Chapter 27
CLAY
“That’s a foul,” I say evenly.
Nine other players on the court pull up and look toward me.
“What? No way.” Rookie’s standing a few strides away from where he ripped the ball from my hands a second ago.
“It’s a foul.” I take it back and demonstrate.
“You do that all the time,” he protests. “They don’t call you on it.”
“That’s because I’m me. For the next year or two, you’re you.”
He curses colorfully.
I grab his shoulder and pull him in.
“Hey. You survive that time, you get the benefit of the doubt. Until then, you go the fuck to work and show them why you deserve it. Now go again.”
Rookie sighs but sets up to guard me one more time.
I feel Jay’s eyes on me through the entire play, until the assistant overseeing our drill calls a break.
“What?” I ask my friend.
“You’re being nicer to Rookie since the charity auction. Since LA, in fact.”
I lift a shoulder. “He’s here if I like him or not. Maybe he’ll get my laundry done right.”
“You mean you like him,” Jay laughs.
For the past week, life has been extra busy.
Harlan’s wedding is this weekend. We’re hurtling toward the season.
We played our final two preseason road games, winning them both.
My downtime’s been spent with the entire team packed into Bear Force One.
I’ve barely seen Nova.
There’s nothing like the high of victory. It’s what I live for.
But I miss her face. Miss the sound of her voice.
We text every day, talk when we can.
I asked for a picture, and she sent me one of her in the jersey I gave her, annotated on the screen with text that read “LEFT” and an arrow helpfully pointing to one of her tits.
Joke’s on her because I still got off to that picture lying in a hotel bed in Phoenix.
We haven’t had a minute in private, but every time I close my eyes on a plane or when I fall into bed, she’s there.
I hadn’t realized I could be this obsessed about anything but basketball.
Even now, as I’m standing here in a gym filled with the guys I train with and professionals of every kind, all I can think of is the last time I saw her.
She grounds me. As if even in my darkest moments, I might be someone worth saving. A man whose worth goes deeper than the court.
“How long before we’re done with this?” I ask Jay.
He glances at his watch. “An hour.”
“What’s on your mind?” Jay asks me.
I’m a grown man. Not a teenager with a crush. I don’t do this shit.
“There’s this woman.”
“You mean Nova.”
“I mean Nova.”
He grins at me like the cat that ate the canary.
“What?” I say, affronted. “It’s not like I’m here every night thinking about her.”
“No, but you don’t have her here with you, so you think about her.”
“Fuck you.”
He laughs. “If I had a girl like Nova, I wouldn’t let her out of my sight.”
“No shit.”
“You don’t do relationships,” he says.
“I know.”
“But?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Everything’s different with her.”
I want to show her.
After the wedding, once she has a second to think about herself and not her sister.
I head to the bleachers and grab my phone from my bag to see if she’s texted.
There’s a voicemail from my agent.
“Good news. LA’s putting something together. Guess your performance instilled confidence you’re still the guy to have for their title run. But word is, Harlan refused to take the call.”
Anger burns through me.
Tonight is the rehearsal dinner. The entire starting lineup was invited, but it was a formality. I was planning to go so I could stare at Nova from across the room, maybe drag her into the coat check at the end of the night.
But my feelings for her are overrun by my frustration with Harlan.
The assistant coaches run the team through more drills.
I grab the ball and go in for a drive, going hard at the defense. They stand their ground, and I twist, going down hard.
My knee screams.
I grunt, swallowing the sharp pain as one of the trainers motions me over.
“That looked rough,” he says.
“It’s fine. I’ll walk it off.”
The joint twinges as if silently arguing with me.
Coach crosses to us. “You came down on it hard.”
I take a deep breath.
If I’m hurt, LA won’t want me again. No one will.
I’ll be collecting a paycheck and riding the bench for some team, forced to watch the other guys fight night after night at the only thing I’ve ever been good at.
The trainer pulls up something on his phone. “We can get you in for treatment tonight.”
“Tonight’s the rehearsal dinner,” Jay reminds me.
I exhale hard. “I’ll come later. This matters more.”