With Kieran there. She said it like it was a permanent thing, a done deal. An image of the contract waiting in his kitchen flashed in his mind.
“Let me talk to Coach,” he said again. There was too much emotion in his voice, more than he wanted her to hear. Kieran cleared his throat in an attempt to dispel the lump still growing there. “I’ll call you back tonight.”
“I love you.” He could picture the small smile on his mother’s face as she said the words, the way one cheek would dimple more than the other. “Good luck tonight.”
“Love you too, Mom.”
His phone went silent. Kieran’s hand shook as he dropped it into the cupholder next to him. The truck’s cab had cooled, but his skin still felt clammy.
Surgery. His father needed surgery. Kieran had known he was in pain, had seen first hand how stiffly he walked, how he winced going up the front porch stairs. But Kieran hadn’t realized it had gotten this bad.
His cheeks were still wet, the blast from the air conditioner chilling the tears on his skin. The ache in his chest continued to grow, until he could feel that same dull pain radiating through his entire being.
“Fuck,” he whispered, squeezing his eyes shut, his grip too tight on the steering wheel.
The tears were for his father. For his mother, too. But they were also for himself.
Suddenly, tonight’s game was far more important than it had been before that call. Because a win for his team was no longer all that was on the line. It was now all the more important that they make it into the tournament, since it might very well be Kieran’s last.
He wanted to play for just a while longer.
“Sammie!”
Sammie whirled around at Ivy’s voice echoing down the crowded corridor. Her friend was zipping through the throngs of fans, most of whom sported maroon and gold to match their favorite team. A few splashes of teal represented their opposition, the Seattle Sharks.
Kieran’s old team.
“Hey,” Ivy said breathlessly, bouncing to a stop in front of Sammie. They moved as one to the edge of the hall, out of the way of people searching for their assigned sections. “So?”
Sammie raised a brow, even as her stomach swooped in a not-so-good way. “So what?” She played dumb, hoping Ivy wouldn’t pry too much.
Ivy sighed, but her eyes creased at the edges as she smiled. “So,” she began, “how did things go with Kieran last weekend?”
Sammie’s brain spun out as bad as her tires had the time she got her Jeep stuck in mud while camping with Atticus. “Fine,” she finally said. Ivy gaped.
“Justfine? Sammie, girl, you’re better than that.”
Ivy was being so sincere, she seemed truly excited for Sammie. Excited to hear the most salacious of details about the past week. Details that Sammie wasnotprepared to divulge. Ivy thought Kieran driving Sammie home was the most exciting thing that had happened between them so far, and Sammie wanted to keep it that way for just alittlelonger.
“He helped a lot at the house,” Sammie continued, cutting off as she narrowly avoided getting mowed down by a gaggle of forty-something year old men who seemedreallyexcited for this game. The echoes of their whoops and less-than-sober chanting whirled around Sammie, making it hard to think.
“That’s it?” Ivy pressed. “You didn’t make a move?”
Oh, Sammie had made a move. A couple of them, actually, and she still hadn’t been able to fully wrap her head around everything that had gone down between them. All the videos. Their evening out, dancing under soft lights.
She was teetering on a ledge, a seesaw on a cliff, tipping slowly back and forth.
“No. Nothing happened.”
Sammie had never been much for lying. She wasn’t good at it, had never figured out how to school her features to match the false words.
Ivy’s eyes narrowed, the slightest movement that was gone in a blink. “Oh,” she said. The light in her voice had dimmed. “Well, I’m glad you had help with the house. Let me know next time and I’ll pitch in, too.” She paused, glancing at her smartwatch. “Ineed to go, Doctor Young wants med staff to meet up before the first set.”
She turned to go, and it was wrong, it all felt wrong. Sammie had lied, Sammie hadbeenlying, keeping the most exciting thing happening in her life from her best friend. She needed to trust that Ivy cared, that her friend wouldn’t hold her feelings for Kieran against her.
“Wait!” Sammie reached out, grabbing Ivy’s wrist. Ivy turned back quickly, her signature dark ponytail flying through the air. “We still on for tonight?”
Ivy hesitated, and Sammie could still see some measure of hurt in her eyes. A tiny seed that Sammie needed to suffocate quickly, before it grew into something terrible, roots shattering what they held between them.
