“Oh, it is?”
“Yeah... this thing is kind of like a cycle, you know?”
“Enlighten me.”
“I stay in the know to makeandkeep you happy, which keeps Ace happy, and in return, he makes me happy—like one big happy family.”
Now it’s my turn to scoff. “A’ight,Barney. I’m good on the PBS after school special shit.”
“I’m just saying, Phat, I see the way he looks at you and the way you look at him, but I’m skeptical of you sometimes.”
“Skeptical?” I pull my head back, frowning. “Says a crooked ass sports agent.”
My insult makes a loud laugh roar out of him. “You talk all that rah-rah shit about him and his talents, but life with a kid like him isn’t sunny.”
His pompous accent melts into a northern twang and I hear the grittiness he tries so hard to bury to intimidate people like me. His words sound too similar to Coach Williams’.
“You don’t think I know that?”
“You know it but you haven’tactuallylived it, babygirl. He has you on another planet, and that’s the problem. Let me show you something.” He leans in close to me, nudging his shoulder into mine. “You see that section down there?”
He wiggles his finger to the area along the court he’s been eyeing since he sat next to me. He doesn’t wait for me to reply before he runs his mouth again.
“That’s where the players’ families, wives, girlfriends, and side chicks sit. If Ace has it his way, you’ll be plopped right in the melee for him to blow you kisses while he warms up or whatever the fuck he likes to do before games.”
I squint at the cluster of people until I zero in on a mass of curls and high-yellow skin that looks too familiar. The more he talks, the more I concentrate on trying to make out the features of the girl, but we’re too far up.
“If you were living all that rah-rah shit you like to talk about, you’d have no problem being down there.”
I swallow a mouthful of words at the thought of a camera being shoved in my face just for being Ace’s. “I—I don’t.”
He whips his head around and stares at me right as the jumbotron flashes an image of the girl and a leggy blonde sitting next to her. “So you’re telling me, you’d have no problem sitting courtside, just a few feet away from your boyfriend’s victim?”
Victim.
The word comes out in broken syllables as Cree nudges the girl so they can cheese at the jumbotron together. I want to throw up that strawberry Dum-Dum this time because Blake is the treacherous fucked up Carlton Banks I said he was.
“Damn... oh, you ain’t know?” He flings his finger from me to the jumbotron and then looks over his shoulder to make sure Ace is deep in another sponsored bottle of tequila. “You see, the curly headed one is—”
“Cree.”
He chuckles. “Shit, maybe Ace wasn’t lying. Maybe he told you a lil’ something. He ain’t tell you the juicy part though, right?”
“What the fuc—”
“Hey, don’t curse at me. You should take all of what I’m about to give to you for free because these things are important, Lourdes. Ineverwork for free.”
I can’t even curse him out for calling me Lourdes. I’m too focused on the girl next to Cree—thevictimwith dirty blonde hair, porcelain skin, and a deep dimple that sinks into her cheek every time Cree says something to her.
“Once upon a time in LaLa Land...” Blake chuckles around the rim of his glass. “Javier Quinones andThe Kidwere good friends—so good that Javier and his sister Cree spent endless amounts of time with the Williams family. You know AW loves a great charity case. He likes to swoop in and take them under his wing, give them his knowledge—”
“His time...” I croak out, remembering the tortured look in Ace’s eyes on Angie’s birthday.
Blake grins and nods like we’re having a tea session, but there’s a nasty bitter taste in my mouth from that strawberry Dum-Dum.
“He gives them his time, resources, and his attention—much more than he gives our boy. I think by now you can grasp that Javier isn’t just a standout player by happenstance.”
My eyes brush Javier’s lanky frame as he goes in for a smooth layup that only Ason Williams can teach. Cheyenne claps with her back straight as a board and a fling of her hair.
