“You know, for your size, you’re pretty fast,” I tease him as he pushes around Raul playfully. He tosses his arm over me, and we find ourselves in line to shake hands. The Bears are respectful until we reach Barton—his face set in a hard, mean line.
“For a second there, I thought you were going to have to pull in some ringers,” he says to us, and Boone scoffs.
“You can never just take a loss, can you?” Boone squares his shoulders.
“That was barely a loss, Black.” He steps into my brother’s space, and I tense.
“Not what the scoresheet says—unless you play rugby as well as you read?” Boone laughs, but I can hear how on edge he is with every word.
“You still following Keegan around like a kicked dog?” Barton needles.
“I always forget you’re friends with that spineless piece of shit.” Boone shakes his head. Kaia’scurrentboyfriend, Christian, will always be a sore spot that Boone pretends isn’t.
“It’s pathetic,” he says under his breath and steps forward.
“Say it with your chest, Barty. I can’t hear you,” Boone tenses.
“I said, it’s pathetic,” he hisses, and the next step he takes warrants my intervention.
“Step back from my brother, Barton.” There’s no lightness to my words, only a command, and it makes him turn his head toward me. My hand shakes at my side, and I ball it to keep it from doing it any further.
“What do they call you guys again? Thing One and Thing Two? Is it because you’re idiots or because you share a brain cell?” He chuckles, still trying to get under our skin. I scoff, ready to beat his ass for less. “I’m not starting shit. Calm down, Bright.”
“Back.” I don’t raise my voice. “Up.”
“Alright, hey! Hey…” Judd is the first to step between the three of us, and he easily walks Barton back away from my brother. “Cool off,” he says, turning back to us. “We won. We go home with the Hillcats. He goes home to his hand.”
“Maybe if he’s lucky, Christian will help him out,” Boone claps back, and the laughter that falls from his lips is more natural this time. His shoulders go slack as Judd slaps him on the stomach and wanders back to the bench.
“If you’re quicker off your left foot, you’d have that opening faster.” Kaia is standing with her arms crossed in the bleachers, and Boone smiles up at her.
“Be quiet, Killer, we all know I’m faster than you. I don’t need fancy foot tricks to take off.” Boone is quick to silence her, knowing that it’s only going to rile her up more.
“Oh,” she smiles, sick and wide across her face. “That’s cute.”
“Aw, baby girl, that was so close to a genuine compliment,” Boone fires back. The flirting never stops. “You’re good, Kai, but you aren’t that good. You’d never catch me,” he argues.
Everyone simultaneously groans and grumbles around them.
“Is that a challenge?” Kaia narrows her eyes at him and climbs down from the bleachers. Her five-seven frame is average, but pitted up against Boone’s six-three, she’s dwarfed.
“Please don’t, I’m exhausted…” I say, rubbing the sweat from my face with the bottom of my shirt, when I drop it, Rhea’s staring at me like I just dropped my pants.Subtle.
“No, Boone thinks he’s better and faster than me.” Kaia’s tone is vicious, and her dark eyes are cutting through him like a knife as she speaks. “So let’s prove that once and for all…”
“I’m not racing you. I just played a full game.” Boone scoffs and ignores her deadly expression as he runs a towel through his sweaty hair. He lets it fall around his neck, and both tattooed hands tug on either side as he finally looks down at her.
“So go take a nap,” she hisses. “Hillcats vs the Hogs. Tonight.”
“Half our players work at the bar tonight, Kaia,” I remind her and dig through my duffel bag for my phone. Daisy is at home by herself, and while I know that she’s old enough to be there, the worry still remains, and checking in on her periodically helps.
“After shift. Three a.m.” She shrugs.
“No,” I say it at the exact moment Boone agrees. “Are you serious? This is childish.”
“I’m not letting you run that pretty little mouth without consequences,” Boone says to her, never looking over at me because if he did, he would see how pissed off I am.
“Three a.m.,” Kaia says again.
