Game on, Love (Pitch and Pits #1)

22

Raina

THE HUM OF THE coffee machine filled the kitchen; the comforting scent lingered around me as I leaned on the counter top, hugging Lilli close to me.

I spent the better part of today editing content for my channels while drafting the next part of the script for ‘Pit Stops’. The title fight had been stretched out longer than expected, and with the way it was going? I had a feeling it would go on until the last race.

As a fan of the sport, I was excited at the thought of it. The last couple of years, we’ve had clean sweeps. But after Hillcrest improved their car last year, which resulted in Vedant’s first championship and failed to maintain it this season, Axel and Montclair had built a big enough gap that it felt like a no-brainer. So when he raced his way back to the fight, the car’s pace was a shock to everyone. However, the last couple of years meant that I never had to see either of them really fight each other in a way where I knew one was going to get a heartbreak. As a result, I felt stuck.

I cheered for both of them, but in the end as much as I’d like for both of them to win their next championship, one was definitely loosing.

Lilli was curled up on my arm, her little head laying on my shoulder as her claw held my hoodie. I gently stroked her back, and she purred, making my heart warm. “I’ve missed you too.”

Even though I’d spent the day with her on my lap, I still missed her. My attention was suddenly divided into a hundred small places, and the past couple of weeks, the time I used to spend with my cats was like a memory from a different lifetime. It wasn’t as if I didn’t like this new chapter of my life. Instead, everything had happened all at once, and I had no choice but to adapt to the situation instead of taking my sweet time with it.

Tilting my head, I gently rested my head on hers, making sure I didn’t put my weight into it when I felt a tug in my heart.

I felt his gaze on me before I heard him.

“Raina,” I turned around as Oliver walked further into the kitchen, a tired smile on his lips.

“Oliver,” I replied easily, and his grin widened. In the past couple of days, he’d done that each time I’d say his name. Almost as if every time I said it, it felt like the first time.

“You disappeared,” He tried his best to sound disappointed, but his face made no effort to match his words.

“You fell asleep ,” I stated, shaking my head. He’d come down to my room to sit with me while I worked but, instead, fell asleep within a minute.

A minute.

I had stared at him for so long, thinking he’d done that to wind me up, but instead, even when Milo had plopped on him aggressively, he was knocked out like he was dead.

“In my defence, your bed is comfortable.”

He wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t giving him the satisfaction of that. “I don’t understand how a professional athlete can have such low stamina. You should write a book, ‘How to be a professional athlete and a sloth’. Sounds like an instant bestseller.”

He raised his eyebrows, his pupils dilating as he leaned forward. “Oh, I can show you exactly how much stamina I actually have.”

My lips parted at his implication just as the coffee machine made a loud noise, indicating it was done.

I couldn’t decide if I was glad or not. Oliver had this intensity to him that made me feel like if I let him, he would shift the axis of my world. I was getting to know him, and he was already making me feel things that I hadn’t thought I would ever get to feel like I could see myself falling for him.

Well, that was something I hadn’t given myself the luxury of dreaming of. Because I could, it would be easy to do so, but holding on to him would be the real issue.

Because one day, maybe it wouldn’t be as easy for him. One day, he might run out of the patience he seems so sure he has.

So, I turned around to grab my mug, but clearly, he wasn’t pleased with the choice because I felt him close the gap between us.

Placing his hands on the counter next to me, he trapped me as he leaned down. I felt his warm breath on the back of my ear and pulled away as my ear touched my shoulder. “That tickles.”

Oliver chuckled before placing a kiss on the side of my head that made my heart flutter.

“Raina.”

“Hmm?”

“Why did you make a coffee at 6 PM?”

“Because.”

“Yes?”

“Free will?”

His soft laugh touched my ear, and I felt the warmth of it everywhere.

“Oliver.”

“Hmm?”

“Are you going to move?”

“Why? What’s wrong with this?”

“Well,” I was balancing Lilli on my arm—who still wasn’t a huge fan of Oliver—as she tried to swat his arm and tried (and failed) to drink my coffee with my left hand while being trapped against the counter.

“Yes?”

Before I could make an argument, the front door opened with a bang making us both freeze and Lilli jump from my hold. We both moved in sync, following the sound. Only to find what looked like a… drunk Rihaan as he tried to balance himself using the wall next to the door.

He tried being the keyword because he misjudged how far it was and tripped sideways.

“Fucking hell, mate,” Oliver moved quickly to his side.

I watched them wide-eyed, unsure if I should move towards them or hide from his periphery. The door opened again, gently this time, as Vedant entered with a furious expression on his face.

Oliver’s face was now a mix of shock and relief, clearly glad to see him. “What happened?”

Vedant gave a blabbering Rihaan a dark look as he replied. “The same shit that happens every time.”

Understanding passed in Oliver’s eyes, and they both had a silent conversation before both of them looked in my direction making the hair on the back of my neck raise.

“What?” I asked, my voice more defensive than it needed to be. Vedant gave Oliver a look, who just nodded and hiked up Rihaan before helping him up the stairs.

Irritation ran through me. This was such classic behaviour. But I expected it from my brothers, and seeing Oliver silently follow Vedant’s request without any explanation threw me off. I almost forgot he was their friend first, before… well, he wasn’t really my anything, was he?

I walked back into the kitchen with Vedant hot on my heels. “Raina.”

“Yeah?” I didn’t bother turning around as I grabbed my coffee and moved to grab a snack.

“You see me after days and no hug?”

“We’ve gone longer without seeing each other,” I replied easily, and the bitterness in my voice was evident.

Once I was sure the hurt wasn’t on my face, I looked at him. His lips were pursed in a thin line.

“This is not about you.”

“Okay,” I replied after a beat, feeling Lilli wrap herself around my feet, almost as if trying to reassure me she was there.

“Then why do you look so upset?”

I opened my mouth but paused as Oliver entered the open space. I felt him watch us both with a worried gaze, but I didn’t meet his eyes.

He moved quietly around me, grabbed a glass of water and some painkillers and walked back out, but not without giving me a look.

What it said, I have no clue.

“I’m not upset,” I said evenly. It wasn’t what I was going to say earlier, but the interruption was enough to break my focus on the irritation.

“Yeah, now you’re not. Does Oliver have a secret spell or something? You defused in record time.” Vedant frowned, and I rolled my eyes.

“No, he doesn’t. It just took me a second.”

He watched me silently, unconvinced.

“Stop giving me that look. And if it’s not me, what was it about?”

Vedant sighed, leaning on the back of the couch. “It was about Ma. It’s always about Ma.”

Everything inside me stilled as I asked, “What about Ma?”

Though, it was what he did next that made me forget to breathe.

He pulled out a journal from god knows where because the only thing I was focused on was what he had in his hands. He took a step forward in my direction, and then another, and then took my coffee from my shaking hands as he held the journal for me.

“What is this?” The leather felt rough under my fingers, and my voice barely above a whisper, but even though I had asked it, I knew the connection. Rihaan had mentioned it the first night. I had a similar one upstairs.

“It’s one of Ma’s journals.”

“ One ?”

“There are more at the house…” His voice trailed off as I opened it.

01 January 2017

A new year, a fresh start and, according to the doctors, my final one. I haven’t given hope yet. They’re staring me on a new…

My eyes shot to his in surprise.

“How do you have this one?” I asked, but I was already flicking back to the end of the journal.

November 2017

It worked. I was going to live. I was going to live long enough to see my little girl fall in love. I was going to live long enough to make it up to my boys all the years I lost with them. I was going to…

My vision blurred as I tried to read the entry from the day before she died.

Blinking a couple of times, I looked back at Vedant, who had an equally broken look on his face as he watched me.

He visibly gulped before replying. “Nanu left them to me in his will. He made a promise to Ma before she died. Each of us got something, and these were mine.”

“How many?”

“Every year since after she moved here with Dad.”

I sucked in a breath. “Have you read all of them?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know?”

He paused, a surprised look on his face. “How do you know?”

My brows pulled together. “Because I was there?”

His eyes moved around the room as if he were trying to piece together a puzzle in his head, and then I realised.

He didn’t know.

“Why are they still at home?” I asked as my heart raced.

“I can’t exactly leave them here, can I? Rihaan only knows about this one, and I’m rarely here, so home seemed like the safest option to make sure he doesn’t lash out without any of us around. Plus, Dev has started to go through them.” He frowned as he spoke, clearly unsure why I had asked, but I wasn’t convinced.

“Does Dad know about them?” I asked.

“Not that I know of…”

I wiped my face with the back of my sleeve as anger fuelled me. He hasn’t told them. It’s been years , and he hasn’t told them the truth. I can’t be sure if he has taken stuff out of Ma’s journal to make it easier for him, but he hasn’t told them.

“Raina,” Vedant’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. “What the hell do you mean you were there?”

“Nothing… I thought you meant something else. Forget it.”

“No, let’s talk about it now.” He was getting frustrated, which was rare even for him. “We’ve had enough of this ‘Let’s forget it’ between us to last a lifetime.”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know about this from me. And I need to see the rest of them to be sure.”

“Sure of what?”

I pursed my lips. “Can you bring them here? Or ask Dev to?”

“Not before you tell me what all of this is about.”

Oh my god.

Like a dog with a bone, I opened my mouth to tell him exactly that when Oliver walked in, and instantly, the air prickled with tension.

Without looking at him, I replied to Vedant. “I will, once you let me read them.”

Vedant was quiet for a moment before he spoke. “Promise?”

“Yeah, promise.”

“Fine,” He sighed, shaking his head. “You make a hard bargain, little storm.”

“You’re just out of practice,” I pointed out, and to my surprise, he nodded.

“Too long,” He said, his tone laced with regret. In a normal situation, I would’ve gone ahead and hugged him. But… he was in his outside clothes, so now I just stood there with a very understanding look that I hoped was enough to convey I agreed with him, but clearly that wasn’t enough. “A normal person would give their big brother a hug after that.”

“I would too, but…”

“But what?”

Oliver chuckled, his voice low and warm, yet the words he said sent a shiver down my spine. “You’re in your outside clothes.”

“In my what?”

“Outside clothes. The germs and bacteria will make her feel weird if she gives you a hug now.”

My lips parted as surprise and amusement ran through Vedant’s eyes. “Is that so?”

I closed my eyes briefly before clearing my throat. “Yes.”

In that moment, I think both of us forgot how to act, but everything in the way he tried to hide his smile told me I was going to get brutally teased by this for a long time.

He shook his head slightly before turning to Oliver. “You still planning to skip horror night?”

It was the first time after he’d entered the room that I looked at him, only to find that his eyes were already on me as he replied. “Fortunately, yes.”

“Maybe you two should do something together then. Raina also hates horror nights. Always has.”

“I can’t believe you still do those,” I murmured, too focused on the fact that they still did their yearly tradition of spending an entire day watching scary movies as they did with our parents to process the fact that my brother was casually suggesting Oliver and me to go out, alone and together.

“Have you seen the theatre room in this house? I mean, seriously, how could we not?”

I shook my head, confused. “Wait, I thought you were flying out on Monday?”

“I am. Which is why we’re doing it this Friday.”

“Friday the 13th,” I nodded.

“Exactly . It was practically written in the stars.”

I snorted, “More like in dirt on a gravestone.”

“In a haunted cemetery,” Vedant replied, and I physically shook off the creepy sensation crawling up my back.

“Okay, that is about how much horror crap of yours I can take. Tell Dev to bring them then.”

“He’s flying straight back from Delhi. So, it would probably be after Austin now.”

“Oh,” Clutching the journal closer to me, I turned to pick up my mug. “That’s fine. I’m holding on to this one, then.”

He nodded, but as I walked past him, he tugged on my hair. “Don’t let Rihaan see you have it, though.”

“Ow,” I palmed the back of my head as I turned slightly, throwing daggers at him with my eyes. “He would need to stick around me for longer than a second to notice I have it. Now let go of my hair before I throw my coffee on you.”

Vedant let go of my hair with a grin, and I rolled my eyes before walking away. Sensing Oliver’s gaze on me, I sent a small smile in his direction as I passed him without fully looking at him.

The soft thud of footsteps followed closely behind me as I entered my room.

Not my room. The guest room.

This place was starting to feel a lot more like home than I wanted to. Taking a breath, I realised I was shaking. Dumping the stuff I had in my hand, I pressed my fingers on my palm. The slightly ajar door pushed open, and Oliver walked in without a single word or question.

Closing the door behind him, he took two big steps, and he was in my personal space.

“What do you need?” His voice was a whisper, and the stubborn part of me wanted to ask him to leave; the bitter part of me wanted to comment that he should probably help one of my brothers, but the slightly sane part of me reasoned that I was not going to do what Rihaan made my brothers do.

His amber eyes met mine, and suddenly, it was easier to breathe. It was also then easier to let the sane voice win, as I replied. “Just be here.”

The words had barely let my lips, and he was leaning down and slipping his arms under mine. He pulled me forward to his chest, and my arms circled his neck. “I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“Walking away without answering your question earlier. I assumed it would be better to hear from your brother, but I should’ve asked.”

I relaxed against his hold. “Thank you.”

We stood there for a minute before I pulled my head back to meet his eyes. “Wait, what did you say to Vedant before coming up?”

Oliver’s lips twitched, trying to hold back a grin and his words. “I didn’t say anything.”

“What do you mean?”

“He just looked at me expectedly and…”

“And?”

“He might’ve given me a countdown before I turned around and followed you up the stairs.”

“He. Did. Not! ”

“He absolutely did.”

I groaned.

Forget a long while. I was going to be teased for the rest of my life.