The ball cracked against the wooden floor, and the volley ended with a point for the Cats. Sammie was about to launch into a cheer when her pocket vibrated. She pulled out her phone as the teams reset. Bowen would still be serving, and he was on a three point-streak.
“Hi, Mr. McCullough,” Sammie said, sinking into her seat and curling around her phone so she could hear over the din of the crowd.
“Sammie,” the man said, a small laugh coloring his voice. “We’ve talked about this. My father was Mr. McCullough, I’m just Grant.”
“Sure,” she said, smiling softly. “What’s up?”
“It’s that window.” Sammie’s stomach sank. The window at the old house, the one that was broken. The one that he’d told her needed to be fixed sooner rather than later.
“Did something else happen?” There’d been a little rain earlier in the week, but no more thunderstorms.
“Looks like there was more damage to the frame than we realized,” Grant continued. “Some water got in.” He paused, letting out a rough breath, and Sammie knew what was coming. “We gotta get it fixed, Sammie. I messaged Kieran, but he doesn’t look at his phone before games. Told him to get his ass down here and help you out.”
“No!” The word left Sammie too suddenly, too forcefully, and she winced. “No, that’s okay. He’s busy, you’re busy. I’ll call someone to look at it this weekend.”
Grant chuckled. “Nonsense. We’ll save you a few bucks and get it taken care of.”
Sammie knew that arguing would be useless, but the idea of Kieran helping her fix up the old house after what she had discovered was more than a little mortifying. “Thanks, Grant. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Another laugh, more boisterous this time. “You’d be fine. Greta did good with you kids. But she’d rise from the grave to haunt me if I didn’t help you when I can. Same for my boy. Tell him to check his phone when you see him after the game.”
A cheer went up from the crowd, but Sammie had missed the last couple of plays. A quick glance at the scoreboard showed that the Cats had just taken the set, which meant they only needed one more for the win.
“I’ll tell him,” Sammie promised, even though the impending conversation made her limbs feel tingly.
“Talk to ya later, kid. Tell Atticus hi for me.”
The teams had switched sides by the time Sammie ended the call, slipping her phone back into her pocket with hands that threatened to shake. She had a better view of the Cats, her brother pointing a finger at her as he took his place, smiling that crooked, mischievous smile that he was known for. Sammie waved, offering up a smile to match his, even if it felt false, plastered across her face.
She could feel another set of eyes on her. Sammie briefly met Kieran’s gaze, both of them looking away quickly like they were still in fucking middle school.
This was ridiculous. Sammie wasn’t the nervous, unprepared kid she’d been back when she’d told Kieran about her feelings for him.
Okay, maybe shewasstill nervous and unprepared. But it was like her brother and Kai had said. All they had to do was talk about it.
That couldn’t be too hard, right?
The Cats won, leaving only one more win necessary to secure a spot in the championship tournament.
Bowen and Eric bounced around the locker room, whooping and hollering, dragging Aaron into their party. Eric seemed so small, sandwiched between the other two, all of them sopping wet from their showers. He shook his head, spraying Aaron with drops of water, pulling a boisterous laugh from him.
Aaron played one of the early sets, when Atticus had landed a little too hard on one ankle. They’d lost that one, but not because of Aaron’s setting. He was getting better, had been watching Atticus like a hawk all season. Not to compete or make a grab forthe starting setter position. No, Aaron wanted to learn from the best, and Atticus was damn near close to being exactly that.
Atticus saw it too, tugging Aaron into a hug, slapping him on the back. “You did great, man! Thanks for covering for me.”
Kieran liked to think that he’d contributed to the easy camaraderie between all his teammates. Sure, there had been a hiccup at the start of the season, when some of the guys—Bowen in particular—had taken to teasing Atticus for his playboy ways, but they’d been able to squash that quickly, at Kieran’s insistence.
When he’d left Seattle to play closer to home, it had been hard to leave behind that team, thefriendshe’d made there. Kieran had feared he would be an outsider, that he would never find the same easy comfort with his new team.
The Cats were special though. Kieran didn’t quite have the words for it, but they made him feel at home, as if this weren’t his second season with them, as if he had instead always been a part of their group. They were more like a family than a team, something Kieran hadn’t seen coming.
It made the contract, with its blank signature line that loomed over him, all the more menacing as his mother’s words echoed in his mind.
We just want to make sure your future is secure.
Could Kieran truly call these guys his family, if he was just going to end up abandoning them?
“That last spike was a work of art,” Bowen said, stars in his eyes as he landed a light punch on Kieran’s bicep.
