“Can we do pasta instead?”
Plain noodles.
I can do plain noodles.
And then I can figure out how to move into a new apartment immediately.
20
Holt
There are notenough fucks in the world to adequately express my feelings right now, and I wish I knew some of Ziggy’s favorite curses in other languages to add to the string in my head.
“So your house sitter is Roland Keating’s stepdaughter,” Fletcher says as he steers his stupid fancy Bentley out of the parking lot of the Pounders’ admin/gym building across the street from the stadium. “Nicely done fucking up your entire life again. Wow. Didn’t see that coming.”
“The only reason I’m not making you shut your face is because you’re driving.”
“And you’re on crutches.”
“I can still shut your face when I’m on crutches.”
Goldie leans forward. She and I fought over the back seat. I lost, so I’m in front.
“I didn’t even know he had two daughters,” she says.
I stare out the window. “I did. Vaguely.”
It’s a distant memory of something Roland or his wife, Deedee, said once.
Distant,distantmemory from one of my first years on the team. It’s more of a feeling than a specificthis is what happenedkind of memory. I think I knew he had a stepdaughter. And I think I got the impression she had a fancy job somewhere relatively far away and wasn’t interested in the Pounders at all.
Completely lines up with the Ziggy I know.
Sommelier for a luxury cruise line in the Med. Asks more about how I’m healing than about my sports career.
“She should’ve told you,” Fletcher says.
“I let her think I played lacrosse,” I mutter. Gonna get yelled at for that one. Deserve it. But it shouldn’t have mattered.
Hell, Ilikedthat she wasn’t into sports. Felt like she cared more about me as a person than the possibility that I could be a rich athlete. They all assume if you play professionally, you’re loaded.
Joke’s on me.
Her family’s loaded, and she’s completely off-limits.
“You don’t have Pounders shit all over your house?” Fletcher asks.
“Never put up a lot of it when I moved in with Caden since it was supposed to be temporary until he was better. Took down the little bit I had when I started renovations. It’s packed up in the garage.”
“You said she said she couldn’t live with her parents,” Goldie says.
“I wouldn’t want to live with them,” Fletcher mutters.
Naked Tuesdays.
Fuck me.
I squeeze my eyes shut and rub my fists into them, but now it’s there, and I can’t make it go away.
