Play Maker(46)

She nodded. “It’s so good.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“He doesn’t even live in this country,” she groaned, looking upset.

Oh. This was serious. More serious than I had thought.

“So you really like him. Like, you like him, like him.”

She bit her lip again. “I don’t know. Maybe? Ugh.” She threw up her hands. “What am I doing? I’m acting like all those people we hate, the ones who fall for a one night stand.”

But, looking over at James, who was treating my brother like a real VIP, I knew exactly how Maya felt. I put an arm around her shoulder.

“We’ll figure it out,” I told her, even though I had no clue how we were going to do that.



Hours later, we were back in the limo heading home. Mikey was fast asleep on the seat next to me, his head heavy on my shoulder, and my mom looked like she was on the verge of falling asleep as well. But both of them looked like they’d had a great time. Only Maya and I were wide awake, but it was clear from the way my best friend was staring out the window that she had plenty on her mind. I didn’t mind, I had lots to think about too.

James had barely spoken a word to me all night. By the time he brought Mikey back over, my mom had joined us and James spent an hour or so talking politely with her and essentially ignoring me. I felt embarrassed and awkward standing next to them, wearing a jersey with his number on it, while he refused to even make eye contact with me.

Luckily, Mikey got antsy after a while, so I had a reason to excuse myself from the conversation. We went back to our seats where Mikey showed me everything that he had gotten signed and recounted the entire conversation he had had with Ten. Then we looked through all the photos that James had taken.

“And this is when he shook my hand. And this is where he told me about flying the TARDIS. And this is where he told me what his favorite episode is.” He was so happy that I did my best to shove aside my own discomfort with the situation and tried to enjoy the rest of the evening with him. It was probably the last time either of us would have a chance to experience something like this. I was just glad to be with my brother.

Sitting in the limo, I fumbled with a stick of gum, needing something to distract me from my thoughts. The mint taste exploded on my tongue, familiar and comforting. Maya glanced over as I began blowing bubbles, but just gave me a small smile before turning back to stare out of the window.

I hadn’t seen her talk to Ethan for the rest of the evening. My heart went out to her. I completely understood what she was going through. The confusion of not knowing what the f*ck was going on in your own head and heart. It was awful.

Though, I supposed this evening had been a pretty good indication of where this thing with James was going. And where it was going was nowhere. No matter the reason behind inviting us to this event, he had made it pretty clear that nothing was going to come of it. He had barely looked at me the entire evening and when we finally said goodbye, he gave Mikey a big hug and just grunted in my general direction.

I told myself to get over it. That we had both let this one night stand go way too far and James was just putting an end to it before it got any worse. Hadn’t that been exactly what I wanted, anyways?

I leaned my forehead on the limo window. I was getting exactly what I wanted, so why did I feel so unbelievably terrible?





28





James





I was officially a wanker, I realized when I got back to my hotel after the game and discovered that I felt pretty damn awful. It took three glasses of whiskey before I figured out why my mood had gone from over the moon to nose-diving into the gutter. It was Nicole. I had been a right arsehole to her all night and why? Because I was scared shitless that I actually liked her. What kind of grammar school nonsense was that?

I liked her. At least I could admit that to myself. She was sexy and funny and sweet and a little weird— in a cute way. Even her gum-chewing was endearing. I took a deep breath, half expecting my entire world to collapse onto itself with that internal confession. But nothing happened. I was just a bloke that liked a bird. Sure, it had never really happened to me before, but so what?

Now I just had to figure out what to do about it. Obviously not continue to ignore her. I wanted to slam my head against the headboard. I. Was. Such. A. Wanker. Instead, I drank more whiskey and fell asleep in my clothes.

When I woke up there was a banging in my head. Nope. Not in my head. At the door. Ugh. I felt awful, but I dragged myself out of bed and over to where someone was rapping their fist against the door like a drum.

I whipped it open to reveal Ethan on the other side, looking way better than I did.

“Jeez.” He gave me a disapproving look. “What the hell happened to you?”

“Nothing,” I muttered, heading back into the suite. “What do you want?”

“It’s not what I want,” he said, slapping me on the back. “It’s what you want.”

What I wanted was to go back to bed. Ideally a bed that had Nicole in it. Naked.

But Ethan was standing there grinning at me like he knew something that I didn’t. I hated that look. I sighed.

“Ok, I’ll bite, what is it that I want?”

“I just got a call from the For Foster Kids charity,” he told me, waving his phone. “They want to meet with you again.”