Seth
“Hey,Seth, you know, you make me want to be a pirate because that booty will be my treasure.” Jax laughed at his own joke as he headed in my direction, drink in hand.
Shaking my head, I tried to keep in mind what Luca had said. Jax was just trying to rile me up. The problem was, it worked. Every. Single. Time. Grabbing the tongs, I flipped the steaks and started taking the onions off the grill and piling them in the bowl. “Hey, Jax,” I replied unenthusiastically.
“How’s it hanging? Elise said you started training today. How’d you go?”
I looked at Jax completely confused. One minute he was hitting on me and making all sorts of comments about my arse, the next he was being almost sincere. I was getting whiplash from the change in direction.
“You really wanna know?” I asked, pretty sure he was going to say no.
“Yeah? Why’s that strange?”
“’Dunno. Just is I guess.”
“Doesn’t have to be.”
“Yeah. You’re probably right.”
“No probably about it. I’m always right. Ask Elise,” Jax confirmed with a wink.
“No. He’s never right and whatever he’s trying to convince you to do, Seth, the word you’re looking for is no.”
“Don’t be a party pooper, Elise, or I’ll tell lover boy Luca here about that time when you thought you’d try waxing your hoo-ha yourself…” Jax began.
Elise stared daggers at Jax. Stepping out of the line of fire, I moved around the barbeque and turned the gas off. Dinner was ready as soon as the show or the showdown was done.
“Jaxson…if you continue to say one more thing about that…that incident…keep in mind all the things I know about you that you don’t want anyone else to.”
“You’ve got nothing on me, sweetheart.”
“Wanna bet?” Elise tossed out there before spinning on her heel and walking back inside.
Luca and I just exchanged looks. I had no idea what the hell had just happened, I feel like gauntlets were thrown down and challenges met, but I wasn’t entirely sure who’d won that round. Shaking it off, I piled the meat onto the platter and carried everything inside for dinner.
“How’d training go?” Elise asked.
Trying not to squirm, I stuffed my mouth full of steak and focused on chewing rather than answering. The last thing I wanted to do was disappoint her, and if she found out how bad today had been, there’s no way she couldn’t be disappointed. I was. I was humiliated and dreading having to go back tomorrow. What made it even harder though was living with the coach. Luca hadn’t said a word about it once we’d left the club, which I was thankful for, but at the same time it made it so much harder.
Silence had fallen across the table, and everyone’s eyes were on me, waiting for an answer. With a half-arsed shrug, I swallowed my mouthful before answering. “Tomorrow’s another day.” I shrugged, hoping my vague answer would satisfy. Tomorrow was another day, and all I could hope was it’d be better. It had to be.
Today I’d made myself look like a complete tool. I’d gone out too hard in the time trial and faded fast leaving me bringing up the rear along with the old guys. When we were doing match simulation, I’d gotten too cocky and slid in for a tackle almost taking out one of my teammates. Then in the gym, I was trying to show off, I can admit it now, and had doubled my usual weight, desperate to impress and almost busted my shoulder. No one had said anything. No one had made fun of me. Instead, they left me with my thoughts, thoughts which kicked my arse harder than they ever could.
“I’m sure it wasn’t that bad,” Jax offered, trying to be helpful.
I risked a glance at Luca. He was stuffing forkfuls of lettuce into his mouth saying nothing, refusing to meet my eye. As awkward as I was feeling, Luca must’ve been feeling it too, ’cause I’d never seen someone focused so intently on a salad.
“I’m sure tomorrow will be better. It takes time to settle into a new team,” Jax suggested.
“How would you know?” Elise challenged.
“What?”
“How would you know what it’s like being on a team? The only team you’ve ever been on is Team Edward from when you were a Twihard,” Elise called him out.
“Hey!” Jax protested with a pout.
These two together were freaking hilarious. Jax was awesome when he wasn’t hitting on me. They reminded me of being home. Growing up, Bryce and I had given each other so much shit, more than once Mum had threatened to bang our heads together. Even though Jax and Elise weren’t related, they might as well be.
