Play Maker(41)

“Nicole—” Oh shit. I didn’t know her last name. Now I could feel myself getting red. “The girl from the bar,” I said quickly.

Ethan’s eyebrows shot up. “The girl from the bar.”

“Nicole.”

“Nicole.” Ethan made a note in his phone, a smile sneaking up his face. “No last name.”

“I’ll find out what it is,” I said quickly, reminding myself to text Nicole as soon as I got back to my room. At least I had her phone number now.

“Ok, so I’ll have a ticket set aside for her.”

“Three tickets actually,” I added and cleared my throat.

“Three?”

“For her mother and brother.”

Ethan put down his phone. “Mate. What is going on?”

“Nothing!” I put up my hands. “It’s nothing.”

But my friend shook his head. “Inviting a date to one of these things is strange enough, but inviting her mother and brother? That is not like you at all.”

“Weren’t you the one who was encouraging this kind of thing?” I countered.

“Sure, but I never thought you’d go all in all at once.”

I pointed a finger at him. “I am not going all in. I’m just…doing something nice.”

“Alright,” but Ethan still looked skeptical. “I’ll put aside three tickets.”

“Also send a limo,” I said quickly, all in a rush.

Ethan’s mouth dropped open but he quickly closed it and said nothing, just making another note in his phone. I glanced over at the covered tray where the waffles had been and had a flash of brilliance. Ethan always sat in my section during games. Usually by himself. Maybe I could make the evening more fun for him as well.

“Actually.” I gave his shoulder a friendly slap as I headed for the door. “Make it four tickets.”





25





Nicole





I didn’t know who was more excited about the limo, Mikey or my mom. Or Maya. In fact, everyone seemed pretty thrilled when the shiny black vehicle pulled up to the driveway. And as much as I tried not to be impressed, when we got in and Doctor Who was playing on the TV inside and the ice bucket was filled with ice cream and soda, I couldn’t help but smile.

It was amazing watching Los Angeles speed past us from the windows of the limo. Maya wanted to do the thing they do in the movies and stick her head out the top, but I convinced her to wait until we weren’t moving. The last thing I wanted was for my best friend to swallow a bug at 65 mph. Or to encourage Mikey to do the same.

I was glad she was with us, though surprised when I had gotten the text from James telling me he had included a ticket for her. Had he really remembered her from the bar? Either way, I was really looking forward to an evening with my favorite people, even if it did involve sports.

It wasn’t that I was against sports or watching sports, it was just that I had never really done it before. The limo took us to Pasadena, where the StubHub stadium was lit up and full of excited soccer fans. Or football fans depending on who you asked. I remembered how offended James had gotten when I teased him about being a football player. He was cute when he got riled up. Well, he was cute all the time. And that was the problem.

I couldn’t stop thinking about how great it had felt waking up with him the other morning. How warm and comfortable I had felt. How safe. Honestly, it was unnerving how nice it had been. Because I really, really didn’t want it to be nice. I didn’t want it to be anything. I wanted to be able to walk away from him, no strings attached, but every time we saw each other, the strings connecting us seemed to multiply.

I glanced over at my brother who was taking it all in with wide eyes. I really hoped he didn’t get too attached to anything that happened tonight – and that included James. He had a hard time letting go of people. It’s probably why he was so eager to let my mom back into our lives. He had been waiting for her all along. He always waited for the people who left. I just hoped he wouldn’t consider James to be someone worth waiting for. Because this guy was not sticking around.

I chewed my gum nervously as we pulled up to the VIP entrance, suddenly self-conscious of what I was wearing. James had said that casual was fine, but I had on my best pair of jeans and my nicest shirt. Maya had worn tight pants, heels and a tube top. She looked great, but I was starting to feel a little underdressed. Should I have worn a dress, like my mom did? Who knew what the rest of the people in the VIP section were wearing? I was suddenly nervous all of us were going to stick out like sore thumbs.

We got our VIP badges, which Mikey couldn’t stop staring at. Even if we didn’t get to meet any of the actors from Doctor Who, I could tell he was going to be talking about this night for months. But still, he kept a firm grip on his backpack where he had carefully put his most precious Doctor Who paraphernalia in hopes that we’d see Nine or Ten.

The game was starting in a half hour. We were led to the VIP area passing concession stand after concession stand. I was glad that Mikey had eaten some ice cream in the limo and I had grabbed a bottle of soda for him to have later, because I took one look at the prices of popcorn and various other treats and felt my wallet tighten. Hopefully he could wait to eat and we could get some In-N-Out after the game.