Chapter Thirty-Four
THE SUN WAS setting by the time Sammie finally took a break.
A couple of the guys from the team were still working to get one last section of the new gutters—paid for in full by Kai—up.
It still rankled, having her brother’s partner pay for all the materials they’d used that weekend, but he’d told Sammie that if she asked about setting up a payment plan for paying him back one more time that he would break up with Atticus.
Something she wasn’t willing to risk, even if she was pretty sure he was bluffing.
“Up, up!” Speak of the devil. Her brother bounced on the balls of his feet in front of where Sammie was sprawled on the back steps. “We’re walking to the park.”
“Why?” Sammie drained the rest of her water, clicking the cap back on as she raised a brow.
“Volleyball, of course!” He looked at her as though she’d grown a second head.
Sammie groaned. It was hot as fuck, and they’d been working for two days straight. “But why? You all just played a whole season’s worth of volleyball, why do you want to play more?”
“Well.” Atticus put a hand on his hip, rolling his eyes as though the answer should be obvious to her.
“Kai has agreed to be our second setter, since Aaron is going to fill in as a spiker, since Bowen ‘couldn’t be here’ but refused to elaborate beyond that cryptic message, and I’ve never played against Kai before, and I really want to but he always tells me no, and we need you to play so the teams are even, so if you fuck this up for me I’m going to tell Kieran about the time you threw up after eating all that instant ramen and the noodles came out your—”
“Fine! Fine, if it’ll get you to stop barking in my ear I’ll play.”
That was how Sammie found herself walking down the road, an entire hoard of volleyball players in tow.
“Dibs on Sammie!” Atticus crooned, walking backwards to face their group.
An arm landed on her shoulders. A presence she’d grown used to already, new as it was.
“We’re a package deal, so you get me as well,” Kieran said, squeezing her gently. Atticus gasped.
“No!” He wagged a finger at Kieran. “Absolutely not. That’s my thing with her, you don’t get to say it.” Then he tripped as pavement turned to patchy grass, falling flat on his ass.
Sammie and Kieran drew to a halt as the rest of their group snickered, continuing on. Eric and Aaron ran ahead, Ivy hollering after them to, “Stretch first, goddammit!”
“You good?” Kieran asked, offering a hand toward Atticus.
Sammie laughed as her brother narrowed his eyes, getting up on his own, swiping at the dirt on the seat of his pants.
Kai slapped his boyfriend on the rear as he walked by, earning a chuckle from David Lu.
Sammie didn’t know the oldest Wildcat well, as he usually opted out of team gatherings in favor of spending time with his wife and two small kids, but he’d been one of the first to volunteer when Kieran had asked the team to come help Sammie get the house fixed up enough that she’d finally be able to list it.
Apparently, his family owned an HVAC business, and he’d been able to get her old air conditioner up and running that morning.
“I’m fine,” Atticus said, poking Kieran in the chest. “She was my sister before she was your anything, so no funny business.”
“Sure thing, bud,” Kieran said, nodding sagely. That made Atticus frown harder. He threw his hands into the air, turning toward the old sandy court, mumbling under his breath about regrets and disgusting puppy love as he walked away.
“He’s fine,” Sammie said, following after him. Kieran’s arm was still firmly planted around her shoulders, and she leaned into the touch. It still felt surreal, this new thing between them. Even though it wasn’t wholly new. Not the basis of it, anyway.
Sammie had known Kieran for most of her life, and had loved him for much of it.
And now he loved her back. He’d confided, as they’d curled up together on her granny’s old couch the night before while waiting for Atticus and Kai to stop arguing over what movie they’d all be watching, that maybe a part of him had always loved her.
Not romantically, not at first. But there had always been a part of Kieran that had cared about her, a seed that had needed that old, healthy soil to take root in, a seed that was only then able to bloom into something more. Something different.
They broke off into two teams. Sammie fell into line with Atticus, Kieran, and Eric.
David tossed the ball up on the other side, serving it half heartedly.
Sammie jumped up, blocking the ball. Kieran was right there to make a wall with her, and the serve didn’t make it past them.
Ivy dug the ball, sending a puff of dirt and sand into the air as she hit the ground.
Kai lazily dumped the ball over the net before anyone had a chance to recover.
“What?” Atticus sputtered. “No. What?” He crossed his arms, staring down at Kai from across the net. “You’re small. And you haven’t played in years. You don’t get to just dump it on me like that.”
Kai raised a brow. “Do something about it then.”
Sammie laughed with everyone else as her brother was left speechless.
“Do your parents know you’re in town?” The question had been gnawing at Sammie all weekend, and it wasn’t until everyone else had left, until after Atticus and Kai were locked up together in her brother’s old bedroom, until the sun had disappeared and the quiet of night had finally set in that Sammie had worked up the courage to finally voice it.
Kieran had told her about his last conversations with his parents as they’d driven to their old hometown together.
He’d told her about his father’s congratulatory message after the championship game.
About the silence from his mother.
“Dad knows.” Kieran stood shirtless in the bathroom doorway, scrubbing at his wet hair with a towel. His gym shorts hung low on his hips, and Sammie needed to stop staring.
Except, she didn’t. She was allowed to stare as much as she wanted now.
It was fucking delightful.
“I’m sure he’s told Mom.”
Sammie frowned. “And they haven’t said anything about you stopping by while you’re here?”
Kieran shrugged, hanging the towel on one of the hooks next to the door. “No. I didn’t expect them to.”
There was a flash of hurt there, in his eyes, hurt that Sammie understood acutely. A new ache had taken residence in her chest, not all that dissimilar to the one she’d carried for herself for so long.
It never felt good, being rejected by the people who were supposed to love you unconditionally.
“Come on.” Sammie grabbed his hand, tugging him out of the bathroom and down the dark hallway.
She made sure to actively not listen as they passed her brother’s door.
He and Kai had been making eyes at one another over dinner and Sammie had no desire to hear whatever was currently playing out in that room.
She led Kieran through the quiet house. Everything smelled fresh after the guys from the team, under Ivy’s supervision, had added a new coat of paint to the entire place.
The devastation she’d faced in the kitchen just weeks earlier was gone, now that the new window was in and the water-damaged cabinets had been replaced with plain, new ones.
Sammie didn’t know how a place could feel so familiar yet so unknown all at once.
It was no longer her granny’s house. It hadn’t been, not since the day Greta had died. All of the memories that Sammie had clung to, they were all still there. Faded with time, yes, but never gone completely. She didn’t need the house to keep them. They would go with her wherever she went.
She fired off a text to her brother, telling him to stay far, far away from the sunroom under threat of castration, before she led Kieran out the back door.
“I used to sleep out here whenever I had a bad day.” Sammie lowered herself onto the old mattress. She’d replaced the sheets earlier that day because she’d sort of hoped this was where they would end up.
A girl could dream, right?
“I wouldn’t say I’ve had a bad day.” Kieran sat next to her, the mattress dipping under his added weight. “Is that my shirt?”
Sammie flushed. She’d snatched it from his overnight bag after her shower, figuring she got to do things like that now. Whenever she wanted to.
“Still,” she said, weaving her fingers between his as she pointedly ignored his question. “Could have been better.”
He shrugged, then looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “I’ve got some ideas for how it still could be.”
Bingo.
Sammie grinned. The week since the Cats had won the championship had been a whirlwind, to say the least. Press hounding Kieran as Sammie spent most of her time working or making sure everything was in place for their planned weekend cleaning up the house.
That hadn’t left them much time to even see each other, let alone do anything together.
“Oh?” Sammie asked, but she was already moving, already climbing into his lap. His shirt rode up around her hips, showing off her bare legs. Kieran’s gaze was on her tattoo, his fingers trailing the lines of it, following branch after branch to the many quotes written across her skin.
“I didn’t know this was where we would end up,” he said, voice low, soft, the words just for her. “When you came to me that night in the diner, I had no idea any of this would happen.”
“That just makes it all the more fun, yeah?” Sammie spread her palms over his chest pushing him back onto the bed.
Kieran arched a brow in thought. “I’m not a huge fan of unknowns.” Sammie frowned, then pinched one of his nipples.
“Ow!” He swatted her hand away. “I was kidding!”
“Can we break another rule?” she blurted, already shimmying out of her underwear. Kieran cocked his head to the side in question.
“Which one?”
Sammie flushed. “We’ve both been tested, and I haven’t been with anyone else since then, and I don’t actually have any condoms on me, but I have an IUD, and…”
Kieran’s brows raised as he watched her flounder.
“Sometimes I just want to be a Twinkie.”
He blinked. Twice.
“You know.” Sammie waved her hands in the air. “Cream filled?”
Kieran blinked a third time, then buried his face in his hands.
“Christ, Sammie,” he muttered, but she was sure she felt his dick twitch under her ass.
“Is that a yes?”
“Yes.” Kieran surged up, pulling Sammie to his chest. “Yes, apparently I will break each and every rule I have for you.”
That was good enough for Sammie. She kissed him, as they both worked to divest him of his shorts without breaking contact.
Then she was sinking down onto his cock and letting out a sigh of relief.
He felt so good, stretching her, filling her so completely.
And as Kieran fell back, hair splaying out on the pillow they would later share, Sammie rocked her hips, watching him, drinking in his every reaction.
No rules. No cameras. Just them.