What’s hard to understand about this?
I had to help Savannah drag all sorts of food and supplies from her car to my kitchen this morning so she could prep forher other clients as well as for me, but she was so happy to have more space that I didn’t mind. Not even when she bemoaned my lack of proper tools and appliances. In fact, I made a note of anything she was missing and added it to an online shopping cart to be delivered tomorrow so she doesn’t have to take things out of her own kitchen.
A knock on my window makes me jump, and I look over to find Moxie frowning at me. What’s his problem?
I hit the button to roll the window down. “G’day, Mox.”
“Your kitchen?”
I lift an eyebrow. “You asked that already.”
“Right.” He furrows his brow, looking as confused as I feel. “And an event? What kind of event?”
“Some networking thing she was a part of. Didn’t pay much attention to the details. Why are you—”
He opens my door, silently telling me to get out of the car. Once I’m on the pavement and facing him, he folds his arms and studies me carefully. “You’re actually doing it. Changing your ways and fixing things. Just like that?”
I match his stance, folding my own arms and hoping I don’t internalize his shock in a bad way. With how I’ve been behaving before now, he’s allowed to be surprised, and I don’t have to let it bother me. “I said I would.”
He grunts, still giving me an examining look, and then he glances at the practice facility and grimaces. “That’s great that you’re helping Savannah, but you’re still suspended.”
“Well aware, mate.” I gesture to the two coolers full of ingredients sitting on my backseat. “Sav’s cooking for the teamtonight, but she had a client meeting this afternoon and won’t have time to go back to my place for all of this.”
“Oh.” Moxie runs a hand through his curly hair as he stares at the coolers. Apparently this is taking him some time to process. “Did something happen between the two of you?”
I bristle at that. “You think the only reason I’d help her is because I got some action?”
“Dude.” He’s glaring now, and I’m keen to glare in return. “That’s not what I meant.”
“And that’s not what happened,” I growl back. I spent a lot of time with Savannah over the weekend, but she was working most of it. I’ve never seen hernotworking, and while my attraction hasn’t dimmed, I’ve thrown my energy toward coming up with ways to get her a break now and then.
So far, I’ve come up blank, but I’ll figure it out.
“You should get all that inside,” Moxie says with a quick shake of his head, like he’s trying to get his thoughts to fall into place.
I glance at the coolers. “Mel will kill me if she sees me carrying one of those.” Honestly, getting them to the car in the first place was rough, and my shoulder is still aching.
“Yeah,” Moxie agrees with a grimace. “How about we split one and come back for the other.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be leading practice?” Not that I really want to turn down his offer.
Opening the back door, Moxie hauls the first cooler out and sets it on the ground between us with more ease than I’d like. I remind myself thathedidn’t sprain his shoulder. “You need help,” he says with a shrug.
The team also needstheir captain. Coach is good at his job, but it’s Moxie who holds everything together. “I’ll grab a cart or something,” I tell him.
“Nah. Grab your side.”
I’ll stop arguing. Lifting one handle, I follow Moxie toward the facility and silently hope we don’t run into any of the Thunder. They were all too happy when I got suspended, and I can’t imagine they’ll be thrilled to see me here. There are always some stragglers, but hopefully most of them are already—
“Hey, French!” Moxie shouts, pulling my attention to the left, where two players are heading our way. “Bean!”
I groan, knowing what he’s about to say to them. “Couldn’t have been anyone else?” I mutter under my breath.
Moxie chuckles—apparently he heard my question—and lowers the cooler to the pavement. “You still have to be nice while under suspension.”
“Tell that to the string bean,” I grumble.
“What’s the hero doing here?” Bean asks, glaring at me.
