He chuckles, the sound warm and entirely too amused. “Believe me, you don’t need to know how to play.”
“Logan.” I point across the shining gym floor, where a bunch of guys from the team and their significant others are already warming up—dribbling and passing basketballs, stretching, laughing. They all look comfortable. Athletic. “It looks like I’m going to need to play. I don’t know how to play.”
He shakes his head, still grinning. “I promise you don’t need to possess any skill whatsoever. Only one girl on the whole team actually knows how to play, and that’s Miranda—Miles’sgirlfriend. And honestly, it’s girls versus guys, and the girls win every time because of her.” He leans in conspiratorially. “Now, yes, rules and fouls don’t really seem to come into play, so the girls play dirty—but I promise you’ll catch on quickly. And it’ll be fun.”
He pauses, his voice dropping. “Unless you’re not up to it.” His eyes flick over me, assessing, and I know exactly what he’s thinking—my injuries. The bruises that are still fading to that sickly yellow-green. Whether I’m healed enough for this.
“No, it’s not because of that,” I say quickly, wrapping my arms around myself. “I don’t hurt anymore. I’m fine.”
“Oh. Good.” The relief that washes over his face is so genuine it makes my chest tighten. “Just give it a chance. I promise you’ll be glad you did. We started playing these pickup games between the Crane players and their wives and girlfriends a couple of months ago, and it’s been so fun that we made it a regular thing.”
“All right.” I pull in a breath and force my feet to move. “I’ll trust you and try it.”
“Good,” he says, his smile returning full force. “That’s all I ask.”
I follow Logan into the gym, my sneakers squeaking against the floor.
“Sean!” one of the guys—who I recognize as Cade, Iris’s husband—calls out from half-court. He’s got a basketball tucked under one arm, his other hand gesturing impatiently. “It’s about time you got here. We thought you weren’t gonna show.”
“You know I like to be fashionably late,” Logan replies.
“All right, all right.” Jaden waves us over. “Come on. We need to talk about our strategy.”
“Today is the day we finally beat them,” Bash adds confidently, jogging over to join them. He’s already sweating, like he’s been warming up for an hour.
Logan glances back at me, giving me an encouraging nod before jogging off to join the guys huddled near the far basket.
“Tessa!” I turn to see Miranda running toward me, her ponytail swinging, a huge grin on her face. She grabs my hand and pulls me toward the group of women gathering on the other side of the court.
“Come on, you’re with us,” she says.
Besides the four women I already know—Penny, Iris, Anna, and Miranda—I’m introduced to Ari and Delaney.
Ari cups her hands around her mouth and shouts up toward the bleachers, where a woman sits with a couple of young kids. “Mom! Wave to Tessa!”
The woman—who must be Elena, Beckett’s wife—waves enthusiastically, and the little boy beside her mimics the gesture.
“That’s my mom,” Ari explains, turning back to me. “She watches her little one, Nolan, plus Max and Delaney’s baby, Caroline, during the games.”
I smile and wave back.
Jack, one of my bodyguards, stands near the exit of the gym, his head moving back and forth, scanning the place. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to having a bodyguard.
I turn back to the girls. “So you all really get together regularly to play ball with the guys?”
“Pretty regularly now that we have Miranda,” Ari says, bouncing a basketball once and catching it. “It’s just really fun beating the guys at a sport since they get a little cocky when it comes to athletics.”
“A little cocky?” Penny scoffs, hands on her hips. “That’s generous.”
Anna laughs. “They act like they’re the gods of sports, but we always beat ’em.”
“Yep. We destroy them,” Miranda says with a wicked grin. “Every. Single. Time.”
“I just want to give you all a fair warning,” I say, my stomach twisting with nerves. “I don’t know how to play basketball. Like at all.”
“Oh, that’s fine,” Anna says easily, waving a hand. “None of us really do, besides Miranda. It’s really just about having fun. You only need a couple of strategies, and you’ll be good to go.”
“Strategies?” I repeat skeptically.
