7. Chapter 7
Chapter 7
TEAGAN
By the time I get back to the athlete dorms, I’m fucking spent. My legs and arms feel like rubber as I pick my way down the hall toward the suite I share with Tommy.
I try the doorknob to find it unlocked and enter the small living space between our bedrooms. CU doesn’t have athlete apartments, only dorms, but still, the setup is a hell of a lot better than the regular dormitories, which feature only a single room and a bathroom on each floor. Instead, the athletes are set up with a suite that has a small common area big enough for the essentials—a small sofa, a bistro table, television, a mini fridge, and a single bathroom—which joins a bedroom on each side.
When I step inside, I find Tommy on the couch, one arm draped around Melissa, his girlfriend, a pretty cool chick who commutes from her parents’ place nearby.
His attention shifts from the television to me, and his brows rise. “Bro, you all right? I told Melissa about the shit Coach put you through. You’ve got to be dead.”
“That’s one word for it.” I kick my shoes off on the mat by the door, my duffle bag slung over my shoulder. “Is that pizza?” I ask, zeroing in on the takeout boxes gracing the counter.
Tommy nods. “We saved you some.”
“Thank fu—” I start, then stop myself when I remember Melissa is here. “I mean, thanks,” I say instead.
I drop my bag by the small table and tear into one of the boxes, lifting a slice to my mouth and taking a huge bite at the same time Tommy braces one arm over the back of the couch and turns to me. “So, that’s some shit about Coach’s daughter working with us, huh? Do you think something happened before and he felt the need to warn the guys off like that?” He shakes his head. “So fucking weird.”
I shrug, grabbing a napkin from the table and wiping my mouth before I speak. “I don’t know. It got me wondering, too, but you know how some of these guys are.”
“Horny assholes.”
“Exactly.” I shrug. “Some will see her as a conquest.”
“I guess I didn’t think about it like that, but you have a point.” Tommy frowns. “Back in high school, the basketball coach’s daughter was super hot, and I remember hearing rumors about how the team had bets going on who could bag her first.”
I stuff more pizza in my face, mostly because the thought of some douchebags making a bet like that about Lane chaps my ass. It almost makes me grateful for Turner’s warning.
Or at least it would, if it didn’t also apply to me.
My thoughts drift to Lane, and how indifferent she’d seemed. Damn if it doesn’t make me want to try even harder to win her over.
I don’t know what it is about her.
I can’t explain it.
Obviously she’s beautiful, but it’s more than that. There’s this intangible thing I can’t put my finger on that draws me to her.
The sound of squabbling and slightly raised voices interrupts my train of thought, and I focus back on Tommy to see him arguing with Melissa. I arch a brow and grab another slice of pizza, plowing it into my face as I try my best to ignore their conversation.
“Come on, baby, you know I think you’re the hottest chick on the planet,” he murmurs in a soft voice.
Ah. I stifle a chuckle. They’re arguing over the fact he called another chick hot. Classic.
Melissa picks up her phone in a huff and starts scrolling while Tommy glances back at me and rolls his eyes to which I raise my hands up in surrender.
Yeah, not getting in the middle of this one.
“How long have you two been together again?” I ask because they fight like a married couple.
“Officially?” Tommy glances over at Melissa with a soft look in his eyes. “It’s been a year, but unofficially, it’s been more like two.”
“Unofficially?” I ask when Melissa laughs. “I’m sensing there’s a story here.”
Melissa lowers her phone, and any irritation she showed toward him a moment ago vanishes into thin air. “He’s saying that because when he first asked me out two years ago, I said no.”
“But I was persistent.” Tommy grins like a dope. “I basically told her I’d wait until she was ready and settled into the friend zone.”
I huff out a laugh. “Sounds like my buddy, Graham.”
“It wasn’t so bad. We were friends for a year, and then when she finally stopped dating the total douchebag she’d been seeing, I went for it. Struck while the iron was hot and mended her broken heart.”
“So sweet,” Melissa says drily.
“Nice play.” I laugh and shake my head. “Settling for the rebound is risky.” I finish my second slice of pizza and get up to retrieve a glass of water when it hits me.
That’s it.
Coach said none of us could pursue Lane romantically. But he never said we had to stay away from her entirely. He never said we couldn’t be friends.
Clearly Lane doesn’t date football players, but that’s not the only reason she has walls up. There’s more to why she’s so guarded. She said her life is complicated, which tells me it will take a hell of a lot more than a little charm and flirtation to scale those walls.
Someone as guarded as she is needs to build trust.
Just look at my sister, Brynn.
For years, she never let anyone in because of her assault in high school. She’d been so scared of getting hurt and being vulnerable and whatever the fuck else. It took someone she’s known for years to break through those walls.
And while I don’t have the advantage of time and history with Lane on my side, I can be a friend. I can earn her trust first and play the long game. Be the best fucking friend on the face of the planet, and with time, get her to open up to me.
Coach will see this, and not only will it work in my favor and put me back in his good graces, but I’ll grow on him, too. He’ll get to know me better as a man and not just one of his players. And slowly, so fucking slowly it’ll probably kill me, I’ll worm my way into her heart, and earn Coach’s blessing while I’m at it.
It’s the perfect plan.
I grin. What could go wrong?