I hadn’t realized I could be this obsessed about anything but basketball.
Even now, as I’m standing here in a gym filled with the guys I train with and professionals of every kind, all I can think of is the last time I saw her.
She grounds me.As if even in my darkest moments, I might be someone worth saving.A man whose worth goes deeper than the court.
“How long before we’re done with this?”I ask Jay.
He glances at his watch.“An hour.”
“What’s on your mind?”Jay asks me.
I’m a grown man.Not a teenager with a crush.I don’t do this shit.
“There’s this woman.”
“You mean Nova.”
“I mean Nova.”
He grins at me like the cat that ate the canary.
“What?”I say, affronted.“It’s not like I’m here every night thinking about her.”
“No, but you don’t have her here with you, so you think about her.”
“Fuck you.”
He laughs.“If I had a girl like Nova, I wouldn’t let her out of my sight.”
“No shit.”
“You don’t do relationships,” he says.
“I know.”
“But?”
I shrug.“I don’t know.Everything’s different with her.”
I want to show her.
After the wedding, once she has a second to think about herself and not her sister.
I head to the bleachers and grab my phone from my bag to see if she’s texted.
There’s a voicemail from my agent.
“Good news.LA’s putting something together.Guess your performance instilled confidence you’re still the guy to have for their title run.But word is, Harlan refused to take the call.”
Anger burns through me.
Tonight is the rehearsal dinner.The entire starting lineup was invited, but it was a formality.I was planning to go so I could stare at Nova from across the room, maybe drag her into the coat check at the end of the night.
But my feelings for her are overrun by my frustration with Harlan.
The assistant coaches run the team through more drills.
I grab the ball and go in for a drive, going hard at the defense.They stand their ground, and I twist, going down hard.
