“Michael,” I said, my voice laced with anger and understanding. The thought of him achieving his goal brought me a huge amount of pride. “I’ll befine.”
“Fine? Yeah, I’m sure you would be, but that’s not okay for me. I want you to be happy and successful.” He cracked his knuckles and studied me for a good minute. “You look tired.”
“I’m a bit hungover from last night. How are you unaffected? It’s annoying.”
“One of my talents.”
“Well, you suck, and I hate you.” My smile took away any seriousness of the words, and he rolled his eyes. “But really, if you need to move across the country or travel around the world, do it. Mom and Dad wouldn’t want you stuck here watching out for me.” My voice remained strong even though the thought of not seeing him every week made me sad. It was a double-edged sword to want him to live his life, but also that meant no random lunches, or dinners, or coffees.
“I’d like to think that… we can stay close, even as we grow up.” He cleared his throat, and his expression turned serious. “I hear some of the guys bitch about their siblings getting into their shit, being the favorite child, all that nonsense, and I don’t want that to happen with us.”
“It won’t.”
I almost kissed Jonah.
“Itwon’t,” I said again, pushing the thoughts of what almost happened out of my mind. “This emotional side of you is new. You sure you’re not hungover or at least feeling sick?”
His body language changed from stiff to relaxed, and he winked as Hannah walked to our table. “Hannah, my favorite barista.”
“Owner,” I corrected him. “She owns this place.”
“Wait, I didn’t know that.” He sat up straighter, and his smile grew at my boss. “That’s badass.”
“It is, thank you for noticing.” She met my eyes as her brows drew together. “Anyway, Ryann, here is the schedule for this week, assuming you don’t have any more stair issues.”
“Stair issues?”
“Yeah, no big deal.” I told him what happened, the pair of them hanging onto every word. “It’s fixed now though.”
“I’m glad J.D. took care of it.” He winced. “I need to check this place out.”
“Ah,” I said, my ears burning hot. “Jonah has thisthingabout visitors. Not sure if it’s the same for teammates, but we even have the rules written on our fridge. Our first addendum is to allow Preston though,” I said for Hannah, who paled. “He’s always allowed.”
“Yeah, I think J.D. can handle if hiscaptainwants to stop by to see his sister. Paxton and Patrick think this shit is hilarious and want to check the place out too. I’d really like to see Jonah try and stop me.” He laughed, like the idea was ridiculous and unbelievable. It caused an uneasy knot in my stomach. Bringing Michael back to the apartment would be like dumping ice cold water onto Jonah, solidifying that whatalmost happenedwould never happen.
And I really didn’t like that outcome.
“So, when can we stop by?”
10
Jonah
Two days since Ryann bit down on my lip and gave me a small taste of her, and Istillcouldn’t stop thinking about it. Two days since we had spoken more than twenty words to each other and it was my fault.
I stayed in my room when she was home and waited for her to leave before going into the kitchen. Anything I could watch on the TV, I could access on my phone. Practice went well, my form on point and my body feeling even more primed for the season to start, yet the hot shower and fresh clothes did nothing to wipe the gross sensation growing in my chest.
She’d done nothing wrong, and I was acting like she had. Dammit.
Tuesday night was supposed to be when I completed all my discussion questions for classes, took quizzes, or did any work due that week, but my focus was shit. I cracked my neck side to side. Her soft footsteps stopped outside my closed door, and I tensed.
She knocked twice. “Hey, J.D.”
Back to that name.
“If you have a second, I need to ask you something.”
Great. She’d want to talk about the almost-kiss and why I’d been an ass, avoiding her. It was a real question she deserved to know the answer to, and I braced myself, hoping to be honest and firm. I couldn’t stop thinking about that moment, but it couldn’t be more.
