Chapter 46
A Plane Shit Show
Olli
When I saw Lunez’s agent stop Kodi, I was a little worried.
But when Kodi’s face paled, I had to fight the urge to jump out of my seat and run to her.
I didn’t like that look, I didn’t like how she grabbed the woman’s hands with desperation, and I didn’t like how when her eyes flashed to mine, there was a shine of tears.
But I had enough sense to remember where we were. And while I trusted my teammates to not make a big deal of it or let word get back to the coach or owners, there were others on the flight who I simply didn’t know.
So I stayed in my seat, hands going white as I clutched the armrests, and watched the conversation play out.
When she finally walked back, she was biting her lip so hard the skin darkened. I stepped out to let her into the row and immediately took her hand when settled in.
“Are you okay?”
“Ugh, I don’t even know,” she groaned, bringing both of her hands up to cover her face, but not letting go of mine. “I fucked up in the stupidest way. It’s not even funny how stupid it is.”
“Why don’t you tell me what happened so I can be the judge of that?”
Kodi let out a heavy sigh and dropped our hands to her lap.
“Renee saw me kiss you on the cheek.”
I waited for more details but when I didn’t respond, Kodi shook my hand wildly.
“Olli, take this seriously.”
“I would if I understood what was happening.” She groaned again, throwing her head back. “I don’t see what the big deal is. A kiss on the cheek is nothing. We can just explain it as a friend thing.”
“No, no, no. You don’t understand. That won’t work with Renee.”
“Is that the woman you were talking to?”
“Yeah. She’s also, like, my archnemesis at this point. Because, jeez, I can’t believe her of all people from college is the one to reenter my life. And of course, it’s her who saw me do the simplest thing to blow our low-key plan.”
It was like listening to Gallagher speak when he got too into it — I knew it was English, but I didn’t understand a single thing that was said.
“Kodi,” I started but she shook her head and finally explained.
“Right, sorry. So I went to college with Renee and we both ran in the same … social circles. And I maybe, kinda, sorta, went out of my way to hook up with guys she was after because she was always such a judgmental bitch about me sleeping around and being from the South and damn near anything she could think of. So … archnemesis. And because she’s the one who saw me kiss you, she automatically jumped to us sleeping together.
And because she hates my guts, she bought the stupid ass plane Wi-Fi to email Coach.
Lord knows what she said, but she sounded pretty confident it’d get me fired. ”
“I won’t let that happen,” I told her, squeezing her hand.
“That’s sweet, but what if they bench you over this?
They’re already doing stupid shit, I wouldn’t be surprised if this pushes them to be stupider.
Ugh, Renee would do this when I can’t get a drink.
” Kodi slumped into her seat. I watched her for a moment, at a loss at what to do for her.
There really wasn’t anything we could do until we heard Coach’s reaction.
“Uh, so not to eavesdrop, but I kinda heard all that,” Gallagher piped up from the seat in front of us.
Fuck, I’d assumed everyone was still too caught up talking to pay attention to us.
“Congrats on being in a relationship, I guess.”
“Thanks,” Kodi muttered, kicking at Gallagher’s seat. “Too bad it’s about to become long distance.” Then, as Renee walked by, she added. “Some bitch ruined my chances at love.”
“Love?” the other woman scoffed. “Yeah, right. You just like sleeping with players. Congrats on making it to the major leagues.”
“Dude,” Brooker interrupted, standing up to tower over Renee. “What’s your damage? Could you really not have looked the other way over a fucking kiss?”
“Well,” she stuttered. “It’s highly inappropriate for a player and a PA to —”
“Renee, what the hell?” Lunez said, standing up from farther back. Renee’s face went pink and she pushed past Brooker to return to her player. There were some angry whispers, but I wasn’t particularly interested in whatever happened to her.
I turned back to Kodi, who was nearly sawing at her lip. “We won’t know what Coach’s reaction is until after we land and get to the hotel. There’s nothing we can do right now.”
“I know,” she groaned. “But why was this how we got caught?”
“It could’ve been worse. We could’ve been trying to join the mile-high club and she walked in,” I said, trying to lighten the mood. She leaned back onto the headrest, facing me, a soft smile lighting up her face.
“God, I wish I wasn’t having a crash out so I can enjoy hearing you make a joke.”
“Should I try harder? Not sure I can come up with a more embarrassing scenario.”
“I dunno, mile-high club could be kinda sexy. Though in a plane full of your teammates, it’d be kinda hard to do all the foreplay and be aroused enough for you to get it in quickly.” She started to giggle and the sound eased some of the tension that was beginning to weigh me down.
“There’s my girl.” I squeezed her hand again. “And besides, whatever scandalous way she spun things, the guys will back up that it was just a kiss on the cheek.”
“Don’t you think Coach will assume they’re covering for you?”
“Well, it’d be the first time the whole team agrees on something. So probably not.”
“Probably,” she grumbled. I leaned over and tilted her chin up so I could kiss her on the lips. Our cover was already blown, so a brief peck was probably fine. “Hmm, maybe joining the mile-high club wouldn’t be that hard after all.”
“Maybe next time, baby.”
“Hmm, I’ll hold you to that. And if you get transferred, I expect you to fly me out to all your games.”
“All of my games?” I chuckled. “I’m not exactly buy-a-private-plane rich. You know that, right?”
“Then get there.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said, knowing I’d do whatever she said to keep her happy and keep her mine.