. “Reed and I just started dating. And I think…I think he has feelings for someone else. What if he never gets over her? Am I crazy? You know him better than anyone else. What should I do?” A lone tear slides down her cheek and emotion clogs my throat. But when she smirks, I’m snapped out of it.
“Hell. That was Oscar worthy.”
“Right?” Her proud smile makes me laugh uncomfortably. I knew what she was doing and I still fell for it. But…
“Do you really think that could work? On Bria?”
“Yep. She'll either tell me you’re a good guy and that she’ll suss it out for me, or she’ll admit my concerns are warranted and that you do have feelings for someone else.Andthat she’s not sure you’ll ever get over them.”
“What if she reacts another way entirely?”
“Whatever she says will be telling. I know it.”
My nose scrunches as I contemplate her idea. This is the first night Bria’s seen us together. She probably needs time to warm up to the idea. After all, we’ve been best friends for over ten years, and I’ve never so much as kissed a girl in front of her or even mentioned one. “Let’s keep that in our back pocket in case we need it,” I say after giving it some thought. “I think she’ll reveal her feelings soon enough.”
“I’ll do whatever you want me to do, Reed. You just have to ask.” She smiles anddamn, why did that make my cock twitch?
“Want to dance?” she asks, changing the subject, completely unaware of my little problem.
I laugh to distract myself, shaking my head. “Nope. I’m going to get a stiff drink. Do you want anything?”
“Less drinking.” She pouts. “Remember?”
I cringe. “Sorry.”
“That’s okay. I don’t mind. I can still have fun without it. I’ll see you in a bit. After I’ve worked up a sweat.”
She runs her hands down her body as she shimmies, and while it looks innocent enough, my gaze follows, my thoughts anythingbutinnocent, imagining her working up a sweat in ways that have nothing to do with dancing. Her body bouncing on top of mine, her hair stuck to her face and…Holy shit.What the fuck?
Once again oblivious to my inner madness, Hayley presses her lips to my cheek and sashays away, grabbing Keeley’s hand as she moves past, dragging her from where she’s talking to Zane.
Shaking off my thoughts, I get my ass out of there and find Thomas at the bar, two waters in his hand as he chats with our new assistant coach, Brad, and I pray to anyone that will listen that one of them is able to distract me.
“And you really think he’s pulling the pin?” Thomas asks Brad, immediately drawing my attention.
“Yep. There’s something going on, but I haven’t been included in the conversations yet.”
Brad started with the team at the beginning of this season, around the same time our general manager “resigned”—was forced to leave—and the timing sucked. From day one, Brad’s name was thrown around as part of the controversy with our exiting GM, and it was hard to watch. Brad didn’t deserve that. He’s a great guy and a talented coach. Now it sounds like something else is going on. Which I guessed based on D’Angelo and Keeley’s little interaction the other week.
“Fuck.” Thomas runs his hand through his hair, finally noticing me. “Reed, my man. How much did you hear?”
“Not enough for you to worry, but if you want to fill me in, you know I’m a vault.”
“I do. But I don’t want to stress you out. I’m doing enough of that for the both of us.”
Yeah, too late for that. “I already had a feeling something was going on. I saw D’Angelo shoot Keeley a strange look after his big speech the other week.”
“You caught that too?”
“Yep.”
