If Logan finds out about me and Scottie, about Scottie and Jake …
I’ve never been so annoyed to be on a team with my brother.
“Uh, hey, why don’t we drop our stuff in the room so we can move this night along?” I tell Logan and Coop.
They both nod, and we walk over to the elevators, Logan and Coop talking about some training program or something I don’t care about when Scottie has texted me and I can’t check my phone.
It’s a relief that Coop is asking Logan so many questions instead of talking to me. I’m too distracted to care what they’re saying. All I can feel is the weight of my phone against my thigh, like it’s searing through the denim.
“How’s the knuckleball coming along?” Coop asks Logan when we get to the sixth floor.
“Better. I’m working on my arm speed,” Logan says. “It’s helping a lot.”
“Glad to hear it,” Coop says.
As soon as we step out onto the sixth floor, I speed walk to our room. I unlock the door and have already dropped off my bags in front of the bed closest to the wall and unlocked my phone before Coop and Logan enter.
My pulse triples when I see her name, like my heart’s been holding back beats all day.
Scottie
I’m in meetings from 8 till 10 tonight.
Reminder: Curfew is at ten.
Welcome to Arizona. :)
“So Lukie,” Coop says when they enter the room. “What about you? Anything new to report?”
“Not since we saw you a couple weeks ago,” I say, sliding my phone into my front pocket. “Anyway, I’m gonna leave you two here and hit the gym.”
“What?” Coop asks. “No way, man. I’m taking you guys to my favorite restaurant in town tonight. My treat.”
“Sorry, but if I have to sit for another minute, I’m going to explode. Bring me some back,” I tell them, walking backward to the door. “Logan, I’ll see you at curfew. Coop, see you tomorrow.”
Coop and Logan both give me weird looks, but I’m too wound up to care.
The second I’m out the door, I run for the stairs at the end of the hall.
It’s 7:51 p.m.
Scottie’s text taunts me with every step.
I’m in meetings from 8 till 10 …
I rush down the stairs at lightning speed, jumping the last four of every flight until I’ve hit the bottom floor. Then I sprint down the hallway until I reach the lobby, where I slow just enough not to look crazy.
I rake a hand through my hair, forcing my breathing steady. No one can know I ran here for her.
Scottie’s standing up from the table with her laptop bag and her onyx tumbler in the crook of her arm, looking around the room casually, pretending she’s not looking for me, but Iknow she is. When our eyes connect, something tight snaps into alignment inside me, like I’ve been off-kilter all day and just found my balance.
I cross the lobby, and the space dissolves into background noise the second she looks up. I could trip over a marble column and not notice. Everything fades away until it’s just the sound of my own breathing …
And her.
I catch the way she breathes in fully when she sees me, like it’s her body’s way of registering excitement she’s not allowed to admit. Her throat moves when she swallows. Her fingers tighten on the strap of her bag. She’s not as steady as she wants everyone to believe, but no one has paid enough attention to her to notice what I notice.
After an eternity that’s probably more like twenty seconds, I reach her, and we instantly fall into step, like it’s inevitable: where she goes, I go.
