“Good,” he says before walking over to Travis, who’s coming out of the showers. He speaks to him for a minute. Travis’s serious expression doesn’t budge the entire time. Coach could be showering him in praise or quietly ripping him a new asshole. You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference with a guy like Travis. His expression is always the same: hard and serious.
Travis nods once before Coach walks out of the locker room, then sits on the bench next to me in front of his stall.
“All good?” I ask.
He nods. “Yeah. Coach was just telling me that I did well tonight and that the scouts in the stands noticed.”
I grin and grab his shoulder, giving him a shake. “Dude, get excited. That’s good news.”
He just frowns at me. “This is my excited face.”
My head falls back as I laugh. I shower and get cleaned up, then throw on some clean clothes.
“I’m starving. Let’s go to the diner and get some food,” I say to Travis.
“Yeah, I’m in,” Travis says.
Leo and Blake say they’re in too. I grab my phone and text Poppy.
Hey, wild girl. I wanna see you.
She texts back a minute later.
I want to see you too :)
There’s a swoop in my chest when I see the emoji. She hardly ever uses emojis when she texts me. Maybe that means she’s starting to catch feelings for me too.
Happiness and hope ignite in my chest.
Me: We’re grabbing dinner at the diner. Will you come?
Poppy: I’ll be there :)
Chapter 40
Nick
When I see Poppy walk into the diner wearing my jersey, I slide out of the booth, grab her by the waist, and kiss her.
When we break apart, my teammates are whistling and hollering at us.
She touches her bottom lip as she gazes up at me. “Hey.”
I kiss her cheek and smile. “Hey.”
I take her by the hand and lead her to the table. We sit down and order when the server comes.
“Your boy was on fire tonight,” Blake says to Poppy.
She turns to smile at me in the booth. “He really was.”
I slide my arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to me. “It was all because of you.”
“Seriously though, you played damn good,” Leo says to me.
“So did you guys.” I down the rest of the water in my glass right as the server drops of the banana and peanut butter milkshake I ordered when we first sat down.
I offer some to Poppy but she says no thanks. I take a long pull from the straw, moaning softly at the sugary flavor.
