You’re so strong.
See? I’m a goner for you.
Let me love you.
Then the doorknob turns…
11
Tab
Levi jumps back from me like we’re on a Kindergarten playground, and some other kid just told him I have cooties. The door opens up into my back, and I slyly take a giant step forward and turn while Levi is already walking down an aisle filled with our pup jackets since the weather is getting crisp outside.
Raeann walks in, and I peek my head around the door as she opens it. “I wondered what I hit.”
“Just me. Levi is off inspecting our shelves.”
The crinkles around Raeann’s eyes deepen when she peers at me, and for a hot second I wonder if she’s on to Levi and me. If there is a Levi and me. I meant it about him staying away, but for some inexplicable reason, we keep getting drawn back to each other. Well, it’s not inexplicable, actually. It’s Levi. He keeps invading my space, whether physically or mentally.
Behind me, footsteps sound, and I turn to find Levi walking out of the mouth of the shelf-lined aisles. I may be a terribleactor, but Levi should be on Broadway. He looks genuinely surprised to see Raeann before walking toward us. “Rae-bae…”
I glare at him. Rae-bae? No one calls Raeann that but me. Raeann slides me a look, and I shrug.
“…Tab and I were talking, and she mentioned how she’d love to come to the game this weekend.”
My mouth falls open on its own accord. I certainly never mentioned anything like that. However, when Raeann looks over at me suspiciously, I smile back. The curve of my lips feels too tight on my face.
It’s not the game itself. I’ve been before, and I really enjoyed it. Especially in the suite Micah puts us in. But going there like this…now…is a completely different story. I feel safe at work around my people, but there’s no getting away from the public at large when you’re going to a stadium that can seat tens of thousands of people, even if you do get the VIP treatment.
“Are you sure you’d be up for it?” Raeann asks, peering at me cautiously.
“You were going to go, right?” I ask.
“I always go to Micah’s home games.”
“And there’s free food.”
Raeann smirks. “Well, it’s not technically free. Micah pays for it.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” I put my hand up. “Are you telling me the Wildcats don’t let the players’ friends and families be in a suite for free? Like as a perk of being an amazing player?”
Levi chuckles. “Yeah, no. If that were the case, I’d have my very own suite for myself.”
His super sweet voice just coated in cocky lingers there as well as his shit-eating grin. “Aww, but you don’t have any friends,” I retort.
Levi’s laugh catches Raeann off guard. She nearly jumps out of her shoes. He winks at me on the sly. “It’s settled then. Y’allwill be my guests at the game. You can pretend to be my friends for the night.”
“Oh, Levi. We are your friends.”
“Speak for yourself,” I say, hiding a smile.
Levi is getting a kick out of this, and ever-the-peacekeeper, Raeann is standing there like she has to somehow mend fences that she didn’t even know were broken.
“So, we’re in agreement then. I’ll text Micah and tell him all of our peeps are on me this weekend.”
“That’s so nice,” Raeann says.
I press my lips together because I don’t want to stress Raeann out anymore than she already is, but I have a few things I would like to say to Levi Soucy.
