“Money problems?”
“Nah.”
“If you’re hiding an injury—”
“Cooper Rock doesn’t get injured, Coach. Injured gets Cooper Rocked.”
She makes a face like she’d rather be having her eyeballs plucked than listening to my ego talk. “So it’s a woman,” she says.
That’s an understatement. Realizing the Fireballs might be a stepping-stone for me too? That they might be only a phase of my life instead of my entire life?
That’s fucking terrifying.
I’ve never wanted anything else.
Ever.
And I’m not ready to quit. Not by a long shot. But I don’t know how to balance having two things in my life that I want to be my entire life.
This time, I do lie. “Nope. Not a woman. Wanna know a secret?” I drop my voice. “It’s writer’s block.”
Dusty coughs. Addie blinks.
And Hugo Sanchez, our conditioning coach, turns around from his seat in front of me to stare. “Writer’s block,” he repeats.
I grin at all of them. “A guy can’t have depth?” I twist in my own seat to holler at the back of the bus. “Darren! Tell these people about my novel.”
“It sucks,” Darren calls.
Luca leans into the aisle. “Because he hasn’t written one.”
“Have too,” I call back.
Darren winces. “I wish I didn’t know that was true.”
“Wait. Seriously?” Might be horror on Luca’s face. Might be awe. Probably both.
“Some fantasy novel,” Max says as he passes my seat on his way to the back of the bus. He cuts me a look.
My nuts shrivel.
He knows about Waverly, and hedefinitelyknows I got caught solo in my hotel room with my pants around my ankles before the game, and he owes me.
He owes me so big.
The minute he decides to pay me back for all the shit I gave him in the off-season when he was secretly seeing my sister, and then the glitter bomb incident…
I’m a dead man.
In the best of ways, I mean. I take my medicine when it’s dished out. I deserve it.
But I don’t know if Max will keep Waverly from the blast impact whenever he finally gives me what’s coming.
And I don’t knowwhenwhat’s coming will finally come.
I think he’s enjoying the torment it causes me to constantly be anticipating his revenge. Not getting revenge when I’m braced for revenge might be his revenge.
Fuck.
