14. The Ball is in Her Hands
14
Riggs
“What the fuck?”
I step off my porch into the early morning light, my wide eyes scanning my yard. Tessa didn’t even wait a day to repay me for the goats, and I have to admit, I’m impressed. Cookies in the shape of dicks litter the grass, each one pointing proudly toward the sky on a wooden skewer pushed into the ground.
Walking toward the closest one, I pluck it from the ground and mumble the words printed on it in red icing. “A dick for a dick.”
A truck pulling a large trailer drives up to the curb, and I look up to see Buck Evans hop down from the cab. He’s here to pick up his goats, and gives me a wave before lowering the tailgate ramp of the trailer. He turns around, then freezes as he finally notices the cock cookies all over my yard. His eyes meet mine, and all I can do is shrug. He chuckles and shakes his head, and without a word, gets to work pulling up stakes and leading his goats to the trailer.
Surveying Tessa’s handiwork again, I sigh. I guess it could’ve been worse. A lot worse.
Movement on her porch catches my eye, and I look over to see Tessa with an ugly smile on her face as she holds her phone up in my direction. She’s filming my reaction. And me being me, I do the first thing I think of.
Holding her gaze, I hold up the dick cookie so she––and her phone’s camera––can see it clearly. Then with a feral smile, I open my mouth and chomp down on it, biting off half and chewing it dramatically.
Oh, this is a good fucking cookie.
Tessa taps at her screen and rolls her eyes, then without a word, spins around and flounces back into her house. I revel in the small victory for a moment, then doubt sets in.
Shit. Why did I do that? If Tessa becomes truly vindictive and decides to post that video online, a heap of shit could fall on my head. It’s nothing bad, really. It’s just a cookie. But the fact that it was a dick-shaped cookie I was ferociously chomping on could embarrass the Bandits’ organization. I could be fined, or even worse, benched for the first game.
“Fuck,” I spit.
I know if I ask her not to post it, she could do it out of pure spite because, in her mind, I deserve it. To her, I’m the asshole who led her on and tried to take her V-card on a bet. And if I try to explain the truth now, she’ll think I’m lying to save my own ass.
I suck in a deep breath and let it out on a sigh. There’s nothing I can do now. The ball is in her hands, and if she decides to run with it, I’ll have to deal with the consequences.
Breaking the cookie off the skewer, I shove the rest of it into my mouth and chew as I head over to help Buck load up the rest of his goats. Once we finish, he shakes my hand, then looks back over at my yard and snickers.
“You’ve got a live one on your hands,” he says.
“Don’t I know it,” I sigh, then wave him off as he climbs into the truck.
I look at the mess left over in Tessa’s yard. I’ll grab my mower later and mow it all up. I might not be able to get all the goat shit, but I can at least get the leftover hay and make the yard look clean again.
But first, I need to clean up my own yard. I walk over and start pulling up cookies, chuckling to myself as I read the message on each one. Damn. She was really pissed.
But I can’t consider this little war between us an entirely bad thing. Though Tessa’s feelings are currently negative in nature, I consider myself lucky she has feelings about me, at all. Complete disinterest would be far worse.
It might be cliché, but I’m a firm believer in the old saying that there’s a thin line between love and hate.
Not that I think there’s any love left between us, but she must feel something. And feeling something is much preferable to feeling nothing at all.
When I get to the last row of cookies, a truck pulls up to the curb in front of my house. I sigh when Miles, Porter, and Foster pile out of the cab. I’m happy we’re friends, but fuck, I’m never going to hear the end of this.
Miles jogs over and plucks a cookie from the ground beside me. His eyes widen as he takes in its shape and reads the word “cocksucker” spelled across its length. Then he turns his wide gaze on me.
“Payback for the goats?” he asks.
“Payback for the goats,” I confirm.
Then he starts to laugh.
“Asshole,” I murmur, but can’t stop the smile from cracking across my face at his humor.
It is pretty funny.
“What the hell is all this?” Foster asks.
“Payback for the goats,” Miles says, biting off the tip of the cookie he still holds. “Fuck, that’s good.”
Porter and Foster look at each other before bursting into laughter. Miles looks at them in confusion, and Porter points to the cookie in his hands.
“You just bit a dick and said it was good like you’re about to come.”
“Maybe I am,” Miles says with a grin, taking another bite. “This is the best cookie I’ve ever had. Shit, did Tessa bake these, herself?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe. Can you buy cock-shaped cookies at the store?”
“I don’t think so,” Foster says, grabbing one of the cookies from my hand and taking a bite. “Shit, these are good.”
Porter holds out his palm, and I hand him one. Watching them all munch on dicks reminds me of Tessa filming me earlier, and I spit a curse. Looking at her house, I don’t see any sign of her, but I hustle the guys inside just in case.
“What’s wrong?” Miles asks when he sees the tension in my expression.
“She filmed me this morning.”
“What?” Foster asks, a few crumbs spewing from his lips.
“She was filming me with her phone when I found the cookies. And I… I don’t know what came over me, but I took a big bite out of one, and she got it on camera.”
Miles goes still, but the other two just look confused.
“So?” Porter asks.
“So, she could post the video online,” Miles says, his voice low and filled with concern. “Do you think she’d do that?”
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly.
“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” Foster says. “It might even make you more popular, if that’s possible.”
I shake my head. “I’m just worried about the team administration. It could be embarrassing for the Bandits, and they could fine me. Or bench me.”
I say that last bit like it’s the end of the world, and the others nod in agreement. It wouldn’t actually be the end of the world, but it would be bad. Really bad.
And as the leader of this brand-new team, I’m already emerging as the “face” of the organization. Even if I don’t get reprimanded, I could lose the respect of our fans as well as my teammates. I know these guys would have my back, but the rest of the team?
I’m not so sure.
“Well, you could always go over and ask her not to post it,” Foster suggests.
“Ha,” I bark. “I considered that, but she’d probably post the video out of spite just to fuck with me.”
“So, what are you going to do?” Miles asks.
“I’m just going to have to wait and see,” I say with a sigh.
And hope that if she does decide to post it, the ramifications won’t be as severe as I’m imagining.