Or in this case, a hobble-in clinic.
“Sorry, but I really think you need to have that looked at,” Bucket Hat interrupted us. “It’s more than a sprain.”
I pointed at him triumphantly while I glared at Meredith. “See? You’re outnumbered!”
Meredith opened her mouth to argue, but a loud voice echoed from behind us.
“Yo, Gripper. What’s going on?”
I turned around, but my gut already knew who it was.
There was Kai. Grinning right at me.
Chapter Five
I spun around to refocus on Meredith, because I could feel my eyes bugging out of my head in a very not-cute way.
My already spiking anxiety from Meredith’s injury leveled up even more seeing Kai rightthere, in the flesh and not my fantasies. After a week of obsessing about this person I’d only interacted with once, seeing him again was like running into a celebrity. I felt like I knew him, thanks to my overactive imagination—in my mind, he’d already wooed me in a dozen creative ways—and I was about to greet him by name when I realized how absolutely weird that would be.
I scanned him quickly and was a little distressed to discover that my memory of his looks didn’t do him justice. Was he actually a model? Because the jawline that was essentially a hard right angle belonged up on a billboard.
“I tripped,” Meredith answered him. “My friend Brooke here hit a kill shot.”
Typical Meredith, hyping me up despite her softball-sized ankle. My ride-or-die wingwoman.
“Well, that sucks,” Kai replied. “Sorry to hear it.”
He glanced at me with a sad smile.
“And I’m just calling for an Uber for these two, because they’re headed to Urgent Care,” Bucket Hat added.
I turned to him, happy that I had a reason to look away from Kai. “Oh, that’s super generous, but you don’t have to.”
“Nope,” he replied as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and started typing. “No worries, I’ve got you.”
There was something calming about the way he took control of the situation. He wasn’t bossy or know-it-all. It was more like he could read the room and sensed that Meredith was going to put up a fight unless he stepped in to handle it.
“It’ll be here in four minutes,” he continued. “Black Escalade, so there’s room to elevate that ankle. You need to keep the ice on it!”
Meredith nodded and shifted the pack back in place. The three of us stood in silence, watching her press it to her ankle.
“Hey, uh, not to be a dick or anything, but is my lesson still on or...?” Kai asked. “I can reschedule if that’s easier.”
Meredith and I exchanged a quick look, as he’d just revealed important new intel. Kai was taking lessons and Bucket Hat was his instructor. No wonder Mr. Hat seemed above the law when it came to the club dress code. Today he was in a slightly less faded CPA logo T-shirt and shiny black basketball shorts.
And the hat, of course, which on close inspection I could see was Nike, with an orange band around the middle part.
“No, we’re still good. I don’t have anyone after you,” he answered. “Go get changed, and I’ll meet you on court eleven.”
“Done.” Kai nodded. He raised his chin toward Meredith. “Hey, good luck at Urgent Care. Hope it’s not too bad.”
She gave him a tight smile, no doubt because she was processing both her discomfortandthe meet-ugliness of what was currently going on.
“Thanks,” I squeaked out, the first word I’d managed to say to him.
He finally locked onto me. “Oh, right, you’re the virgin. Good to see you again!”
Tension flooded my body, because I needed to respond with something witty. He’d set me up with a perfect opener, and all I had to do was volley back with a cute quip about... how virginity was a social construct? That I was now in my ho phase? The fact that I’d been daydreaming about him taking me even further from virginity for the past seven days?
