“Ooo, first and last name,” Quint says, joining us. “Somebody’s in trouble.”
I walk back to the middle. “Let’s go, Hotshot,” I call out to Slater. He jogs over to the middle, where I’m waiting.
“I’m ready. Are you?”
I nod. “Let’s do this thing.” And then we start. I race after Quint, who has the ball. “Block it!” I yell to Reid when Quint kicks. The ball is just out of Reid’s reach, and they score. Quint does some sort of weird victory dance, and I turn to Slater. “Can you answer that, please?”
He gives me that sexy smirk of his. “Gladly.”
We start in the middle once again, and then we’re off. Slater gets it to our goal in a matter of seconds, scoring on Evie right away. I notice he doesn’t kick it the way he does when he’s playing against the guys. He keeps it easy, and I appreciate thathe doesn’t try to take out my best friend. “Yes! Score!” I run over to him and high-five him. “That’s how you do it, Hotshot!” He just shakes his head, and then we’re on defense again. We each score another point and do a whole lot more running around. When they finally call a break, I drop right to the ground where I’m standing and lay down. A shadow looms over me, blocking the sun; but I don’t open my eyes.
“You good?” I hear Slater ask.
“I’m just going to die right here. Can I please?”
His low chuckle fills my ears, warming my insides. “How about before you die, you drink this bottle of water?”
I moan. “Can’t I just die in peace?”
“Afteryou drink the water.”
I finally crack an eye open. “Fine.” I sit up, and he hands me the water bottle. I drain it in a matter of seconds. “Huh. I guess I was thirsty.” I hand him the empty bottle. “Okay, now I die.”
“You’re not dying. Come on. We need to get ready for the second half.”
My eyes pop open. “The second half?” I sit up. “That wasn’t the whole game?”
“Nope,” Quint says, standing right behind Slater. “That was just the first half.” He grins down at me, and I scowl up at him.
“I hate you. All of you.”
Quint lets out a full belly laugh. “We love you, Tessa.” Slater turns to Quint, and Quint lifts his arms and takes a step back. “Okay, I’ll give you two a moment.”
“We don’t need a moment,” I call out after him, but he jogs over to his teammates.
“Ready to keep going?” Slater asks.
“No.”
“How about you be goalie for a little bit?” he suggests.
“Oh,” I sigh. “That will work. Just keep the ball out of my end, would you?”
His lips tug up. “I’ll see what I can do.”
He stands and puts out a hand. I put mine in his, and he pulls me to my feet. “Ready?” Zane calls out.
“Hold your horses, QB,” I call out to him.
I hear laughter, but I don’t look over. I make my way to our net on shaky legs. “She gets a little testy when she’s hungry,” I hear Evie say.
“That’s not—” I pause and think about it. “That’s totally true. I also get testy when people make me run for miles on end.” I hear laughter, but I don’t turn around. I finally make it to the net and then turn around.
“Everybody ready?” Quint asks. He and Evie are standing in the middle; I guess it’s Zane’s turn to be goalie. “Let’s go!” And we start once again. I make two mental notes on this particular Sunday. One, never come over to the House of Stars on a Sunday again, and neverevertake your eye off the ball. One minute, I’m thinking about my exhaustion. The next, there’s a ball in my face. Literally.
Chapter 15
Tessa
