6. Brooke
6
brOOKE
I never used to think about how funny a guy was before I went out with him. Humor was something I took for granted. But as I sit across from Trev, who’s regaling me with stories about great things he’s done, I resist the urge to yawn.
“Hey, Brooke. You still with me?” Trev’s voice has me snapping back.
“Sorry. Didn’t sleep much last night.”
“Your roommate keeping you up?” he says with a knowing grin.
My water goes down wrong, and I reach for my wine to wash it down.
“I’ve heard those Kodiaks like to party.”
I shrug. “In the summer, sure. But during basketball season, they’re working their asses off.”
“Not all of them. Miles has a reputation.”
I set my wine back down, the base clinking against my plate. “I didn’t realize you knew him.”
Trev blinks in surprise. “Not personally.”
“So, you don’t know what he gets up to.”
The implication that Miles is flaky irritates me. I’ve seen how devoted he is to family and friends, even to his game.
The problem isn’t that I can’t prove he’s wrong—it’s that I want to.
“Enough about them. We could go back to my place?” Trev suggests with a grin, reaching for the bill.
I lift a shoulder. “I should check on Waffles. I promised I’d watch him while my roommate was gone.”
“Then we can go back to yours.”
I chew my lip. “He doesn’t love strangers.”
Trev turns to face me. “You don’t want to go home with me. It’s cool.”
I press my hands to my eyes. I’m not apologizing, because it’s messed up for a woman to apologize to a guy for not fucking him, but this still feels awkward.
“I get that it was kind of our thing. And to be honest, I was thinking about it when you asked me out.”
He cocks his head, looking genuinely curious. “So what changed?”
“Nothing you did. My mind is somewhere else. But I did have a good time.”
Trev leans back and nods. “Yeah. Sure.”
We leave the restaurant and take his car back to my place.
He drops me off, leaning in to kiss me.
I let him do it. A test to see if the connection can help.
“You won’t be thinking of him.” Miles’s words come back.
Damn if he isn’t right.
On the way home, I stop at a café for an almond milk latte to go.
A few weeks ago, I was living in my apartment, zero cares in the world. Now, I’m a lot more aware of things.
How much my life cost.
How much I focused on keeping up appearances.
How much I want my brother’s teammate, even when I don’t want to.
It’s impossible to forget how sleeping with him felt. More than that, his kindness in looking out for me—without any real return—affects me.
With my mom, there was a specific payback: her career and her image.
With Miles, I get that he’s helping Jay. But while maybe he was helping out his friend’s little sister with Kevin years ago, or in Vail… Miles didn’t need to move me in with him. He made his life harder by doing it.
I head upstairs to the condo, sipping the latte and grimacing. Definitely not elite.
“Miles?” I call tentatively when I step inside.
There’s no answer. He already left.
The anticipation in my stomach evaporates along with the nerves.
I step out of my shoes and trudge across the living room. The soft wool of the carpet makes me curl my toes.
I set the latte on the coffee table and drop onto the couch, kicking my feet up on the end. There’s plenty of reality TV to watch. I could call Nova or Ruby, or swing by the bar to see Sierra.
“It’s you and me, buddy,” I say to Waffles.
He snorts his agreement.
I should be overjoyed about having the place to myself.
I will be , I decide.
* * *
MILES
“Tapping out?” Clay asks from above me.
“No way.” Sweat rolls down my face, and I press the bar overhead to finish my set.
The new guys work hard. The starters work even harder.
“Hawkins put up thirty-five points for Boston last night.” I sit up and grab a towel.
Clay nods. “Plus ten rebounds and eight assists.”
The fact that our all-star knows the guy’s stats makes me blink. “You don’t take anything for granted, do you?”
“Can’t. That’s the day you lose it.”
I’ve got to ride my championship to bigger and better things.
If the team does well again this year—like conference finals well—it’ll be a welcome boost for my career.
Grams needs a new retirement home. I decided that after the hospital. The ones I’ve called aren’t cheap either, but I won’t have her worry about it for a second. I’ll do whatever it takes, even hire her a full-time support worker, to have her feel cared for. She deserves every ounce of comfort and dignity available.
“Jay’s worried about Boston.”
“Seems like they’re his LA,” Clay responds, referring to the team he spent time with that became his biggest rivals. “You know what’s behind that?”
I twist the towel in my hands, considering. “Hawkins always got under his skin. Far as I know, they never played together. Probably just a beef that started with him talking shit.”
“Dragon will keep you up at night until you slay it.”
“What if you don’t?”
He stretches both arms overhead, miles of black ink snaking across every inch. “Man can only go without sleep for so long before it fucks you up forever.”
I turn that over. “How’s Nova?” I ask, my attention settling on the ring tattooed on his finger.
“She’s got some new pieces she’s working on. Plus a show coming up.” He’s proud of her, and it’s obvious from the way he talks.
“I’m happy for you, man.”
Clay stretches an arm across his chest. “When you find the one, she’s it. You wonder how you spent all the days before you were thinking about her.”
He sounds like a guy who knows what he’s talking about.
Since Brooke moved in, it’s been… interesting.
She’s everywhere. Eating my food, smelling like heaven.
She owns a fascinating volume of clothes, which appear to spill out of her wardrobe and into her room whenever I catch a glimpse inside.
Whether she’s watching TV or drinking a coffee or researching on her computer, it’s with single-minded focus.
When she turns that attention on me, it’s like a drug. Every time we pass each other in a room, it takes all my restraint not to reach out and touch her.
Having her close was supposed to be a way to keep an eye on her, except all can think about is her.
I can’t have her, not only because Jay would murder me.
Having a pro career and a healthy relationship aren’t usually compatible. The Kodiaks come first for as long as I’m lucky enough to put on a uniform and take the court every night.
And there’s no way I’m starting something unhealthy with Brooke Ellis.
She deserves more than that. She deserves everything.
When I went to bed the night before we left for the road trip, I tossed and turned, imagining her tangled in her sheets on the other side of the wall.
I wanted to do exactly what I was preventing any other man from doing—padding down the hall into her room, skimming my lips across her smooth throat, making her moan my name while I worked a hand between her thighs.
Shoving down every instinct was working until I found her earring in my bed.
As much as the idea that Brooke put it between my sheets for me to find turns me on, the possibility she didn’t intend for me to know is even more torturous.
She was in my bed. On it, anyway.
The scent of her shower gel lingered on my pillow.
Now she’s on a date with some asshole.
I wanted to drag him out of my condo by the hair, but I’m trying not to be that guy.
What was I supposed to do—lock the door with my teammate’s little sister inside? Tell her the only man she’s going to fuck is me?
Clay continues in the same breath, “I heard you got a new roommate.”
News travels fast.
“I’m helping out a friend.”
“Your friend a vampire? Because it looks like something’s sucking the life out of you.”
I laugh. I can’t stop.
“What?” Clay grunts.
“Didn’t know you were funny, man.” The laughter fades. “But for real, I wouldn’t do that to the team. I know we’ve got to focus.”
We have to win here. They need it and I need it—for my Grams and my career.