“Far as I’m concerned, yeah, but it’s not up to me. My opinion isn’t the one that matters.”
She toyed with the corner of her lip, staring at me before her hands were moving, hesitantly.“Are you worried about what they’ll say?”
My first instinct was to lie and say no, but I decided to be honest because I felt like I could be.
“I’ve only ever been a Shark. I don’t know that I could do this wearing another jersey in another city and that’s saying a lot because football is my whole fucking life. It’s who I am, it’s all I know, but suiting up for another team just doesn’t feel right.”
“You would quit?”
I wasn’t prepared to admit quitting would be the only other alternative, so I decided on another response.“I can’t drag Rylee from city to city just because I fucked up. That’s not fair to her.”
“It might not be fair and it might not be what you want but it could be your only option.”
“And then what, you’ll use it against me so you can keep her with you.”I glanced at Somee and she frowned with her hands moving fast.
“Why do you think I’m against Rylee being with you?”
“Because you’ve been against this since the day we met.”
“I didn’t know you,”she signed angrily.“And honestly, it wasn’t about you. It could have been God Himself showing up to demand custody. I would have reacted the same. She’s been through a lot and deserves to be with someone who will put her first.”
“I am.”
“I know that now. I didn’t then. You want to penalize me for caring.”She frowned, looking cute as hell. Somee being pissed wasn’t threatening. It made my dick hard with the need to deliver some act right.“Why are you smiling?”
“You’re cute as fuck.”
“We’re not talking about me. We’re talking about Rylee.”I saw her blushing but she was still pissed and I smiled harder.
“Which means we’re talking about you. You care about my sister more than her own mother does and that says a lot. I’mnot mad that you were on my case so heavily when it came to my sister. I respect how much she means to you. Can we agree that you were mean as hell when you first met me? I forgive you and now we’re cool.”
She laughed then her hands were moving.“You forgive me when I didn’t do anything wrong?”She arched a brow and I flashed a smile.
“Yes, now let’s move on. You chillin’ with me tomorrow or what?”
“What are we doing?”she signed.
“I’m going to give you an official tour of my city.”
To try and convince you that you love it here and need to stay.
“I don’t think we have enough time for a tour. School is out at three.”
“Five, tomorrow. She has the music program after school. We have enough time to do a few things. You down? And don’t say no. You don’t have shit else to do.”
“Well, since the invitation was so lovely, how could I refuse?”
I chuckled.“Aight. It’s a date.”
She shook her head.“It’s a hang out.”
Nah, baby, it’s a date.
“Label it however you want but you’re all mine tomorrow. I need to call my agent so I’m going to let you get some rest. If you need anything, you know where to find me,”I signed, then stood, not really wanting to leave. I needed to holler at Sovoya to prepare for tomorrow.
“I’m good, thank you.”
I left Somee and headed downstairs to the basement to get Sovoya on the line with a video call. She was big on things like face-to-face meetings, needing to see if we were on bullshit or not when handling business. That also might just be me becauseI’d hit her up a time or two from the club or when I was in a situation where I was doing anything but business when I returned calls that she insisted were a priority. She answered but immediately put me on hold. “Hang on, Ryland.”
