“It’s fine.” Dakota shook his head, not looking bothered in the slightest. The sides of his mouth twitched as he fought back a smile. I appreciated his attempt to keep his expression neutral in the midst of a cringe-worthy hand kiss.
After I blew air into Eames, Dakota offered some praise mixed with a few extra tips. As he spoke, I tried my best to focus on what he was saying. It proved difficult because I couldn’t ignore the regret pooling into my belly with every word he said.
I was looking out for myself, yes. Rejecting him would mean I was safe. Still, something deep down told me, I was rejecting the wrong guy. Something told me, I was putting up a wall against the one person I shouldn’t.
Chapter 10
Dadhadafrownset on his face when I came into the kitchen for breakfast. Kai and Silas were going on about some of the guys they thought needed to be starters for the first game of the season. I turned on my camera and hit record as I stood in the doorway.
Tip for getting the best shot: never let your subject know you’re filming. At least, not at first.
As far as subjects went, Dad was one of my favorites to capture on film. He never failed at bringing the emotion on screen. He was a big guy with caterpillar eyebrows and a booming voice. I’d inherited most of his traits, which was why people never got confused about me being his daughter. Kai, on the other hand, looked like our mother. And she never emoted. Loved her to death, but her brows never wavered. Kai turned out the same, and thus gave me nothing to work with while I filmed his end of their current conversation.
Dad twisted his mouth to the side, disagreeing with the playbook Silas had slid in front of him. “I’ll take it into consideration, boys.”
His tone told them he would not, indeed, take what they had to say into consideration.
“This is a night’s worth of organizing.” Silas rested his head on the table in defeat. “I can barely see straight.”
“No one asked you to do this.” Dad chuckled, belly rumbling like he was from the North Pole. “I have assistant coaches for this.”
I moved in closer, zooming into the hand he placed on his belly. For a man who could be a hard ass, underneath it all, he was a softy. He reminded the camera of such when he realized I was in the room and his smile grew wider.
“Morning, Dad.” I waved while still looking at him through the camera.
“Morning, sweetheart,” he greeted, looking thankful that I interrupted Kai’s obvious ambush. “You up for the run?”
“I think you mean up to yell at us through a blow horn,” Kai corrected, voice flat and expression matching. “Emmy never misses that opportunity.”
My brother wasn’t wrong, I never missed any chance to get under his skin. It was my younger sister’s duty — no matter how old we got.
I whipped the camera in his direction, and he shot daggers into the lens. I asked, “Is this how you want to be remembered? A hater who whispers in your coach’s ear. The privilege of it all.”
Kai’s frown deepened. “He asked me to do the research. Might want to get your facts straight before you go making accusations, Miss. Aspiring Documentarian.”
“I don’t know why you all are shouting so much today.” Silas groaned as he tried to cover his face from the white overhead lights. “And why do we own every light in the county? I swear this one room is taking up half the energy of Westbrooke’s campus.”
We all laughed at Silas’s whining. Kai moved from his seat at the kitchen counter to dim the lights by a few notches. Despite the dramatic delivery, I had to agree with Silas. Everything about our new house felt a little too bright and large.
I did a three-sixty of the room to show off the space on camera as I stepped further into the kitchen. When we first got here, I couldn’t stop gawking like I was some reality show contestant going onto the next round. For the first time in what felt like forever, we didn’t have to handle our surroundings with care. We could afford to fix things if they broke, as soon as they broke. Keeping on lights was something we could afford too… though it was best not to make it a habit.
“Love your attitude, Silas. Can’t wait to see it on the field later,” Dad joked while picking up his homemade smoothie and the large binder he’d gotten in the habit of bringing everywhere.
“Don’t worry about me, Coach. I’ll be fine. Better than fine, the best.” Silas pushed himself up with eyes still heavy. It had to be difficult living with your coach when you were such a laidback person.
“Mmhm.” Dad didn’t sound too convinced but offered Silas a smile anyways. Despite his kindness, he wasn’t lenient when it came to his players on the field.
“Meet you out there,” I called after Dad and waited till the front door shut behind him before I turned off the camera.
Kai and Silas started to move, getting ready for the practice ahead. I snapped my fingers to get their attention before they could bolt into action.
“Got a question for you,” I said when they looked in my direction.
Silas slumped back into his seat. “Any excuse to sit down for a few seconds longer.”
“Is it important?” Kai didn’t look as grateful for the interruption.
The importance was questionable. I nodded all the same so my brother wouldn’t brush me off. My curiosity on the matter felt like it was burning me alive. Weston Briggs. I still didn’t know where I knew that name from. And since I was turning down “not dates,” with Dakota, I wanted to have more solid information to stand on.
