Page 161 of ClickBack

His eyes open fully. “You want me to get her statement clarified?”

“Please don’t.”

He laughs, and I rest my hand against his chest. “I liked seeing you with her.”

“You liked hearing things you could use against me.”

“That was a benefit.”

He watches me while I remember Denise laughing at the table, Javon trying to correct a story she had been present for. Jarrett had laughed, too. I had felt him relax beside me without being asked to do anything to cause it.

“She was glad to have both of you there,” I say.

“Yeah.” His fingers move over mine. “She’s been trying to get us in the same place without a game attached for a while.”

“Then I’m glad I got to come.”

He kisses me. I had meant to give him a quick one, but his hand settles at my hip and I forget to be quick. When I lean away, he follows far enough to make me smile.

“Ten o’clock,” I remind him.

“I can read a clock.”

“I’m establishing that we both know what it says.”

He pulls the sheet over my shoulder. “It says you don’t have to get up yet.”

So I don’t. I settle with my back against him and let his arm come around me. I have spent years treating these early hours as something I ought to use well. It takes more effort than I expect to leave one alone.

When I wake again, he is out of bed, standing beside the window with the room-service menu in his hand. He has put on shorts and nothing else. I take my time looking before he notices.

“You ordering breakfast?” I ask.

“Trying to. They got seven kinds of toast.”

“That’s bread, Jarrett.”

“They’ll toast all of it. What do you want?”

I tell him. He calls in the order, then comes back to the bed and sits beside my feet.

“We’re due at Jawn at one,” he says. “I’ll come back for you after the facility visit. Show starts at two. Cam has the afternoon meeting arranged there.”

“I have the schedule.”

“Making sure we both know what it says.”

I nudge him with my foot. He catches it, kisses my ankle, and puts it back beneath the sheet.

While he showers, I take my laptop to the table by the window. I finish the work I brought before breakfast arrives. When he comes out, I am closing the screen rather than finding something else to do.

He notices. He says nothing about it. He pulls out the chair beside mine and asks which toast I want first.

Chapter 30

Jarrett

The Storm facility has everything a player could ask for, including three people ready to tell me what will be replaced before camp. I like the weight room. I like the recovery space. I like knowing the staff noticed which equipment I stopped to look at without deciding that meant I had chosen a city.