I bite my lip, feeling sorry about it all. “I wish that he didn’t have to stress over that.”
“They’re used to stress.” Briar smiles, looking me up and down. “Also, you look really good in his number. It’s kinda like, a right of passage around here to wear their jersey, and you’re kinda the fastest to jump into it.”
My eyes narrow. “It wasn’t exactly willingly.”
We all sit as the game starts, and it occurs to me that I’m in desperate need of getting lessons from the girls. I don’t really understand most of it, despite them trying to explain it for going on three or four years now.
“Okay, see that?” Heidi asks, pointing toward the field.
“Yeah.”
“That’s a sack. Emmett just laid him out flat. God, I love it when he does that.”
“Is it called that because they go down like a sack of potatoes?” I ask seriously.
Heidi thinks for a second, her red hair like fire in the hot sun. “I’m not sure, actually, but that’s probably a good assumption.”
A few minutes later, Leo comes onto the field, smacking Cooper’s ass as he passes him. “Are they all so handsy with each other?”
Isla, Briar, Heidi, and Mila all burst out in fits of giggles. “The amount of jokes I hear about them sucking each other’s dicks is astronomical, actually. I’m pretty sure they all just stand around naked in the locker room after practices, too,” Briar confirms. “Remember when Cooper was so proud of knowing what each of their nipples looked like?”
I don’t remember that. But then again, I was attempting to think about anything other than Cooper until the very moment I couldn’t get away with it anymore.
“Speaking of Cooper,” Mila glances at me as something happens on the field, an eruption of applause echoing around us. “How are things going?”
I sigh. “Things are going well, actually, which is weird. We haven’t actually, you know, talked about everything, but we had a really nice time the other night at some event the show put on.”
Mila’s eyebrows shoot up. “That’s actually shocking.”
“Why do you sound like you’re making fun of me?” I grin.
“Because I am. And I’m still a little annoyed at you for not telling any of us about him.”
“I didn’t want to relive it! Or make you guys feel guilty for being around him!”
Heidi flips her hair over her shoulder and crosses her arms over her chest. “We wouldn’t have felt bad. We just may have spent our time planning his murder.”
“He could be buried six feet under,” Briar confirms with a nod.
“Well, if it makes you feel any better,” Isla starts, examining her nails. “Owen says that Cooper wouldn’t shut up about how he knew it was you the second that song came on.”
I freeze. “What song?”
“The song you walked down the aisle to.”
“She’s telling the truth,” Briar confirms with a nod. “He told Leo that, too. Said the second the song started, he was shocked because he knew he was going to turn around and see you. He was terrified.”
“He did not say that.” I’m not sure how to feel.
“He did,” the two of them say in unison. “Love him or hate him, from everything we hear, it sounds like he’s actually kinda in love with you.”
My eyes narrow. “Guys?—”
“Don’t kill the messenger!” Isla laughs, her hands shielding her.
But god, did he really know it was me the second that song came on? Does he remember things like that? I think we were kids. Less than ten years old. It was a fake wedding. I had told everyone that I wanted that song played as I walked down the aisle to him, his mom cheering him on.
His mom.
