"I'm sorry about the other night. What I said about your mom."
My jaw clenches. "What about her? Did Hollis say something?" Annoyance spikes through me, sharp and defensive. The last thing I need is people talking about a woman who doesn't deserve the space she'd take up in any conversation.
"No," she says quickly, nervously wetting her lips, a movement I can't ignore. "You did. And I didn't know. I would never have?—"
"I don't want to talk about it." The words come out harsher than I intend. "Don't be sorry. I don't want your pity."
Her eyes search mine, and I can see her recalibrating. "What you did out there tonight? That was for me?"
"Yes." The admission costs me, but I give it anyway.
"Why? You hate me."
"Do I?" I step closer. “You hate me. You decided we were enemies. I just played along.”
She goes still and I watch the truth reorder itself behind her eyes. Every cruel word, every cold shoulder, every time she pushed me away suddenly means something different.
"Then you understand why I need to apologize." Her voice is quieter now. "For earlier…”
I subtly shake my head and close my eyes, trying to shut out the image of her face, the genuine regret written there. Of all the directions I imagined this moment going, my mother wasn't one of them. I don't have one. She gave up that right the day she abandoned me, put me up for adoption without even telling my father I existed. She's nothing. Less than nothing.
"What about your girlfriend?" The question comes out barely above a whisper, but I hear the deflection in it. She sees my pain, recognizes it, and she's trying to pull me back from the edge.
"We both know I don't have a girlfriend." My voice comes out rough. "Layoni exists becauseyoumade it so when you refused to show up to the lessons you put up for bid at that auction.”
Hollis won the top bid for the private lessons she auctioned without my consent, and in return, I had him put her name down. However, in true Asha fashion, she flipped the script. I knew she would, I just didn't expect her to give them to Layoni. She knew the girl had a crush on me. Maybe her intentions weren't rooted in revenge; she could have just been trying to play matchmaker. But because this is Asha and she loves to wreak havoc on my life, I doubt the latter is true. She was trying toget me caught up in an affair with the coach's niece. She still hasn’t figured out that there’s only one girl I’m here for, and I’m looking at her.
"Come on, sweetheart. You enjoy driving me crazy. Do your worst."
“Why do you call me that? The least of things I am to you is sweet.”
"I see who you really are," I say gently. Behind the cold exterior, the carefully constructed walls, there's someone who cares so deeply it scares her. I see her heart, even when she won't let herself.
Her forehead settles against mine, her hair cascading around us, and my heart feels like it might literally pound out of my chest as I wait to see if she'll close the distance and put her lips to mine. Her hand glides up the side of my neck, and I know she can feel my pulse racing. But because she doesn't mock me for it, I can't help but believe she likes knowing the effect she has on me. Her touch sends shivers across my skin, and my eyes stay laser-focused on her mouth, watching as she rolls her pretty pink lips and leans in slightly before pulling up short.
"You came this far. Now what?"
"You should probably touch me," she says, her breath slightly labored. I bite my lip, and she clarifies with a subtle smile. "Wrap your arms around my waist like you like me."
"Yes, ma'am," I say slowly, letting my hands glide around her waist. My thumb brushes against the soft skin on her lower back, and I get a reward when I feel her skin pebble beneath my touch. I affect her too. "Now what?" I ask, eager for more instruction.
"Now we wait." She sucks in a stuttered breath that I feel more than hear.
"Wait?" My tone is full of gravel as one hand fully flattens against her bare skin. The night air is thick with the smell ofsummer grass, but all I can smell is her, something sweet like vanilla and reckless decisions.
"Yes, we wait." Her eyes flick up to mine for the first time since she's pulled me close, and Christ, they're darker than I've ever seen them. "He doesn't know your mouth isn't on mine."
A breeze rolls across the field, carrying the distant sound of heckling and laughter, and that's when her foot slips against the fence rail. She gasps, and her fingers clutch my shoulders as gravity pulls her into my arms. My arms band tight around her waist as I catch her against my chest, her body now flush against mine. I can feel her heart hammering, or hell, maybe that's just mine, but every rapid breath she takes feels like it's stealing mine.
"What if I want it to be?" slips out, uncaring of the pretense that's existed between us for years.
This moment changes things. It has to. There's no way she doesn't feel anything for me, no way the venom she's been so intent on feeding me is anything but affection gone wrong. Every barbed comment, every eye roll, every time she's gone out of her way to push my buttons are feelings she doesn't know what to do with. The more I've learned about her through our texts, the stories Hollis tells me, and the things she says when she thinks I'm not listening, are all cracks in her armor, and I've been cataloging every one of them because the more I know, the more I understand how the girl I once knew grew into the woman now in my arms.
She doesn't knowhowto do this. How to let someone in. Her hands are still tightly clutching my shoulders, and her pretty mouth parts for words or a kiss. I'll never know because before she can make a move, a throat is clearing behind us.
"Am I interrupting something?" Preston, the team's number three, asks.
Asha quickly unwraps her legs. "Not at all." She clears her throat. "Trigg was helping me off the fence." She takes a step back from me, and my whole body physically aches from the loss of her warmth.
