Against the Rules (Even The Score #4)

14. king

CHAPTER 14

KING

DON'T DO THIS

All I wanted was to be alone but my workout only lasted fifteen minutes before my friends found me.

"I thought you were meeting up with your girl?" Ryan asked.

Ignoring him, I lifted the weights again.

Piper peered over me. "King, are you okay?"

No. I’d been in car accidents that hurt less.

"Seriously, what happened?" Adam pushed.

What the hell could I tell them? The girl I’d been obsessing over was actually Coach Lawson’s stepdaughter and she had a medical condition that made sex so painful, my dick would traumatize her for the rest of her life.

I had to say goodbye. Because I knew if we agreed to keep it platonic, or something as innocent as kissing, one day she’d ask me to reconsider. She’d pout those lips or smile at me, and I’d fold.

There was only one outcome. I’d hurt her.

Severely.

I couldn’t let that happen. Even if she asked, I couldn’t do it. Willow made me feel alive again. How could I hurt the girl who gave me that?

All of which I couldn’t say to my friends.

I needed some kind of explanation they’d buy.

"She has another guy in her life," I answered.

Everybody was sympathetic but I pushed through my reps and didn’t answer questions. I didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t want to think about it. I followed them for the rest of the day, silent, and at Gianna’s for dinner, I knocked back a beer, feeling fucking shitty.

Willow was a gorgeous college girl, she’d meet someone else. Someone who didn’t have her stepfather as a coach. Someone who couldn’t hurt her like I could. Someone not like me.

"Can I get another beer?" I muttered to the waitress.

"King?" Kassie put her head in her hands, watching me. "Nobody can help me."

I grunted.

"Where do we know Willow from? She’s so familiar."

The beer hovered too long before I took another swig. Back in Dallas, I wandered away from them to listen to Willow’s show when it became too obvious I was crashing my friends’ double date. Did Kassie follow me? Did she see Willow on stage?

I shrugged, hoping my face wouldn’t betray me. When the waitress came around, I ordered another beer. And the next. Maybe another after that, I wasn’t keeping score.

After we paid the check, I tried to break away, but Piper wrapped her arms around me.

"I’m sorry, King."

The others shared the same sentiment, but I brushed them off, heading to the training center. I didn’t want sympathy. I wanted my head to stop swimming and I wanted to see if Willow missed any of the pictures on my phone.

She didn’t.

It was wiped clean. She even deleted the flier for the show tonight.

Except I knew the address.

Didn’t I promise her I’d go to support? I was just drunk enough to remember that and just drunk enough to ignore the real-world consequences of going .

I opened Uber and typed in the address to the lounge.

"Fuck, don’t do this," I muttered.

Ordered.

The only clothing I had was Romans gear. I pilfered through my teammates’ lockers, digging into the shelves until I found a dark hoodie that fit me and a nondescript baseball cap.

"Go to bed, King," I squeezed my eyes shut. "Don’t do this."

Because this wasn’t fucking cool.

I couldn’t tell Willow it wouldn’t work between us and go to her show with the sole purpose of her not seeing me. That was fucked up. In a single word - that was stalking.

The thing was, I needed to see her.

My phone pinged and I walked out to slip into the Uber.

The lounge was packed. Full of people laughing and buying drinks from the bartender, who was running the door too. He grinned the moment he spotted me. "What do you want?"

"Can I get a beer?"

"I need some ID."

I passed it over, scanning the crowd. No Willow. She must’ve been inside, getting ready.

"Holy shit, the King? "

"Hey," I stopped him. "I’ll give you fifty bucks if you don’t repeat that." I paused. "And another fifty for the beer."

"What are you doing here? "

I almost said I was supporting a friend but that’d risk him trying to figure out who I was there for. I mumbled something about supporting local music.

It didn’t faze him. He dug in the cooler for the beer. "The Louisiana game, damn . When you took down Casey, I knocked over a bag of Doritos. Ruined a rug! They had you fighting for your life in there."

I toasted my beer to him.

If you leave now, nobody has to know about this.

Ignoring common sense, I sat in the back.

The MC introduced the band. It wasn’t until he announced Jade the Architect that I pushed from the wall and watched with rapt attention.

Willow walked up in a pair of ripped jeans and her signature pink wig, tuning her guitar. She looked so happy. Like nothing happened today. Like she wasn’t affected by me at all.

For an hour and a half, the crowd swelled back and forth by the stage. The band encored their biggest song twice before Willow took to the microphone, dewy with sweat and eyes bright. So fucking beautiful.

"You’ve been amazing ." She placed the stand behind her, wrapping the cord around her hand. "This next song is fucking filthy. "

Music filtered over the speakers and Willow closed her eyes.

All the breath left my body, it was the most beautiful sound in the world.

But where was this going? I couldn’t follow Willow around Houston. How fucked up would that be? After tonight, I’d put as much distance as I could between me and the coach’s stepdaughter. Just this once, I’d allow myself to do this.

I downed the last of the beer and listened.