Be My Game Changer: A Sports Romance(50)
“No, I wasn’t. Your dad was there.”
“Really? You’re gonna accuse my dad?” Avery yells leaning across the table to get in Bodie’s face until Rhett speaks up.
“It’s not his fault,” Rhett says.
“Stay out of this.” Avery moves like lightning out from her spot beside me and around the end of the table, presumably to get to Bodie. But Rhett blocks her, meeting her halfway.
“I did it.” His eyes quickly dart to mine. “I took the video.”
“What?” she breathes, her hand gripping the phone as her arm drops to her side. “Why would you do that? How could you do this?”
“It was an accident. I was excited to see Cash in our store, so I wanted to take a quick video, until I heard what you were saying. I didn’t know it was gonna get leaked. I sent it to a few of my buddies, but they promised not to do anything with it. We just couldn’t believe what a douche Cash really is.” He gives me a pitying look and it makes my stomach roll. I don’t want this out there. But it’s too late.
“Yes. Everyone will know,” Joe retorts. “My source said they dug up a photo of yours at age ten when your arm was in a cast, and it’s not that hard to put two and two together.”
Avery looks to me. “I’m so sorry. I never should’ve said those things.” She rambles apologies to me and threats to her brother as her anger rises until she finally turns to face Rhett. “I’m gonna kill you.” The phone slings out of her hand, whipping across the room to where Rhett has distanced himself. He sidesteps and ducks in time for the phone to shatter against the wall in an impressive show of force, barely missing him. Enraged, whether from missing the intended target or just in general at her brother, she charges. Her hands reach for him, but Bodie holds her back while I still stand stupidly in a disorienting haze.
“That was my phone,” Joe states bluntly, shaking his head way too calmly given all the chaos around us.
All I see is Avery. Her face. Her smile. Her anger. All I hear are her words. Her outrage. Her venom. Finally snapping out of my daze, I step near her, reach forward, grasp her neck in my hand, and bring my mouth to hers. Kissing her fervently, I wedge between her and Bodie, my body pressing against hers, aligning us in our perfect way. She doesn’t respond for a moment, a shocked gasp comes from her lips, then she catches up and kisses me back.
Easing back slightly, I smile against her lips. “Thank you.”
She looks completely dumbfounded as she stares up at me, brow scrunched.
“You were protecting me. And at any cost.” I’ve witnessed the fierce side of this quiet woman who sits with her nose in a book. She may have run away from me in the beginning and drives me insane with passion in the present, but she stood up to my father. For me. Willing to lose everything in order to keep him away from me and protect me. Something no one, not even my own mother, has ever been willing to do for me.
“I don’t understand. Why aren’t you mad? Everybody is gonna know.” Her arms contract around my waist gripping me tightly, and I wrap mine around her to hold her against me.
“It’ll be okay.” It has to be.
“I’m sorry—” I shake off Rhett’s apology.
It doesn’t matter what, how, or who—it’s done. And I don’t blame anyone in this room. The only one responsible for what’s to come is the man who’s hidden his true self from the world. And maybe I’m partly to blame, because I’ve hidden it for him too.
40
AVERY
To say family lunch didn’t go well would be a vast understatement. But even more surprising is Carter’s calm, even relaxed, demeanor. How is he not livid about the news that will be shared with the world in the morning? The secrets he’s kept to himself so long are being revealed because I have a big mouth and my idiotic brother is a nosy fool with a damn camera phone.
“I’m so sorry, Carter. Really.”
“Would you have told anyone had he made a move?”
“I was hoping I’d never have to decide, but I can tell you that I wasn’t going to let him hurt you or my family.”
His hand clasps mine, bringing my knuckles to his mouth before resting our hands on the console between us.
“What are you going to do?”
“Exactly what I told Joe. We have no comment right now. We’re gonna let the story play out until I decide if and when I want to address it. Joe still has hopes of squashing it with some other story. Or someone doing something that will catch more attention.”
“Yeah. Let’s hope.”
“Never know.”
He’s still too calm. I hear his words, believe he isn’t angry, but I don’t get it. “I’m sorry. This is still my fault.”
“Well, then I guess you owe me,” he says with a joking tone, and now I worry where this is going. “I demand you play hooky tomorrow. I want you all to myself for the entire day so we can hide away and forget all about everything.”
That does sound good even if taking a day off again so soon, and last minute, doesn’t sit well. The news will break tomorrow morning and the classroom isn’t where I want to be. “Deal. And I need to get Joe another phone to replace his broken one.”