23. Brock Jones
Chapter twenty-three
Brock Jones
“You’re cheating!” Sutton points at Shaw, then looks at me. “He’s cheating, isn’t he?”
I nod. “It’s sad, really, that he feels he has to cheat among old friends.”
Shaw laughs in disbelief. “I am not cheating . You’re both just mad that I won the last two games and I’m about to win this one.”
I look at Ariel and raise a brow. She sets her cards down on the coffee table, folds her hands, and says, “He’s guilty.”
Shaw gapes. “You’re all guilty of being sore losers!”
“Majority rules, I’m afraid.” I hold out my hand. “You’re disqualified.”
Shaw slaps his remaining cards into my hand. “This is ridiculous.”
Sutton pats his shoulder with a condescending smile. He shoots her a glare, but doesn’t dare push away her hand.
“Okay, let’s finish this game,” I say, and play my turn.
A few turns go by when Sutton gasps. “He’s cheating too.”
I give her a flat look. Ariel laughs.
“Sutton, you can’t pull this off two times in a row,” Ariel says.
“Since when do you take his side?” Sutton asks.
Ariel glances at me. “You’re right. Guilty!” she shouts and points at me.
“You’re kidding,” I say, and they both shake their heads.
Shaw smirks. “Majority rules.”
I throw my cards on the table. “Fine, you two have at it. It’s the only way you could have won anyway.”
The girls smile at each other and continue playing. I meet Shaw’s gaze, and he gives a what-can-you-do shrug.
I’d never admit it out loud, but tonight has actually been fun. After the first game of rummy, everyone started to loosen up more. We trash-talked and shared some more stories. Now it feels like old times again. I didn’t realize how much I missed this.
“Ha! I won. In your face!” Sutton says to Shaw, even though she beat Ariel.
“You won by manipulating myself and Brock out of the game,” he says with a laugh.
“A win is a win.”
He starts to tickle her. “Is that so, Mrs. Daniels?”
She squeals and pushes him away.
“Can you both get a room?” I groan, but it’s not so bad. After all they both went through, it’s nice to see them happy and together.
Shaw lets up. “We should probably head to bed anyway. It’s getting late.”
“Yeah, I’m going to go, too,” I say, and stand with a wince. Keeping my legs folded up under the coffee table for so long does not feel good.
Sutton helps Ariel up and hugs her, murmuring something in her ear too low for me to make out. Ariel pulls back and nods. Sutton looks unsure, but seems to let it go.
Shaw and Sutton head off to her childhood bedroom. I nod to Ariel and make my way to mine. I wait for everyone to settle in their rooms, then I head outside to get my laptop bag. I can squeeze in a few hours of work. The rain is coming down hard, but I’ll change afterward.
I run outside, squinting as rain pelts my face.
I manage to get my laptop bag and get back to my room unnoticed.
Once inside, I change into sweatpants and a t-shirt, then pull out my meds that I thankfully stashed in my bag.
Though I’ve felt better lately, I don’t think I’m going to be off these anytime soon.
After I’ve taken it, I climb into my bed and start on work.
I’m not sure how much time passes as I lose myself in emails and contracts.
A loud crack of thunder shakes the house, making me jump a little.
I’m rubbing my tired eyes when I hear a knock at the door. I stash my laptop under my comforter. “Come in.”
The door clicks open. Ariel stands in the entryway of my room, a quilt my grandmother made wrapped around her shoulders.
“I knew you’d be up,” she says as she walks in and shuts the door behind her.
My brow furrows. “What are you doing here?”
“Confirming my hypothesis.” She looks around my room. There’s Carolina merch everywhere. A framed jersey on the wall, old trophies of mine from my hockey days, the room is even painted the signature Carolina blue. “This is atrocious.”
I laugh. “Did you forget why you call me Carolina?”
She scrunches her nose. “I think I blocked out how bad it was.”
“What are you really doing here?” I ask her. “Because if you were coming to confirm what you already knew, you didn’t need to close the door behind you.”
She glances over her shoulder, like she didn’t realize she’d done that. Her gaze drops to her bare feet. Another crack of thunder rattles my window, and she winces.
“I don’t like storms, okay?” She keeps her head down. “I got in an accident last year during a bad storm, and now they freak me out.”
Surprise mingles with sympathy in my chest, but I still don’t understand why she’d come to my room.
“So you came to my room?” I ask, confused.
Her head lifts. “It’s not like I could go knock on Sutton’s door.” She shrugs. “I didn’t know where else to go.”
The pained look on her face softens my heart. I sigh and scoot over in the bed, moving my computer back into my lap.
“You can hang out here until it passes.”
Relief washes over her expression. “Thank you.”
She climbs up onto the bed and settles in next to me, still cocooned in the quilt. “What are you working on?”
“I’m reviewing a contract,” I answer.
“You don’t have a lawyer do that?”
“I do, but I prefer to read everything myself so that I know what my client is getting into.”
“Aren’t contracts a million pages long?” she asks.
I laugh and scrub my face. “More like thirty to forty, but yeah.”
Her eyes go wide. “I thought reviewing closing contracts was rough. Those are all pretty much the same though. Yours change every time?”
“Not always, but a lot of the time. Team contracts are different from brand contracts, and different sports have different rules. Plus, college sports now have NIL deals that players want to negotiate. I used to only work with professionals, but it’s expanded into college.”
“Sounds like a lot of reading.”
I shrug. “Yeah, but it keeps my clients out of bad deals.”
“I thought your job was a lot more meetings on private jets and talking on the phone all day.”
I smile. “It’s that, too.”
Lightning flashes into the room and Ariel’s whole body tenses. I frown. She must be really scared. This isn’t the fearless woman I usually go toe to toe with.
“Why don’t you lay down and face away from the window?” I suggest. “We can keep talking.”
She nods and burrows further into the quilt.
“Is it illegal for you to read me the contract? To distract me,” she says quietly.
“It would be if I thought you’d understand a word of it,” I answer honestly. “I can read it out loud. I do that sometimes anyway to help me focus. It might put you to sleep though.”
She shrugs. “That’s okay. Something is better than nothing.”
I keep my voice low as I start to go line by line. Thunder comes and goes again as I read. Ariel trembles. My heart breaks at the sight. She may get on my nerves, but no one deserves to go through this.
I lift my hand, hesitating for only a second before placing it on her head. I start to run my fingers through her hair, and she stills.
“Is this okay?” I whisper.
I feel her nod, but she doesn’t say anything. I go back to reading the contract. Usually, I stop to take notes, but I don’t this go-around. I simply read and play with Ariel’s hair until I notice she’s fallen asleep.
Once I’m sure she’s not going to wake up, I go back to working with both of my hands. Eventually, I start to wear down. The sounds of the rain and Ariel’s warmth next to me have my eyes falling shut. I close my laptop, lie down, and drift off.