“Hey, it’s alright. We can stay with the guys.” Logan smiled and placed her hand on my arm. “We’ll make an adventure of it.”
“Look at you embracing chaos.” I almost smiled, but the shame of messing this up was overtaking me. I wanted to be an event planner, for fuck’s sake, and I missed a major detail like the date. The reminder of my mom telling me I wasn’t cut out for this career sliced harder.
I hated letting people down, and this was a fuck-up. Whenever I messed up as a kid, my mom wouldn’t talk to me for like two days. I swallowed, reassuring myself Logan wouldn’t end our friendship. “Usually I’m the one who’s chaotic.”
“Yeah, it’s nice trying it on.” Logan winked. “Preston and Quentin will be totally cool with it. I guarantee it.”
I believed it. I had to.
An hour later, Quentin and Preston worked their magic. Usually, the two of them roomed together, but they somehow swapped with their teammates and came up with the idea that Logan and Quentin would get one room and then Preston and I would share a room—because those rooms somehow had one bed.
“What in the ever-loving rom-com hell is this?” I whispered mainly to myself, but Logan snorted. “One bed, seriously?”
“It’s kinda funny. You’ll be okay with Preston, right?”
“If we go out and party, I can’t exactly bring someone back with me then.” I had this nervous energy, the flutters of anxiety that grew from being late, the mix-up and everything. “We’re gonna celebrate the win, yeah?”
“Not sure. They play tomorrow for the championship, so it won’t be a late night.” Logan scanned the front entrance and grinned when Quentin walked in. She couldn’t stop herself from running to him, and he hoisted her up, burying his face in her neck. It was a private, cute welcome, and that flicker of envy hit me again. Which was stupid.
I didn’t want a relationship, but it would be great to feel a love like that from someone. I had it with my friends, duh, but I’d never had what Logan had with Quentin. Maybe someday, in the distant future, when I wasn’t totally messed up from my childhood, I’d be open to finding that too. Quentin picked up her bag, and Logan mouthedI’ll text you,and I waved them off, searching for a familiar head of brown, curly hair. My pulse raced as the team walked in, Tyler and Liam, Matt and Felix. I smiled at them, but Preston still wasn’t there. It wasn’t like him to ditch the team, so I knew he would be there, but when the coaches walked through and he still hadn’t, my stomach twisted.
I was about to ask the coaches where he was when my tall best friend entered. His brown hair was messy, curly, slightly damp, and his shoulders were slumped. His gaze found me, and while I swore something like relief crossed his face, it didn’t last long. His jaw tightened, and that had me faltering. He might be pissed about me crashing with him. Unless he wanted me to sleep in the truck, I didn’t have a choice, so I pushed the worry to the side.
He walked toward me, his gaze sliding up and down my body before landing on the bag. “Let’s drop our stuff off in the room.”
“Not even a little hello?”
“Hello, Jordan,” he said, no emotion in his voice.
“Are we pouting or frustrated?” I knew the way to get him out of his head was to rile him up. My guess was he was pissed at his playing and blamed himself for making the game as close asit was. He’d celebrate the win with the team but beat himself up, so I had to pull him from his funk. I’d done it before, and I’d do it again. This was the guy who’d hung out at a bar to protect me. It was the least I could do.
“Leave me be,” he said, sounding super tired. He pushed the elevator button, and we walked in, just the two of us, and he hit the fourth floor. “I’m tired. I played like shit. And?—”
“That’s a lot ofIin there when it was a team win, buddy.”
He flexed his jaw. “You can have the bed. I’ll take the couch.”
“It’s eight pm. We’re not discussing sleeping right now. You’re in Detroit, you won, and you play in the championship tomorrow. We’re celebrating.”
“Some guys have family in town and will see them, but the team will be tame tonight. Nothing like the party you want.” He opened the door for us and ushered me in first. “My guess is you’ll head out since I’m not gonna be the fun you need, so I’ll ask that you crash with whoever you end up fucking.”
“Preston Charming.” I kicked the door shut and glared at him. “I came up here foryou.”
“You came to party and hook up with athletes.” He pinched his nose, facing away from me as his shoulders stiffened. “Quentin is so fucking happy I had to do the room swap so he could have a nice night, but I’m not in a good headspace. I’d rather be alone, and I really don’t want to have to worry about you. I want to pout, and it’s not fun.”
“Are you done?”
“Done… what?” He faced me, mouth set in a hard line.
I walked up to him, pointing a finger at his chest and poking. “Being an asshole. Your teamwon.We drove up to celebrate the team. I came up for you. Instead of being a little dick about it, we could have fun or take your mind off whatever crawled up your ass.”
“My parents were at the game and sat on different sides.They both texted that they wanted to talk separately to me about the divorce and that I shouldn’t believe the other one. It fucked with my head, and I played like shit.” He gripped the back of his neck and stared at the ceiling. “I want to get out of my fucking head and forget about them.”
“I think…I think I have an idea.” I licked the side of my lip, a slow, witchy smile crossing my face. “Do you trust me?”
4
PRESTON
