Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
NATHAN
I see two missed calls from Riley after training is over, and I call back immediately.
“Riles,” I say urgently. “I saw your missed call. What happened? Is everything okay?” I dig my fingers into my duffel, ready to take off. “Do you need me?”
“It wasn’t an emergency.” I hear something clanking in the background and I picture Riley, those two beautiful tendrils of hair in her face, that intense, dark outline around her stunning eyes and her elegant hands covered in engine oil as she brings a car back to life.
“I just wanted to let you know that I saw Layla today,” Riley says.
I frown. “When? Did she say something to you?”
“No, it was in passing. She and I have never met so she wouldn’t recognize me.”
I slouch against the locker, my heart still roaring with adrenaline. “Riles, you can’t do that to me. I thought something was wrong.”
I switch the phone to my other hand and grab my towel so I can wipe my face. Coach pushed us to the limit during practice. The Lucky Strikers are definitely ramping up the difficulty level as we get closer and closer to the main roster.
My body is feeling the burn.
“Didn’t you hear me? I said Layla is in town.”
“I heard you.”
“You don’t sound surprised.”
“She called me earlier today and told me herself.” I slip the towel off my face and sling it over my shoulder.
There’s a long pause.
Is this an angry silence?
I tack on, “I told her that I wouldn’t be setting up any meetings with McLanely, and that was that. I have no intentions of meeting her while she’s here.”
There. That should make it clear that I have no interest in my ex. It’s important that Riley doesn’t get any weird ideas. I hate stupid misunderstandings that can be solved with one chat.
Deafening silence pounds my ear drums.
“Riles?” I pull the phone away and check that the line is still connected.
It is.
“Nat,” Riley clears her throat, “I wish you hadn’t told me how Layla broke up with you. The moment I saw her, I really wanted to pop the air out of her tires.”
My lips twist with laughter. “Did you?”
“Of course not. There were cameras all around the nursing home. I’m not going to jail for your ex-girlfriend of all people.”
I smile to the point that my cheeks hurt. “That was very mature of you.”
“If I was mature, I wouldn’t regret walking away. I spent all evening thinking of revenge.”
“I’m curious. What kind of revenge can a shrimp serve up?”
“Keep calling me ‘shrimp’ and you’ll see for yourself,” she warns.
I grin and scuff my toe against a crack in the floor. Riley acts so strict, but she can also be a softy. The way she so perfectly flips between toughness and tenderness is cute.
In the corner of my eye, I notice some of the trainees looking at me.
“You got heart eyes popping out of your face, Campbell,” one calls.
“Is that your girlfriend on the phone?” Another yells.
A burst of ‘oooh’ rises from the men in the room.
Rather than answer, I grab my duffel and head out the door with a wave to the guys. All of ‘em are too nosy.
“Are you busy tonight?” I ask Riley as I press my shoulder into the double doors of the arena and step into the cool night. “Since you’ve been such a good citizen today, I’ll treat you to something tasty.”
“I really wish I could, but I’m brainstorming at the garage. I want to blend the structure of my AMT training to fit the flexibility of an autoshop. There has to be a happy medium and I’m determined to find it.”
“Alright then. Happy brainstorming. Call me if you need to bounce any ideas off me. I might not be any help, but even a stupid idea might spur some inspiration.”
She laughs. “What are your plans tonight?”
“I’m watching game tapes to find an advantage that will make me irresistible to the Lucky Strikers. Our next scrimmage is Friday, and it might be my last shot to impress the team manager. It’s do or die.”
“How very Sparticus of you.”
I grin again. Have I mentioned how much I like talking to Riley?
Because the answer is ‘a lot’.
We both go quiet and I’m reluctant to hang up, despite knowing that she has a lot to do tonight, and the conversation is pretty much over.
“Are you at the garage alone? Did you lock the shutters?” I ask.
“I didn’t lock up. Jimmy’s here.”
“Mm.” I slip a hand into my pocket.
“How late are you staying up?”
I stop in the middle of the parking lot and tilt my head to the sky. Is it just me or is Riley dragging her foot on ending the call too?
“How late do you want me to stay up?” I wonder.
“It’s my choice?”
“I’m at your service.”
“For anything?”
“Within reason.”
“Are you saying I can call you at midnight for a late night taco run and you’d bring it over?”
“Call me anytime, Riles. I’ll be there,” I promise.
“Be very careful, Nat. You don’t know what kind of damage I could do with so much power.”
Damage me all you want.
The thought sticks and while I try to bat it away with my usual ‘I just care about Riley as a brother’ excuse, it doesn’t go away.
The truth is that I do not see Riley as a sister.
I tried.
And failed horribly.
As McLanely, Renthrow and Kinsey pointed out, Riley is an adult and she’s amazing and I like talking to her and making her laugh.
Does it have to be more complex than that?
Maybe I don’t have to overthink this. Maybe I can just… follow the direction that my heart is tugging me in.
“Boss, it’s still revving too high. I think we might have changed the wrong part,” a voice that probably belongs to Jimmy rings out.
“I gotta go,” Riley says.
I’m not imagining it. She sounds as petulant as she used to when Chris and I would try to leave her behind on the way to the park when we were kids.
“Okay. Text me when you get home so I know you got in safely.”
“I’m not a kid, Nat. And this is Lucky Falls. It’s so safe, I could walk home at night and be fine.”
“If you walk home at night without telling me, Riley Carter, I will set up a couch in your workshop and watch you like a hawk so I can walk you home myself.”
She snorts. “Fine. I’ll text.”
“Good girl.”
I can practically hear her rolling her eyes. “Goodnight, Nat.”
“Night, Riles.”
The dial tone in my ear is a high-pitched alarm bell, declaring that I have skipped right into dangerous territory.
Warning! Fork in the road. Either you keep being a brother to Riley or you admit you like her. Choose a side.
I shake my head.
There’s still the pesky fear that Riley doesn’t see me the same way. I’ve established myself as her stand-in brother. What if I try to cross the line and I ruin everything? And what if she tells Chris and then it ruins everything with him too?
I need to tread lightly. If I rush in on impulse, I could destroy something that’s becoming very precious to me.
I’m on the way to my car when the door to the stadium bursts open and footsteps pound the pavement.
“Campbell!”
I turn to find McLanely sprinting across the lot and waving his arm back and forth.
My eyebrows climb. Did I forget something in the locker room? Or did they find the stack of pain relief patches I keep stashed around the stadium for emergencies?
“Hold up.” McLanely stops in front of me, barely winded from the run. “Do you know some chick named Layla?”
I suck in a breath, feeling all sorts of uneasy. “Did Layla contact you?”
“She was staking out April’s garage. She said she was a friend of yours.”
“She’s an ex and we’re not on friendly terms. I hope you didn’t give in to her demands because she threw my name around.”
“Of course not. April ran her off and told her we weren’t interested in doing any interviews. But that’s not the problem.” Chance’s nostrils flare. “I just got a call from the nursing home saying that April’s dad had a visitor today. Some woman named Layla.”
I firm my jaw, feeling a pulse of annoyance. I know intimately well how ruthless Layla can be when she wants something. Going after family members to get to the people she wants would be a rung too low for most people.
But not her.
“What did she say to April’s dad?”
“It’s not what she said to him.” Chance pauses. “It’s what he said to her.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I,” he licks his lips and admits, “I plan on proposing to April. And I asked her dad for his blessing.”
“McLanely, that’s incredible! Congrats!”
McLanely’s been my hero for a while, so I eagerly followed the story between him and his girlfriend April. When it broke out, McLanely had recently fallen from grace and got kicked out of the league. Not long after, rumors that he was dating a female mechanic started circulating.
His popularity skyrocketed and there was even a petition to get him reinstated. In the end, he chose to stay with April over leaving Lucky Falls behind.
I always had a deep respect for McLanely’s choice. It’s the kind of selfless, all-consuming love that I want to have someday.
Riley’s face fills my mind, but McLanely speaks again and his serious expression makes me focus on the matter at hand.
“The problem is that April’s dad has dementia, but he’s been surprisingly clear about the fact that ‘his nurse’—that’s how he refers to April—and I are about to be engaged…”
The reason for his concern dawns on me. “He told Layla.”
“And I haven’t even proposed to April yet.
I want it to be a surprise.” The captain meets my somber look with a worried frown of his own.
“I need it to go as planned. I’ve been working on this proposal for months.
I called in specialists, invested thousands.
” McLanely blows out a breath. “April deserves to have a magical moment. She’s the love of my life and I don’t want her finding out about the proposal from some random stranger, Campbell. I can’t let that happen.”
From the way he’s watching me, McLanely is communicating that I can’t let that happen either.
“I understand,” I say grimly.
McLanely takes out a fidget spinner from his pocket and gives it a flick. “I’ll do the interview. I’ll call up some old friends of mine and get them to do interviews too. Whatever it takes. I just… I can’t have that Layla-person… not before I…”
“Yeah.”
“It’s important, Campbell.”
I nod. “I’ll talk to her. Make sure she doesn’t spill the beans.”
“Thanks.” McLanely offers a relieved smile.
Pointing to the fidget spinner, I beg, “Do you have any more of those? I think I’m going to need it.”