CHAPTER TWO
It’s days like today that I think you’re either a masochist or you deserve sainthood for dealing with my brother on a daily basis. Today I’m leaning toward the first one.
~Text from Hanna to Logan~
Cade
This past week has been pretty fucking amazing. I haven’t seen Hanna again but have spent hours texting and FaceTiming. She’s not only gorgeous, but she’s funny and so fucking smart. Yeah, I know, we haven’t even been on an actual date, and I’m close to gone for this girl.
Practice has been pretty decent, and I haven’t had to deal with Carol in the locker room trying to get with one of us and not grasping the concept of no.
The only pain in the ass this week has been Zack Harrison.
The fucker is like seventy percent ego and thirty percent talent, and I’m being generous with that.
What he is for sure is one hundred percent an asshole.
He thinks he’s the Pat Mahomes of rugby, more like the Johnny Manziel of our sport.
He isn’t serious about his workouts, and he thinks his natural talent is enough to get him fame.
He always goes on about making the national team so he can be seen by the real rugby leagues in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
Like he has a chance in hell of ever joining the All Blacks.
With his work ethic, he doesn’t even stand a chance at the national team.
Ignoring him and not engaging in conversation seems to work most of the time. Carter and Zane have gone the other way and matched Zack’s self-righteous word vomit with creative insults.
Just yesterday morning after practice—one where Zack arrived almost fifteen minutes late—he was going on about how during the next couple of matches we have that there will most likely be a scout from the national team there watching.
Just to see him, of course. He must have met some jersey chaser at the hotel we’re staying at because even as he droned on about how the scout was going to see how much his talent went to waste by playing for our team, he was quickly getting dressed.
As he grabbed his stuff to leave, Carter, who doesn’t hide his dislike of him, uttered one sentence that had most of us trying to hide our laughter.
Carter looked over to Zack and, with a straight face, told him, “I think I can speak for all of us when I tell you that nothing brightens up the locker room quite like your absence. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.
” Zack glared at him but hightailed it out of the room.
I know we don’t have the greatest replacements, but I’m honestly surprised that Coach Lingg hasn’t benched him, or at least sanctioned him, for being late so often. But I’ve wasted enough energy on that today. Time to get up and get today going. Focus is key on match day.
My phone buzzes with an incoming message.
I haven’t looked at it yet today. I unlock it and see there are messages from four different people.
The first two are from my mom and dad. Both say the same thing they always say.
They are both slightly superstitious, so since I got my first phone in high school, they text the same message whether it was game day for football or during baseball season. Now they do it on every match day.
Mom: Give it your all! If you try your best, then you’ve left everything out there. Remember to have fun, and that we love you!
Dad: Every time you go out and give it all you’ve got, you do the Evanich name proud. Go get ‘em!
Who am I to argue with tradition? I mean, it can’t hurt to keep it going.
It’s not like I wear the same socks every match during a winning streak.
I leave that stinky shit to Carter. I’ve always responded with the same message to both of them, so I rattle it off before checking who the other two texts are from. I ain’t that fucking popular usually.
Me: You know I’ll leave everything out there. Always proud to have the Evanich name on my back. Time to get another W for the books.
I open the next text and see it’s from my sister, Emma.
She’s just reminding me that she and my sister-in-law Amy will be at next week’s match.
They come to most of my home matches since they don’t live too far.
Amy’s going to grad school at the University of Oregon.
She’s super smart and getting her doctorate.
I keep telling her she’s practically a genius, but she chose to marry my sister, and that’s her one mistake.
My arm gets pinched, and there’s an attempted noogie every time I say it, but that annoyed look on Emma’s face, well, that makes it never get old.
Yeah, I’m that annoying younger brother. You know you’d do it too, don’t lie.
I don’t respond to Emma just yet. She knows I already know what she told me, and I wanna see if the last message was from Hanna. I look, and I can’t help the smile that breaks out when I see it is from her.
Beautiful Girl: Good morning. I know you have a game today.
Wait, are they called games in rugby? I don’t know what time you get to the stadium on game day.
Okay, since I don’t know what it’s called, I’ll just mean the day you play against another team.
I might have watched some rugby clips on YouTube last night.
How can a sport be scary and hot at the same time?
Beautiful Girl: Shit! I meant to delete that last question and hit send instead. Mothertrucker. Can you just ignore it? I plead the fact that it was sent before I had any caffeine in my body. I think any judge would see that as a reasonable defense.
Fuck me. She’s already got me laughing this morning.
I can’t wait to see her again. We’ve made plans for me to come up this coming week and take her out for a real date.
I know it won’t be the last, and I’m gonna try to get her to come see a match soon.
I know she might not be able to see it clearly on the field, but I’m looking into getting the feed so she can watch up close on her tablet, since it’s mostly her peripheral vision that’s so poor right now.
I know she’s told me at some point she will lose all her sight, but that doesn’t scare me.
She sees people and who they are even without looking at them.
In this last week we’ve gotten to know each other, I know she’s smarter than most people give her credit for.
She’s funny with a very quick wit, and she’s so fucking beautiful and sexy that I’ve taken more cold showers this week than I have since high school.
I start typing my response before I let myself go down that train of thought.
Me: You can call it a game. Most of the time it’s called a match, but you won’t be crucified for saying game, lol. I’m not sure what to say about a game being scary and sexy. Wait… what teams were you watching? WHO were you watching that you think is that sexy?
Why do I not want her ogling over anyone else in the Union?
I know there are some big and popular fuckers around, but she doesn’t need to be checking them out.
I don't know what it is, but I’ve never felt possessive over any of my exes before, but Hanna brings it out in me.
I don’t want anyone else to get those looks, those smiles, that little laugh she does.
I’m greedy and want them all. Hanna texts back quickly, getting me out of my head.
Beautiful Girl: I started by just looking up any rugby games… er matches, but then I narrowed it down to a certain player who knows what my family’s lasagna tastes like. I mean, Zane’s a pretty good player.
Me: You got jokes this morning, I see, beautiful.
Beautiful Girl: Maybe. I have to ask, how the hell do you lift those guys up and make it look so easy? I’ve bumped into Zane before by accident. That man’s like a tree, yet I saw you lift him up as if he were a feather. I might have gotten distracted watching that over and over again.
Me: It just means I can lift and carry whatever and whoever I want.
Beautiful Girl: Why is that the hottest thing any guy has ever said to me?
Me: I don’t know, but just to warn you, when I come get you for our date, be prepared. Kissing you has been on my mind since we first met, and I’m not going to be a patient man.
Beautiful Girl: I’m more than okay with that. Wednesday can’t get here soon enough. As much as I like our texting and video calls, I’m really looking forward to spending time together in person.
Me: Me too. Now I have to get my ass in gear. We have to be on the pitch early to run through a few things. Also, pitch is the field.
Beautiful Girl: Good luck! I wanna hear all about it tonight, and thanks for that because I would’ve thought pitch was something totally different.
I wasn’t lying. Time for another cold shower and to get my ass to the stadium.
I’m ready to be back in my own bed tonight.
The hotel here in Pendleton is nice, but the mattresses leave a lot to be desired.
Hopefully, the Pioneers will play like they did last time, and we’ll get another mark in the win column.
The next couple of matches after today are going to be challenging, and we’re the underdogs in both.
But I feel a change is on the horizon, and I’m gonna go with that thinking.
Time for the Axemen to have a winning season.
Hanna
Cade should be here in a couple of hours to pick me up.
My work schedule is flexible, so when he suggested a day date so we could spend the day together, I immediately agreed.
He’s quickly become one of the most fascinating people I’ve ever met.
Add to that, he’s funny and the sexiest man I’ve seen in person.
I know some of my friends and girls from school would argue that some of the guys in the club are hot or sexy, but eww. I grew up with those guys, and they’re all more like brothers or cousins. I can’t see them as anything but that, and it gives me a big old ick every time.