Chapter Forty-Four
Bee
“So on a level of one to ten, how nervous should I be?” My girlfriend asked me while she stood at the stove making us breakfast. I wanted to drag her back to bed, ignore this silly rule of no more sex until our first game.
It was stupid and immature, and I could argue extremely self-destructive.
But we’d both been too exhausted from practice to do anything more than fall into bed together and drift into deep sleep. Just to do it again the next day.
Everyday for the past month, we’d been getting better on the court.
We were able to anticipate each other’s moves while also sticking to our sweet spots.
Last week we surprised the coaching staff as Nola and I flipped seamlessly between guard and forward positions, resulting in the practice squad fumbling through defense as we caused misplaced matchups.
The play could only work due to my speed, and when Gia and Courtney were on the court at the same time. But we had inspired the assistant coaches to actually make plays with the new dynamic.
So fine, maybe the no sex thing was working for us on the court.
But not for our home life.
“Stop making that face.” Nola’s voice snapped me back to the present. Her back was still facing me.
“You don’t even know what face I’m making.”
“Like you want to eat me alive.”
“And is that a bad thing?” I flirted, slipping off the stool and coming to wrap my arms around Nola’s waist.
“It is when our home opener is in two days. We’re doing so well, we’re so close.”
“Right and I’m so close to snapping.” I hugged tighter around her waist to whisper in her ear, “I’ve had too many ideas to keep them to myself.”
I started to drift my hands up toward her chest but Nola turned away from the stove to focus on me. It was almost like I knew what she was about to say before she said it, her eyes got darker and her voice got low.
“Two more days and I’ll let you fuck me however you want.”
I was dry.
I was wet.
I was dry and wet at the same time.
It was as if all the saliva in my mouth had evaporated, and in its place my panties were wet.
It wasn’t often that anyone could leave me speechless, but with Nola I had met my match.
She told me everything I needed to hear, whether I wanted to or not, and then she was able to surprise me, knocking me off my axis and keeping me on my toes.
“Noted.” I nodded and stepped away because if I wanted the home opener to go exactly as we wanted, I would stay as far away from her as I could possibly manage.
“Okay, now can you answer my question please?”
“Right…uh honestly, each sibling is going to get their own rating.” I tried to remember what we were talking about.
“Great.” She huffed.
“You’ve met Aaliyah and Amir in a professional setting, but the dating part…”
“Is another layer.” My girlfriend finished for me.
“Right. Amir is a one; he’s loves everyone. It’s actually really hard to get him to hate you. Aaliyah, well, I’ll be honest she’ll be an eight.”
“An eight?! I don’t think I’d even rate my mom that high,” she said, and my stomach flipped at the idea of meeting Olivia Young in the hi, I love your daughter way.
“She’s a skeptic. She’s never seen me date—actually none of them have—so you actually might have to do some cartwheels and backflips to impress her.”
“I can do neither of those things.” Nola shook her head and pushed my plate in front of me.
“That is the least surprising thing about you.”
“The best I can offer is my culinary skills.” I took a bite and nodded my head, because yes, even if Nola and I hadn’t fallen in love the way we had, it would’ve eventually come from the way she could cook a meal.
“Celeste and Colette were easily five on the scale, but for separate reasons. Colette thinks we should’ve kissed a while ago—no she doesn’t know, but she’s cynical so she might think you’re playing the long game or something. Celeste doesn’t believe in love, so that’s her own hill.”
Nola stared blankly at me which I knew meant her brain was processing the overload of information I just gave her.
This was the first time she’d be around all five Lees, with varying personalities and attitudes.
I never thought about what it’d be like on the outside looking in, how we looked to everyone, how we sounded.
Our parents raised us with no care for outside opinion but now, maybe just ever so slightly, I wished I could remove myself to better prepare my girl.
“You’re going to do amazing. Everyone loves you, which for me four years ago was the worst thing I could’ve ever said. But today,” I grabbed Nola’s hand from across the kitchen island. “Just be yourself and they’ll fall in love. Like I did.”
Her eyes softened at my confession, it was easy to make Nola melt, and I never took any moment I did for granted.
“Okay, I think I’ll head out now, grocery shop, let everyone, including you, talk shit about me.
Then I’ll make my grand entrance.” I was so unbelievably content with Nola.
The only thing that could break this euphoria was if we got on that court in two days and gave the league and the Miami fans the biggest flop they’d ever seen.
But my gut felt solid; the same it did when I blew everything up and came to Miami. It couldn’t lead me astray now.
I just needed to remember to think with my head and not my heart.
For once.
As it turned out, all five Lee siblings fitting in the same bed only worked when we were in our parents’ king-sized mattress.
“Bee-sting, get your bare feet away from me,” Celeste growled.
“I’m not trying on purpose, Nessie, I told you guys twenty minutes ago we needed to get ready for the beach!”
My siblings had entered the townhouse with a tornado of complaints and bitchy attitudes.
Colette was stuck in the middle seat, Amir upgraded to first class without telling Aaliyah, and Colette nearly screamed at the state of her hair in the humid Miami heat.
I was actually grateful Nola had been out of the townhouse for half the day. We were, indeed, a lot.
“Will your arch nemesis-turned-lover be joining us? We could actually use a fourth person to play mermaids with,” Colette asked, the most excited of the bunch to see Nola in the flesh.
Aaliyah and Amir claimed they were too old to play mermaids, but they’d been pulling that excuse since they turned sixteen.
“She’s not my arch nemesis,” I retorted for the third time.
“Anymore.” Amir clarified, and squinted at me like he had x-ray vision. Amir had been the only sibling to comment on every, and I mean every, post showing a sliver of Nola in the background. As soon as everyone walked through the front door he’d whispered in my ear asking if my mahal was around.
I was at least grateful that he hadn’t made the announcement to everyone else yet.
I’d been debating on exactly how I wanted to break the news. I could do it without Nola, simply to avoid overstimulating my girlfriend with my little sister’s screeches and interrogations. But I also loved the idea of having her stand next to me while I told the people I loved most in the world.
As if they spoke to each other via telepathy, Colette and Celeste rolled off the foot of my bed and toward the suitcases I made them lug up themselves.
We’d all be staying in a mansion Amir was “borrowing from a friend” for the long weekend after the home opener tomorrow, but tonight the C-Team would be staying at the townhouse.
By the time everyone was decent and ready to go, I heard the front door open and close, and before I could get a grasp on how to handle everything, the C-Team went running downstairs with me quickly on their tails.
“Well, if it isn’t the infamous Nola Young.” Celeste started off.
“Infamous?” Nola asked with a smile, dropping the groceries and another fancier looking bag on the countertops.
“You’re a frequent topic of discussion in the Lee household,” Colette finished.
“That is literally not true.” I passed my sisters and went over to hug Nola like she’d been lost at sea. She kissed my temple and the room filled with three separate gasps. Amir, Colette, Celeste all stared, jaws practically on the floor.
“I fucking knew it!” Colette whispered.
“Did Bee-sting just… engage in voluntary PDA?” Celeste looked like she just tasted something sour.
“It took you two long enough.” Amir slow clapped.
“Nola, you know Amir. But curly bangs is Celeste, and the anime one is Colette.” I pointed the C-Team out as if Nola hadn’t seen pictures of them already.
“If I have to explain My Hero Academia one more time…” Colette rolled her eyes.
“Everyone, this is my girlfriend, Nola.” I smiled and looked at her as I leaned my body into hers, the adrenaline coursing through my veins.
The word no longer felt foreign on my tongue.
The need to get up and run from the feelings no longer scared me.
Nola was my person. One of the few people outside of my family who saw me for me.
She accepted my big emotions and loved my obnoxious laugh.
I was finally ready for her to be loved by my family too.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Aaliyah stood at the top of the stairs, her face almost as cold as her voice.
“And here comes the fun police,” Colette muttered.
“Colette,” I warned, desperate to keep the peace.
“The fun police? Can someone let me know what’s fun about our sister choosing to give up her life in Jersey to ‘follow her gut’ to Miami? What’s more irresponsible than fucking your teammate, on the team you just got traded to?” Aaliyah snapped.
“Maybe we cool it, Aaliyah.” Amir stood up for me.
“You’re okay with this? Maybe you’ll be fine getting her another contract, but when this shit implodes, but I won’t be there to help.”
“Is everything to you about business, Liyah? Can you be happy for me?” I asked in shock, her tone unsettling me.
“Not when you’re making a huge mistake.”
“Nola isn’t a mistake.” I steeled my voice. “You don’t think we know what’s at stake by being together?”
“Is that why you’ve been bread crumbing her all throughout your socials? Because you’ve been fucking this whole time? You thought it would go down easier?”
“That is very far from the truth.” Nola interjected, her hand moving to my waist.
“No offense, but this is a family discussion.” Aaliyah raised her hand to silence Nola.
“This isn’t a discussion actually,” I retorted, knocking Aaliyah’s hand away.
“This is the opposite of an impulsive decision, and we’re not even going public because we’re very aware of the stakes.
But thank you for the reminder. It’s not like I spend every second of every day worrying about optics and everyone’s opinions. ”
Aaliyah started to open her mouth like she had more to say but honestly I didn’t want to hear it.
“Now if you guys can grab your shit, leave our townhouse, and go to the beach that would be great. I would like to have fun with my girlfriend and my family.”
“You don’t have to tell us twice.” Colette spoke for her and her twin. Amir pointed a glare at Aaliyah before leading the group out the door. And I fought the urge to cry at my sister’s disapproval.