I hear rustling on the other end of the line before she speaks again. “Okay. I…um…I…” She trails off before the rest of her words come out in a rush. “I got my period and it’s not like I don’t know what to do or whatever but I don’t have anything with me or a change of clothes and it’s not like I can walk back into class and ask Zoe or another friend for a tampon while my math teacher is explaining quadratic equations and I don’t think I can wait until class is over and…yeah.” She lets out a heavy sigh. “That’s all.”
“Is it your first time?” I rub a hand over my chest, over a heart that suddenly feels entirely too big for my body. BecauseRiley could have gone to the nurse. She could have called her grandma or Liv. But she didn’t do any of those things. Instead, she called me. Nothing would stop me from helping her in this moment.
“Yeah,” she says. “I know I’m old for it. I feel like I’ve been waiting forever, and now that it’s here I wish it would go away because, like, couldn’t it have just waited until I was home, where I’ve had tampons in my bathroom for like two years already?” She makes an irritated noise. “This is really inconvenient timing.”
I laugh a little because truer words and all that. “Where are you right now?”
“The bathroom by the cafeteria. I’m kind of stuck here? I can’t go back to class like this, and I also can’t, like, walk around school or anything. Can you help?”
Riley may not be my kid, but right now she’s a girl who needs me, and one thing I definitely am is a girl’s girl. I mentally rearrange my schedule for the afternoon and hope Cam doesn’t hate me for agreeing to this before I talk to him. “Definitely. I’ll be there soon to stage a rescue.” I wince a little before I say the next thing. “I just have to let your dad know.”
Riley’s huge sigh of relief comes through the phone. “Oh my god, thank you, thank you, thank you. And it’s fine to tell my dad. Who do you think bought me the tampons that are sitting in my bathroom? He’ll be cool and all that. I just…well…I kind of didn’t…I don’t…” She blows out a frustrated breath. “I wanted someone who would understand, you know? I wanted…” She pauses for so long that I pull the phone away from my ear to make sure the call didn’t drop. “I just wanted you,” she says finally, and I take a fortifying breath as my eyes burn. I would move mountains for this girl.
“I’m on my way. Hang in there, okay? I’ll text you when I get to school.”
“Thanks, Maddy.”
“Always, Ry. See you soon.”
I hang up and stare at my phone for a second before sitting up and looking straight into the very curious face of Brian Sullivan. Who, until this second, I forgot was sitting right next to me.
Curses.
“Everything okay?” he asks with a raised brow.
I nod casually. “Fine. Riley just needs something.”
Ugh. Do better.
“She needs something from you? In the middle of the school day?” The way Brian asks—almost like he’s giving me an opening to explain rather than out of any actual curiosity—makes me almost sure that Olivia told him at least something. For reasons passing understanding right now, the idea of him knowing doesn’t fill me with dread. Instead, it’s almost…settling maybe? Like he’s someone who can help me figure out the minefield of being a team medical professional in a relationship with a player. I’ve always known he would support me, but it’s a terrible, unfair position to put him in. After the last couple of months, though, anything except for being with Cam is unacceptable to me, and it’s almost the end of December, which means the season is almost over. It’s time to start figuring out how to make this work.
But not right now.
Right now, I have a thirteen-year-old girl to save.
I shrug. “It’s girl stuff, Uncle Bry. Need know basis, and I’m sorry to say that right now, you don’t need to know.”
He tosses me a knowing smile, standing and giving me a side hug before heading to the door. “Say no more. The guys are in the weight room right now if you want to give Cam a heads up that you’re about to bust his daughter out of school.”
I laugh, standing up too. “Thanks for that. Later, Bry.”
When he leaves, I grab my bag and toss my phone inside, heading out to find my guy and then go rescue his girl.
“Maddy-cakes!” Tyler calls from a padded bench in the corner of the weight room where the entire team is working out. Music blasts, weights clang, men grunt, and the testosterone is so thick I practically have to shove it out of the way to get through the door. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
I roll my eyes. “Literally any nickname would be better than that one. Any nickname, Little Ty Ty,” I say, emphasizing thelittle.
He just grins at me, standing and taking a swig from his water bottle. “The little doesn’t bother me so much when I just bench pressed, like, twice your weight.”
Tyler flexes his biceps, giving them an approving glance that has me bursting out laughing. “Never change, Ty. Is Cam around?”
“Cam is right here.” The deep voice sends a shiver down my spine I work really hard to suppress. When I turn, it’s practically an endurance test to keep my tongue from rolling right out of my mouth becausedear lord. The backwards hat. The athletic shorts. The sweaty white T-shirt sticking to abs I want to run my fingers over. The bead of sweat rolling down his neck that I want to lick.
I need to take a fucking beat.
Except then I notice Cam biting the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing, like he can tell exactly what’s going on in my head and is amused by it, and that is just not going to work for me at all. I narrow my eyes at him, an entire conversation passing between us.
You better not be fucking laughing at me.
