“Thanks, Macie.” Turning to the whole group, he smiled, his eyes closing momentarily. “Thank you, all of you, for coming. You don’t know how much it means to me.” He reached down and picked up his bag. “Well, you know the drill, there’s a party. And us guys go straight there, no showers or anything first. So, you’re all welcome.”
As he spoke with Becca and Ty, I pulled Macie aside.
“Can we run home real quick?” I asked.
She looked at me as her shoulders perked up at my request. “You want to go to the party?”
I nodded. “Yeah, but I need to do something first, and I need your help.”
She agreed enthusiastically before telling Becca and Ty to get a ride with Logan. We snuck away to avoid any questions, making our way to her car.
“I’m happy you want to go out tonight. I’ve been worried about all the time you’ve been spending alone.”
My head fell against the headrest as she pulled out of the parking lot. I contemplated how much I was going to say to her on the drive home.
“Yeah, I know. It’s not only what happened at the party that’s been bothering me, though. There’s some other stuff going on, stuff I haven’t been comfortable telling you.” I kept my gaze out the windshield, refusing to look her way.
“Oh yeah,” she said. “Well, I’m not blind, ya know. Ave, none of us are.” She chuckled after saying that.
I risked a glance her way.
And the smile she had for me was warm and knowing.
CHAPTER 33
Logan
When Ava and Macie walked away at the field, I won’t lie, my heart hurt a little. Becca assured me they were meeting us at the party, but I wasn’t convinced.
“Shit, you stink, Logan,” Becca whined.
“I know I do, I hate that we don’t take showers after our games.”
She slid closer to Ty on the bench seat, getting further away from me. I bet she wished she had sat in the back.
“Maybe this is why so many of the guys get naked at the parties, because the uniforms all smell like urinals,” she chided.
I couldn’t disagree with her. That was a good way to describe the odor. It wasn’t so much the uniforms as it was the cleats and our socks. That was one thing I did change. Clean socks and my slides went on before heading inside. And I made sure to put the smelly shoes in the bed of my truck until after the party.
“Alright, let’s head in,” Ty said, also anxious to get out of the truck.
The three of us entered the house that had become like a second home to me lately. I’d been spending more and more time here with the guys to avoid running into Ava at the townhouse. Considering it was Friday, it was more crowded than the first after-party. The first floor was full of players crowding around the kitchen trying to get their share of pizza.
“I need food,” I told Becca and Ty. “Want some?”
“No,” Ty said. “We had dinner at the game. You go eat, we’ll make our way downstairs.”
The pangs of hunger in my stomach forced me to navigate through the people between me and the pizza more aggressively than I wanted. But when I finally put that first cheesy bite in my mouth, it was worth it.
“Here’s another slice, Somers, it’s going quick.” Looking to my side, Sutton held a plate out for me.
“Thanks, man,” I said and added it to the two I already had. “That was a great game tonight. Didn’t think we were gonna pull it out, but we did.”
“Yeah, right?” he said. Then a petite blonde appeared at his side, his arm going around her. “Somers, this is Amber. Amber, this is our newest beast Somers.”
After wiping my hand on my shorts since I didn’t have a napkin, I extended it to her. “Nice to meet you, Amber.”
“Hi,” she said, shaking my hand. “What’s your real name?” She laughed after asking.
