Chapter 29 Jett
I watched the ball as it sailed through the air, bouncing off the padding at the end of the stadium.
“Santo!”
“Jesus,” I muttered as I turned to Coach. “Yeah?”
“What in hell’s name was that?” he barked as he marched toward me. When he was alongside me, his finger jabbed me in the chest. “Your head is here, but your dick is in there?”
Licking my lips, I took my helmet off. “My head’s in there too,” I admitted as I stared down the tunnel.
“Boy, that girl is innocent. Open, honest, genuine,” Coach said to me. “I hate to tell you, I think you’re going to find she’s fallen foul of the same as you.” He rubbed his forehead. “What’s worse, she’s never going to know if she was.”
“I know.” I tapped my helmet off my thigh. “I was so sure she was in on it until . . .”
“You got to know her,” he said gruffly. “I can see that.”
I frowned as I looked back toward the tunnel until Coach reached up and knocked the back of my head. “She’s there, you’re here, practice. You throw another ball like that and Kowoski’s back starting against Texas.”
Slipping my helmet back on, I looked at him with a scowl. “No need for threats,” I muttered as I picked up the next ball.
“Game head only on my field,” he told me as he walked off.
I threw balls for another hour until my arm ached. Then we ran routes, passing to Gray or Ash as Jamie made it his personal mission in life to take me down on the field.
By the time practice was finished, I ached everywhere. I still had afternoon classes to go to, and as I lay on the turf after being flattened by our defensive end, I stared up at the cloudless sky.
Two shadows stood over me, and I looked up at Ash and Gray. “Still miss practice?” Gray asked as he extended his arm and helped me up to my feet.
“What the fuck’s up Woods’s ass?” I grumbled as we headed to the showers.
Ash grinned as he pulled his jersey off. “He didn’t even touch you,” he said as we stripped.
“Not for the lack of trying,” I told him gruffly.
“He took Ben down six times last Thursday in practice. Seriously started to think it was personal,” Ash told me.
“He wants to win the conference, we all do,” Gray grumbled as he turned the shower on. “Let’s hope he brings this all week and still has enough for Spence next Saturday.”
I nodded as I stepped under the hot spray.
Pulling on clothes after I was washed and dried, I already felt my muscles stiffening in protest. “Fuck, is this what time off means?”
Jamie was lacing up his sneakers when he heard me. “Sore, Santo?”
“Fucking aching,” I told him as I pulled my T-shirt over my head.
“You want the defense to go easy on you?” he asked as he stood, his broad frame filling the space.
“Fuck no, I want to win.”
Jamie nodded in respect, and then he and his fellow henchmen, defense, left the locker room.
“Santo!”
All three of us turned to see Coach at the door. “Office.”
“Me?” I asked him as I picked up my book bag.
“All of you.”
Exchanging looks, we piled into his office. Coach was looking at the photo Ava had almost creamed over.
“She’s inconclusive,” Coach started with no preamble.
“Izzy doesn’t know if she was an unfortunate drunk or targeted also.
” He sighed. “She did say she can tell you almost every statistic in the history of football though.” Coach’s eyes gleamed in approval.
“And for that, Ms. Bryant is your proven alibi.”
I glanced at Gray, who was frowning. “I don’t understand.”
“She’s a Lions fan. Blood runs blue and white, and when she’s not supporting the Lions, she isn’t even a Titans fan, but a Panthers one, something to do with her grandfather.” Coach looked personally offended. “There is no way in hell you and this girl hooked up with her only drunk.”
Ash snort-laughed, and I saw Gray hide his smile. “Coach, are you saying she would have to be drugged before she slept with me?” I asked incredulously.
“Sure as shit am.”
Ash let out a loud laugh, and Gray joined him. I looked at Coach, who was grinning. “Fuckers, all of you.” I walked out of the office to the sound of them laughing their asses off behind me.
Heading to class, I ignored the calls from my brother and cousin to wait for them.
Ava needed to be under the influence to fuck me?
Is that what she told the doc? I’d see about that.
I’d gone looking for an easy lay on Saturday and instead ended up at Quinn’s and watched the game with her.
Then I went back to the house and waited for Gray and Ash to come home and head out.
I hadn’t had sex with anyone since her, and now they were saying she needed to be drugged to sleep with me. Fuck that.
The first class of the afternoon passed quickly, and then I was in the class where I got a blow job the other week. I scanned the seats for the little turncoat, and when I spotted her blending into the wall, I stalked toward her.
As I dropped down beside her, Ava wordlessly stared at me before her eyes darted around the room. “What are you doing?”
Pointing at the large white screen in front of the room, I told her, “Learning.”
“Why are you beside me?” Ava demanded quietly. Her eyes kept flicking to the door.
“Do you want me to move?”
“Yes!”
Turning, I looked at her, and she sat back, her head dropping to break the eye contact. “Excuse me?”
“This professor thinks I’m already a team bunny. You sitting beside me is only going to condemn me further.”
“What the fuck is a team bunny?” I asked her in amusement.
“Jett!” Ava’s eyes were wide with pleading.
“You want me to move?” I asked again, and when she nodded too enthusiastically for my liking, I stood.
Her relief was palpable, and I bent over her, my lips on her ear. “You can thank me for this later, on your knees, rabbit.”
I was laughing as I made my way up the stairs to the back row. Now that I knew where she was in the class, I had no idea why I hadn’t noticed her before. Her face was red from embarrassment, and when the dude who had given her grief last week started on her again, I took special note of who he was.
Five minutes into his shit, and Ava was on her feet. This time, she didn’t confront him but merely packed her books and climbed the stairs. I watched her silently as she took the empty seat beside me. When she eventually made eye contact, she gave a slight shrug.
“Better the Devil you know,” she murmured as the lights dimmed and the professor started class.
The darkness hid my smile.
* * *
The week passed quickly, and although I saw her once or twice on campus, she didn’t seek me out, nor did I her.
But she was all I could think about.
Ash had her in one class, and at dinner on Thursday night, he commented that their professor seemed to hold a personal vendetta against her.
As he ate his chicken and spaghetti, he shook his head.
“You can see he intimidates her, but every time he picks on her, she answers.” He shoveled his food into his mouth. “You gotta admire her spunk.”
Gray grunted but said nothing.
“What is it?” I asked him as I ate my own dinner, carefully pushing the asparagus to the side. I growled when my brother reached over and pushed it back into my food.
“Eat your greens,” he told me.
“Fuck you. I hate asparagus.”
“Eat it,” both he and Ash told me.
“It tastes like fucking feet,” I muttered, biting into the spear on my fork and forcing myself to chew and swallow.
“Why would you know what feet taste like?” Ash asked with a quick grin to Gray, who huffed out a laugh.
“You ain’t been laid in over a week,” Gray said slyly. “You been tamed?”
Ash snickered as he drank his water. “You caught the feelings?” he mocked me.
“You’re both assholes,” I said to them as I kept my eyes on my food.
“This will help,” Gray said as he pushed his phone across the table at me.
I stared at it and then looked at both him and my cousin. “What the fuck is this?”
“Told you before,” Gray said as he ate more of his supper. “Motive.”
“It could be nothing,” Ash said quietly. Gray huffed in contempt, and I studied the phone again.
“She played us?” I asked. “All of us? We already settled this.”
“Wasn’t Coach who questioned her,” Gray said. “Izzy’s soft.” He looked over at Ash. “She’s given him more hand jobs than he can count.”
Ash swatted the back of Gray’s head. “Hey, she massages the ache. It’s for medicinal purposes.”
Gray rolled his eyes as he finished his dinner. He took the phone from me as he stood. “Don’t lose sight of the bigger picture,” he reminded me as he took his plate to the sink.
I opened my own Instagram and looked at the pic and the caption. Dante Spence had posted a pic of a blonde girl, her face turned away from the camera, wearing a Lions shirt, and the caption read object of my desire with the hashtag UptightKickedYourAss.
It was hard to tell if it was Ava, but the message was clear: Spence was making a move on her.
I remembered her red-haired friend challenging him when he said he wanted to talk to Ava.
The friend knew immediately he had no intention of being there for Ava until I was in the same space as her.
When she demanded he tell Ava he knew her name, his epic fail had been funny as fuck to witness, but I had registered the brief look of hurt on Ava’s face.
It was one of the reasons I went to see her later. I had no intention of putting my lips on her body, any part of her body, nor did I expect her to wrap her perfect lips around any part of mine.
When I was in the same room with her, sometimes I forgot what my goal was, and I ended up either kissing her or playing with her sweet body.
“What you going to do?” Ash asked me quietly as he set his fork down.
I swallowed as I looked at the picture again. With a slight shake of my head, I rubbed my lips together. “Nothing,” I told him as I closed it down.
“No retaliation?” Ash looked over his shoulder at Gray, who stood facing me, his hands resting on the sink behind him.
“I’m cleared, Coach believes me, and even if he didn’t, it was fixed.” I ate the last bite of my chicken, ignoring the remaining asparagus that lay on my plate. “As for her part, she cemented the fact to Coach I was duped.”
“That’s it?” Ash looked skeptical.
“Pussy is pussy,” I told him as I schooled my features. “He won’t beat me on the field, and this?” I tossed the phone onto the table. “This tells me he’s desperate.”
“Okay.” Ash looked unconvinced.
Gray watched me, and with a small smirk, he turned back to the sink. The fact that my little brother thought I was losing my head over a girl was sobering.
A girl who didn’t even like me.
A girl I didn’t even like.
Did I?
My foot tapped off the floor, and I watched Ash as he took our plates to Gray, who frowned at my uneaten vegetables before scraping my plate into the trash.
“You both ready for Houston?” I asked them as I stood. When they nodded, I headed to the front door. “Going to hit Quinn up,” I called over my shoulder as I left.
The walk to Quinn’s dorm house was quick. Her dad had scored her a single-room apartment. She shared a kitchen with three other girls, but her room, living room, and bathroom were her own.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I rapped my knuckles against her doorframe, and she opened it with a smile.
“What’s up?” she asked when I closed the door behind me, and she folded herself into her easy chair.
Wordlessly, I handed her the phone with the Instagram pic. Quinn sniffed in dislike, but she handed it back to me. “It isn’t her.”
I felt my chest ease, and I was more surprised I’d had anxiety about this. “You sure?”
“Yes,” she said as she stood. “Hey, look at this.” She tugged my arm, pulling me to her desk. Picking up one of her textbooks, she showed me a diagram, and I turned both my head and the book to figure out the position.
“This is porn.”
Quinn gave a delighted laugh. “No, it’s deep tissue massage. Be my guinea pig?”
“No.” I studied the pic again. It still looked like porn. “Gross, no.”
“You would do this with Ava in a heartbeat!” Quinn scolded me with a pout.
“Yeah, cause my dick would get hard and then be wet as she or anyone else would be riding it. You?” I shook my head. “That’s like asking me to tongue Aunt Charlotte.”
Quinn started to giggle and ended up holding her sides as she laughed. “Fuck, I think I’m going to vomit.” She wiped her eyes as she straightened and fixed me with a stern glare. “It’s not flattering that you’re not attracted to me.”
“Are you on glue?” I asked her, bewildered. “You’re like my sister, for fuck’s sake.”
Quinn spontaneously hugged me. “And you’re the best brother ever.” She planted a sloppy kiss on my cheek.
“Why you being weird?” I asked as I went and sat down, turning the TV onto the sports channel.
Her smile dimmed, but she forced herself to remain upbeat. “You ready for Saturday?”
“Always.”
She closed her book and stretched out in her easy chair. “You eat?”
“Gray made chicken and spaghetti.”
“Nice.” I watched her as she started to play with her hair. “He make you eat your veggies?”
“Tried. He made asparagus.”
Quinn gagged, and I laughed. “Ash eat his supper?”
“He did, mom.”
“You know he fixates,” she said quietly.
“We do. Gray weighed his portion first.”
Quinn nodded, and we relaxed into a comfortable silence. As I listened to the sports news, she came over and settled beside me on her small couch. Her head rested on my shoulder, and I wrapped my arm around her.
“What is it?” I asked her quietly.
“It would have been his birthday soon,” she told me, and I felt the tear hit my arm.
“I’m sorry, Queeny.” I kissed her head. “I got you. You can cry, no one else is here.”
And she did, as I watched the news and held her loosely, she cried into my shoulder. When she got up to dry her eyes and wash her face, I texted my brother.
Ten minutes later, I opened the door to him, and he pushed past me into the apartment, enfolding her into his arms, and I shut the door behind me as I left.
Feeling helpless, I headed back home. Some sorrow wasn’t for me to fix, no matter how much I wanted to.