My father brightened at my answer. “Does Jason like football?”
Cooper giggled like a little girl. Visions of throat-punching him flashed in my head. I didn’t get to linger on it too long, because the defensive coordinator materialized at the side of our table.
“Bob, you got a second?”
My dad nodded and rose from his chair, then followed behind as he was led to the coaches’ table.
“I hope he’s telling him they need to blitz more,” my mom said when he was gone. Her gaze turned back to me, and I knew more questions about Jay were imminent.
“Hey, you’ve got something in your teeth.” I gestured to a spot on my teeth, and my mom followed suit. “Yeah, right there. You should go to the bathroom and check it out. It’s in there good, you might not see it at first.”
It was another lie, but who was counting? Desperate times and all. I needed to put the fear of God into my brother before he blurted out the truth. Our mother excused herself, and as soon as she was out of earshot, I turned to unload.
“How the hell do you know?” I hissed.
“One of my friends has an older sister who was at Marcy’s wedding. She posted a pic of him on Facebook. Please tell me you’re dating a guy who plays for Michigan.” Cooper’s expression was pure joy. “Shit, Kayla, this is gonna make me look so good.”
I shot him a death glare. “You need to shut your face.”
“C’mon, I’m just playing. They’re not going to disown you.” He picked up his phone and went back to scrolling. “Well, probably not.”
“You can’t tell them.” Panic filled my voice. “Swear to me.”
He looked up from the phone, and his serious expression made my blood turn to slush. “No way, this is too good.”
“Coop, come on.” My plea had no effect. “Do your favorite sister a solid.”
He gave me a plain look. “You’re my only sister, and no. Mom and Dad are breathing down my neck because this is their last year. Mom’s not ready to have an empty nest.” His attention returned to his phone screen. “You dating a Wolverine? They’re going to lose their shit, and that buys me at least a month of being the better child. A month of total freedom.”
I loved my brother, but he was being an asshole. I wanted to argue I wasn’t dating Jay, but given what we’d done— My phone chimed.
Jay: Current mood.
It was followed by a GIF of Carlton from the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” dancing. I smiled, and then immediately had to cut it out.
“I didn’t want to have to do this,” I said to Cooper, “but remember that time I came downstairs and said I didn’t see anything?”
He sobered and the smile faded from his face.
Good. He knew exactly what I was talking about. “I lied,” I announced. “I. Saw. Everything.”
Cooper’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. Color drained from his skin, and the phone in his hand was ignored.
Dad returned, dropped down into his seat, and seemed to sense the strange tension between us in an instant. “What’s going on with you two?”
“Nothing.” My tone was overly-chipper.
My brother looked shell-shocked. “How about that fumble recovery by Tariq Crawford?” he sputtered out. “Wasn’t it great?”
My father’s shoulders pulled back, and he looked at Cooper with an expression that said what the heck? There was no response, so Dad’s gaze shifted to me.
I shrugged, but inside I gave a sigh of relief.
-17-
JAY
I walked into my room, dropped my equipment bag on the floor with a thud, and put my ass in my desk chair. Kayla and I were supposed to chat tonight, and after the game I’d had, I was dying to see her.
Tonight, we’d see each other face-to-face. Our first official video-chat. Not as good as being in-person, but it’d been easier to get her to agree to this, rather than drive three hours north.
The dialog box on my computer screen leapt to life after I clicked on her icon, and the ringing started. I hadn’t texted her if she was ready. I was too impatient to see her.
Holy.
Shit.
The image popped onto the screen, and there she was. I ignored the colors and the logos. All that mattered was she was there, and wearing a goddamn cheerleading uniform. Every guy’s fantasy in the flesh.
Kayla’s hair was pulled back with a large red bow. Her uniform was white sleeves, gray top and skirt, and some red. I tried not to stare at her short skirt for too long and forced myself to look at the rest of the room in her apartment.
Her place wasn’t overly girly, and like mine, it was cramped. Her bed was lofted over a dresser that had a few knobs missing. A large, dry-erase calendar was tacked to a wall, with times scribbled on various days.
“Hi.” Her bright smile froze as she stared at her computer screen.
Shit. I hadn’t exactly de-Michigan-ed my dorm room. Or changed out of my blue warm-ups, decorated with a yellow M and a Nike swoosh. Well, fuck it. She’d need to get used to this aspect of my life.
“Hey,” I said. “How was your game?”
She didn’t blink. Her eyes drifted left and then right, slowly taking in my surroundings. Her door was open and a lanky guy walked by. What the fuck?
“Who’s that?” I demanded.
“My roommate, Chuck.”
“Chuck’s a guy? You live with a guy?”
She peered at me like I was being an idiot. “You didn’t figure that out before? Like, when I said my roommate’s name was Chuck?”
“I thought it was, I dunno, a nickname.”
“Yeah. It’s short for Charles.”
I couldn’t wrap my head around it. “How does that work?”
“Oh, right. He’s a guy and I’m a girl. We can’t be friends. We must be lovers.” She turned to the doorway and raised her voice. “Chuck, get in here! Jay thinks we’re lovers!”
A male voice came from beyond. “I just threw up in my mouth.”
“He wants me so bad,” Kayla deadpanned.
I didn’t know how to feel about it. Kayla was smoking hot, and she was living with another guy? Was he gay?
“We grew up together,” she said. “He’s family to me. And no, he’s not gay. Is that going to be a problem?”
Her conviction was absolute, and I sucked up my unexpected possessiveness. We had a big enough issue with the rivalry, I wasn’t going to add another. “No, no problem,” I said. “I heard you guys won today.”
She went as bright as the sun. “Was there ever any doubt?”
She reached back and pulled the bow out of her hair, letting her blonde locks fall over her shoulders. There was a defined ridge were the ponytail had been. I watched her go to the door and shut it, sealing her bedroom off from her male roommate.
But she never reciprocated my question. “You aren’t even going to ask me, are you?”
“I heard. Way to go.” Her voice was monotone.
“Hmm. Heartfelt.”
She gave a slight shake of her head, like she was annoyed. Was it with me, or herself? She tried again. “Sorry. Congrats! Better?”
“Yeah.” She’d at least made an attempt. My gaze zeroed in on her hands as they went to the side of her cheerleading top. “What, uh, are you doing there?”
“Changing.”