"I'm not the only one with a hero complex." I fell into step with Seager as he shouldered both our duffel bags. The musty smell of the locker room lingered in the hall.
"I just want to beat your ass fair and square," he groused. "And that dick-for-brains was getting in my way."
"Yeah, sure." We stopped at the exit door. I held up my one good fist.
“Where do you think you’re going? I’ve got your gear and someone’s gotta check on your sorry, old, ass in case your skull finally caves in and you need to go to the hospital.”
I sighed. His dark eyes met my gaze, and he gave me that lopsided grin. He was fearless, driven, quick to judge and hard as hell to impress. In his world, he was the best, but he'd accepted a role as my backup—without joining the dregs trying to unseat me as a starter. Not gracefully, but coarse and raw and challenging me to do better.
I knew a guy like him, once. Didn't make it back from our last deployment, but he saved a lot of lives before he went down. And he'd known…it was probably a losing battle going in. I lost a brother that day. I hoped I'd be around to see this one grow up.
I let out a tired breath. "Wonder if either of us gets to start the next game."
He scoffed. "If one of us doesn't, Strikers or not, we're guaranteed to lose."
February 14
Women's Locker Room
She sat with her legs under her, her body barely wrapped in the towel I kept in my game bag. I lounged nearby in nothing but my birthday suit. We'd laid out our clothes in the direct path of the heater in an attempt to get them closer to uncomfortably damp—instead of waterlogged.
"I can drive my truck down to this end of the parking lot. Get the heater going. Wouldn't be far to run."
Her eyes flit toward my dick, then quickly away. It was already starting to like the attention.
"Do you have anything I can wear? I can't put on my tights, or panties." She wrinkled her nose.
"I have an extra pair of sweats. My gear's almost dry."
She bit her lip as she glanced at my cock.
"I'm starting to feel like I left you unsatisfied."
"What? Of course not!" She flushed a healthy shade of pink. "I mean, I enjoyed it. With you."
I chuckled as a warmth settled into my chest. She was adorable and sexyand mine. But she had also chosen to sit several feet away instead of next to me.
She smoothed the towel over her thighs again—a sure sign that something was on her mind. But damned if I knew the right words to say. I'd said everything I could think of. That I didn't want to be a rebound fling. That I thought I was protecting her. That I wanted her. "Change your mind about dinner yet?"
She didn't look up. "Ah, I don't think that's a good idea. I know it's for charity, soyouhave to go. But it's still a little damaging, thinking of sharing my date."
My chest tightened. "I can see that. Can I come by, though? After?"
"Tonight?" She kept her eyes down as she fidgeted with the edges of her towel.
A burning lump formed in my throat. "Yeah,” I rasped. “I feel like something's still…off? Or missing. Between us."
She shrugged but still wouldn't meet my gaze. "My season starts next week. By the end of the month, we'll be on our first road trip. We're home two weeks in March and then I'm gone almost all of April."
"I know the drill. Doesn’t help that I'm active in the transfer portal."
"Because of one play?" Her tone turned sharp.
"Game-winning play call. I upstaged Kenbrough, so he benched me, permanently. The fact that there's an investigation in progress…” I sighed. “Several of us are exploring other options. But for juniors, it's not that simple."
"Investigation?" Her eyebrows lifted.
I shrugged. "We're not supposed to talk about it. Lawyers got involved.” Mackey and Lindsom had already been expelled. “Coach is trying to claim all kinds of crap. Age discrimination, entrapment. Anything to get the school to pay him.” The locker room, since the championship game, had become what we started calling "an administrative zone." Many of us had been interviewed, multiple times, as lawyers tried to paint the picture of a patient mentor. The school and booster club, on the other side, wanted evidence of his bad temperament and reckless actions.
