Shane gripped her shoulder and narrowed his eyes. “Why don’t you let people do their jobs?”
The team lawyer straightened. “He signed a contract. There will be legal implications if he leaves with an injury like that.”
Missy looked like she was about to cry.
Then the team dietician spoke up. “Ms. Bishop, we need to keep him here to monitor his diet.”
Oh my word, you’d think he was a rat in a controlled experiment.
My insides were an anxious mess and I wondered how Blue was doing with all of this. But he wasn’t even listening to them. He was too busy gazing over the dietician’s shoulder, all dopey-eyed, at me. Like he was a delirious, love-sick fool. It was the same way he’d looked at me in high school and he really needed to stop. Because there was a high probability that the moment he remembered our breakup, dopey-eyed, High School Sophomore Blue would vanish and College Junior Superstar QB Blue wouldn’t want another thing to do with College Anna.
Maybe Silas was right. Maybe I should go.
Yeah. That was the smart thing to do. Future Anna would thank me. Maybe. No, she would. Even without the possibility that College Blue despised me, I couldn’t afford to miss Biochemistry tomorrow. Keeping up in that class was like trying to doggy paddle a tidal wave. If you let your guard down for a second, you were toast for the rest of the semester.
The door pushed open and Ashton, Brooklyn, and Tally walked in. I let out a sigh of relief and hugged my two besties, one arm around each of them. Then I collapsed against my uncle.
“You okay?” Ashton asked, giving me a squeeze and resting his chin on the top of my head.
“Yeah. It’s just a lot. The publicist is trying to convince me to record ‘Rocky Top’ with Ford and sign a contract so everyone can make money off of what happened yesterday.”
“Ha!” Brooklyn snorted. “Look at the glare Blue is giving Ashtonio.” I peeked over my shoulder. Sure enough, Blue was trying to destroy Uncle Ash with an optic blast. Apparently, he didn’t get the memo that even though he was a superstar quarterback, he only had ordinary vision.
“Great.” I took a step back.
Blue shoved off the bed while Coach Whitlock was still mid-sentence. The crowd parted and he walked through. Blue squared his feet, chest puffed. His lips pinched together and his eyes narrowed.
“Hi?” he said to Ash in a tone that said,who are you, what are you doing in my room, and what are you doing with your hands on Anna?
“Hi.” Ashton stared at him. I didn’t know if he was in a bad mood, or if he simply couldn’t wrap his head around Blue not knowing him, but he said nothing else. Just scowled, dubiously.
Brooklyn was videoing it.
Ashton didn’t need to get into a fistfight with Blue and wind up a meme like I had yesterday. So I pushed between them. “Uh, Blue, this is myuncleAshton.”
Quick as a wink, Blue’s territorial glare flipped to a grin and his eyes lit up. “Yo. Anna’s uncle. What up?” He offered Ashton a fist bump.
Ashton frowned but bumped him back. “Not much. What’s up with you?”
Blue chuckled. “I’m not sure. I can’t remember.”
Ashton smiled at that. “So weird.” I knew he meant that it was weird that Blue couldn’t remember him. “You don’t recognize us?” He gestured to himself, Tally, and Brooklyn. “But you recognize her?” He pointed to me.
“I think it’s just core memories coming back right now,” I said. “I’m sure he’ll remember you later.”
“This is Brooklyn and Tally.” I gestured toward them. “They were friends of yours in high school.”
“I mean, not really.” Brooklyn slipped the phone into her pocket. “But we were Anna’s friends, so you tolerated us.”
“Pretty much,” Tally agreed.
I pursed my lips. “Really?” It wasn’t true. He’d liked them fine.
“Very cool.” Blue offered them fist bumps too.
Ash caught my eye and nodded toward the door. He was itching to head back to Sweet Grass. Said he had a bunch of stuff to do for his classes tomorrow. I suspected it had more to do with being in such close proximity to Tally for so long. He seemed exhausted and beaten down. Yeah, this was definitely about Tally. I probably needed to talk to her about easing up on him.
Ashton scrubbed a hand over his face. “Silas said he doesn’t care what the rest of the group says. You need to head home.”
