Chapter Twenty

“I can’t wait—I’m so excited for this game!” Lexi said, grasping Avery’s arm as they sat huddled together in the cool evening air on the school’s bleachers.

Avery didn’t actually think that Lexi was so much excited for the game as she was excited for the whole evening. And if she was being honest, Avery was, too. But still, the foremost on her mind was that they win the freaking game. That would mean that the Hammers were still in with a shot to make the playoffs, and her dad was one week closer to keeping his job for another year.

The school—or maybe Mr. Duchamp, now she came to think about it—paid for a block of rooms when they had to play more than a couple of hours away. The Hammers typically only had two games a season where they had to travel—this one and another small school down south toward the border from Hillside.

Her dad had been surprised when she’d asked if she could come along this time but had readily agreed. He’d always felt weird about not bringing her on the overnighters and had worried when she was alone in the house. She reckoned this was a win, too. He’d be more relaxed knowing that she was here and not getting into any trouble at home. Not that she would have. But he still always told her not to have boys around or have any parties or answer the door to anyone while she was alone.

“I have a good feeling about this game,” Avery said to Lexi.

“I have a good feeling about the whole night,” Lexi whispered.

Avery giggled, almost high on the excitement of being away from home, with her best friend, and with both their crushes on the field, hopefully prepping to whoop some ass.

Crushes. She’d totally called him a crush. Snap out of it, cupcake.

The guys took the field.

She’d forgotten how much she liked this. Puffs of warm air seeping out of their helmets in the damp, chilly evening, the yellow tinge to the air from the floodlights, the tense atmosphere in the stands… It was almost otherworldly.

The whistle blew, and Colin and the other team’s QB did the coin toss. The Hammers won and elected to start.

“I can’t bear it,” Lexi squeaked.

Colin took the ball and ran to the left, dodging the linebacker, planted his feet, and pulled his arm back and threw. It was a Lincoln five. And Lucas was right there where he was supposed to be. The ball spun, suspended in the air, as Lucas ran with his back to the ball.

“Oh my God,” Avery whispered.

Lucas stopped and looked over his shoulder, plucking the ball out of the air like it was just hovering there waiting for him to take it.

Avery saw him check the defense and run toward the touchline. He made about twenty yards before a safety touched his shin and sent him rolling to the ground. It was a great start.

Lucas jumped up effortlessly and left the ball on the grass.

“Holy hell. I’m not sure we’ve ever started a game so well,” Lexi said. “Did you see that throw?”

“Uh-huh. Did you see that catch?” Avery said. Why was her voice so breathless?

Lexi and Avery looked at each other and almost-but-not-quite squealed.

She looked down at the sideline to watch her father. His clipboard was tucked under his arm as he calmly watched the players. He looked confident.

The whole team looked confident.

This was going to be a celebratory night; she could feel it. No one was out of place; it was like a magnet was keeping everyone exactly where they were supposed to be. Colin and Lucas ruled the offensive plays. Lucas didn’t drop a ball. And Colin couldn’t seem to miss. No one came close to sacking him. It was like they’d been playing together for years instead of weeks.

The score wasn’t even close. And by the time the final whistle blew, Avery almost felt bad for the home team.

Almost.

They waited in their seats for most everyone to leave before getting up. It usually took a good hour for the team to get out of their gear and have everything accounted for and packed away. It was ten by the time everything was in order.

As they boarded the bus to take them to the hotel, Avery’s dad shook every player’s hand and gave them a few words about their performance. Except Colin. Colin he pulled in for a hug.

The team was raucous. LeVonn leaned over the front seat and high-fived everyone as they walked on. Lexi and Avery were the last.

The bus pulled out, and Avery’s dad stood up. The laughing and shouting continued.

“Shut up!” her dad yelled over the noise.

Immediately, silence descended on the bus.

“You did good, guys. We live to fight another day! What are we going to do?”

“Keep fighting, keep fighting, keep fighting!” the players chanted.

The guys all cheered.

“But let’s get real. You’re excited and happy—rightly so—but we are unloading here at a hotel. There are guests here who need a good night’s sleep. I know you’re going to want to celebrate, but after eleven, you do it silently. No alcohol. I’ll be checking rooms.” He gave a meaningful look around the bus, catching everyone’s eyes.

“Did you bring your swimsuit?” Lexi asked.

“Of course. But I’m not sure I’m going to put it on.” She was having second and third thoughts about wearing a swimsuit in front of Lucas. She wasn’t sure why.

“I get you. But it’ll kinda seem stranger if we’re fully clothed hanging around the pool. I mean, when have we ever done that?” Lexi asked.

She had a point, but they’d all just been friends before. She’d never looked at any of the guys on the team as boyfriend material. Ever.

Her dad doled out the keys. Most guys were sharing two or three to a room. Lexi and Avery had their own twin room next to her father’s.

They went up to their room and changed into their swimsuits but put on shorts and tees as a cover up. They raided the bathroom for towels and headed down to the pool, where they could already hear the guys celebrating. She wondered how she’d get the chance to speak to Lucas with everyone around.

Excitement built in her, and she couldn’t tamp it down. She felt like she was teetering on an edge. On one side was her father keeping his job and Lucas being the miracle they’d needed, and the other side was Lucas. Lucas kissing her like he had in the storm. Had he forgotten? Hadn’t he felt how much she wanted him to kiss her more? It was the beautiful agony of not knowing. The possibility that she’d get to kiss him again that night and the possibility that she wouldn’t.

They were barely noticed when they arrived. Everyone was laughing and dragging beers out of the cooler that Digger had hidden in a big gear bag. Pizza boxes were already stacked on various tables by the sun loungers. A lot had already been torn into.

When she caught Lucas’s gaze, he tipped his head to one side and subtly raised his beer bottle to her. She grinned and doffed an imaginary hat to him. He laughed silently, throwing his head back for a second.

Excitement built in her stomach.

LeVonn stuffed a bottle into her hand as he passed her. And as he 100 percent always did, he picked up Lexi, threw her over his shoulder, and jumped fully clothed into the pool. He’d been doing that to her since he first realized that he was strong enough to pick her up. She screamed then gurgled as she went under water and laughed as she came up. She double high-fived LeVonn and stripped off her shorts and tee and thwacked them over the side of the pool.

“I’ll get those for ya!” Avery said, picking them up and draping them over a chair.

“Get on in here—the water’s like bath temperature,” Lexi half shouted.

“C’mon!” LeVonn shouted as Colin cannonballed barely an inch from his head.

Nearly everyone was in the pool. Except her, Lucas, and Digger, who was trying to prove a point by opening a screw bottle top with his teeth.

“Digger, you’re going to need to see the dentist on Monday if you keep that up,” she said, trying not to notice that Lucas was walking over.

“I never back down from a dare,” he replied, trying to get the bottle back to his molars.

Avery rolled her eyes and took a drink from her beer.

“Dude,” Lucas said to Digger, “you got nothing to prove here tonight. You had a great game.”

Digger took the bottle out of his mouth and nodded. “Thanks, man. You did, too. You were amazing…” Digger looked like he wanted to hug Lucas, so Avery deftly snatched the bottle out of his hand, twisted the cap, and handed it back.

He took a deep gulp and then casually sidestepped into the pool, holding his bottle aloft so it didn’t get wet.

And then there was just Lucas and Avery.

“Hey,” he said.

She turned around and fully faced him. “Cheers,” she said, holding her bottle up to clink. “You had a really great game.”

He clinked hers. “Thanks to you.”

…

He couldn’t lie. He was on a fucking high. He still wasn’t performing at his usual standard. He’d almost fumbled a ball and only just managed to jump over another horrible tackle that he’d probably have anticipated before. But he felt like his mojo was back, and he wanted to celebrate. He’d scored three touchdowns before the other side figured out they had to cover him with two guys, making Colin change their plays. But with those two guys out of the way of the other players, they managed to get more points on the board.

He’d so nearly gotten in the pool as soon as they arrived, but he remembered his tattoo and really didn’t want anyone to see it while the lights were on. So he’d hung out and passed beers to those in the pool—he figured as long as he did that, no one would complain that he wasn’t participating in the dunking.

“Get in here, Avery,” LeVonn shouted.

She looked down, and Lexi jumped on his back and shushed him quietly. He clasped his hands behind his back to anchor her on and strode into the deep end. She shrieked.

Colin was sitting on the side watching LeVonn with a weird look on his face. Was he pissed that LeVonn was horsing around with Lexi?

Lucas dragged a couple of chairs to the poolside so he and Avery could sit together and watch the shenanigans.

“Lucas,” she started, tucking a foot under her and balancing her beer on the chair arm.

“Yes?” He drew the word out uncertainly.

“Who are you?” Avery asked.

A chill went through him, and he searched her eyes for the knowledge that she knew Lucas Black wasn’t his real name. Her gaze just suggested a natural curiosity. But the way she said it rang a bell. “That’s the second time you’ve asked me who I am.”

Her brow furrowed. “Really?”

“Yeah. When you drove me home that time. You know—the first time we met.” He wondered if he should have kept his mouth shut.

“Oh. The time I was trying to talk to you and you just made a break for it?”

“Yeah, that time. I heard you say ‘who are you’ like you were pissed.”

“I was pissed. I thought you were very rude, to be honest.” She raised her eyebrows as if she was being snooty. But he knew she wasn’t.

“I keep thinking about that. I was so rude, and you decided to help me anyway. You’re a good person. Much better than me, anyway.” He smiled and then looked away toward the pool to diffuse the tension between them.

“Don’t say that. I’m not a good person. You don’t even know.” Her voice sounded tightly wound, and suddenly he was confused.

“Tell me all about how you’re not a good person, then,” he said, moving his chair around to face her and leaning forward. “Tell me how bad you are.” The second the familiar, flirty Lucas Westman came out, he hesitated. He’d liked that Lucas. That Lucas was smooth with the girls. But that wasn’t the Lucas he wanted to be with Avery.

She leaned forward a bit, too. “What? What were you thinking just then?” she asked, peering at him through the dusk. “You looked like you were confused. Or worried about something.”

He saw such concern in her eyes that he could swear his whole heart puckered inside his chest. He could just dive into those eyes. He wanted to tell her everything. His fears, his hopes, his mistakes. He needed to shut himself the hell up. Lucas plastered a grin on his face that made her frown for a second.

Impulsively, he pulled her up out of the chair and swept her into his arms. And then turned and jumped.

Avery shrieked as they hit the water. There was silence as they both plunged under water, but as they emerged again, everyone cheered. He hardly dared look down at Avery in case she was as pissed as she deserved to be. But he didn’t let go of her. And she didn’t struggle away.

She just slithered down him until she was standing and took a swig from the beer she was still holding. “You can run—or rather jump in a pool—to avoid talking about yourself, but you can’t hide,” she said, looking up at him.

He was going to say something, but she shoved her beer bottle into his hand and pulled off her T-shirt and shorts. His heart—okay, some other part of his body—jumped as she got undressed. Even though she wore a swimsuit underneath, there was still a weird second or two as she took her clothes off.

And then worse, as soon as she’d piled her wet clothes on the side of the pool, she dived under the water and disappeared until she popped up next to LeVonn and Lexi, leaving him alone, holding two beers, feeling like an idiot.

Ah well. It was dark, so he stripped off his tee and put it on top of Avery’s clothes, along with the beer, and swam into the fray, ducking underwater when out of the darkness Lexi was flung, shrieking, in his direction.

He grabbed her as she dunked below the surface and pulled her up. “Are you okay?” he asked after she spat a mouthful of water at him.

“Sure am, sugar. Come on—we’re going to play ice balls.” She tugged his arm as she swam away.

Nothing about that sounded like fun. But if Avery was in, he guessed he was, too.