Lex closed the lid to the grill and pulled up a seat. With a snort, he pointed at me. “You do realize he was nominated for the Heisman, right?”
“Heisman Shmeisman,” Blake teased as she bounced between her bare feet, her boobs joining in with the fun.
“Focus,” Lex snapped.
“I am!”
Or at least I was trying. Really hard. To focus. Damn, they just never got old, did they?
“Twenty bucks says she knocks him out with the first spike,” Gabi said in an amused tone.
“You’ve got yourself a bet.” Lex shook her hand.
They were shaking hands. They were sitting next to each other, and World War III wasn’t breaking out. I opened my mouth to comment just as Lex released her hand and rubbed it on his jeans.
“What? Afraid of girls now?” Gabi sneered.
“Just the ones who may be dudes.” Lex nodded, then directed a pointed look at her crotch. “Hmm, I’m thinking fifty-fifty chance.”
“Don’t put it past me to dump lighter fluid on the barbecue.”
“And burn down your own house?”
“Why else would I take out insurance?” Gabi said sweetly, smacking Lex in the arm, then grabbing his bicep and pinching.
Just kidding. All was right with the world.
“Are you ready?” Blake called.
“Yup.” I tossed the ball into the air. “Service.”
She returned with a simple bump, and I returned with a set. Really, it was kind of silly how slow the game was starting— One minute, the ball was in the air floating in Blake’s direction; the next, I was on my ass looking up at the sky and wondering if a tree branch had impaled itself in my neck.
“What the hell?” I croaked.
Blake stood over me, hands on hips. “Sorry, do you want me to warn you next time I spike it?”
“Nope.” I grinned. “No mercy, huh?”
“Nope,” she said in the same way I had.
With a coy smile, she offered her hand. I slapped it away and got to my feet under my own power. “Don’t get pissed if I break your face.”
“Likewise,” she fired back, tossing the ball over the net.
“Careful, man.” Lex laughed. “She’s got a strong arm.”
“You think?” I said.
Gabi kept silent. Smart girl.
“What is it?” I asked. “One to nothing?”
Blake blew me a kiss.
“That’s it.” I tossed the ball into the air and spiked it as hard as I could. She returned it just before it kissed the grass, causing the ball to float over the net. Cake. I jumped up to spike it down, but she blocked my shot, causing the ball to fall back onto my side. Quickly I stumbled backward and just barely caught it with my fist, bumping it up over to her side.
I let out a sigh of relief when it bounced on the grass.
“Aw . . .” I winked at Blake. “Next time, sport.”
Her indifference shattered, Blake’s face went from calm to “I may kill you in your sleep, then feed your intestines to the neighborhood cats.”
I took a cautious step back.
“My serve.” Her hips swayed as she moved back toward her side. “Service.”
The ball came careening over the net like a bullet train. I had to dive to get underneath it, and even then it just barely grazed over the net.
We volleyed back and forth three times before she finally tipped it over and scored.
For the next hour, that was exactly how it went. We continued to volley back and forth while Gabi and Lex stuffed their faces. Neither of us wanted to quit, and every time one of us got to game point, the other was right behind. And Gabi said that the winner had to win by two, not one.
It was nearing ninety minutes.
I was hot as hell.
Starved.
And losing by one.
“Concede,” Gabi shouted. “She’s got you!”
“Never!” I jabbed a finger at Blake. “What if I let you win?”
“I’ll know.”
“Hmm.”
“Besides”—she batted those damn eyelashes—“you’re too competitive to lose that way.”
Damn it. I took my stance and waited. So far, all of her serves had been brutal. Come morning, I would probably look like J. J. Watt had bitch-slapped me in the face—repeatedly.
The ball came flying over the net toward my left. I tried to move, but my knee caught, and the aching I’d been feeling for the past few weeks turned into full-blown bone-splitting agony. With a cry, I fell to the ground, my face slamming into the dirt and grass as the throbbing intensified.
It hurt too badly for embarrassment to be a factor. Shit.
“Oh shit.” Lex called, and then he was at my side. “You okay?”
Damn, it hurt. Why did it have to hurt so much? Oh, right. Because I was missing some key tendons and ligaments, and a few metal rods were the only thing keeping my bones in place.
“Ian!” Blake stumbled to my side, her eyes wild with panic. “What happened? Do we need to go to the hospital?”
“No, no, no.” I winced as I tried to sit up and stretch my leg out. Normally it was the only thing that helped. Well, that and pain pills, but I refused to take anything I could possibly get addicted to. “I’m fine.”
Blake pulled up my jeans and started running her hands up and down the side of my left knee.