The man was as tall as Tyce, maybe even taller, with a sexy scruffy blond goatee and a headful of pale hair. It was slicked back and wonderfully reminiscent of Alexander Skarsgård's character Eric in True Blood. This time when I stood there in shocked surprised, I got a gentleman instead of an asshole.
“If you want, I've got a rum and coke with your name on it,” Kai said, holding out the drink. “Or at the very least, a dance.” I kept staring at him, taking in the black Swoosh shirt he was wearing, the dark jeans, the matching Nike sneakers. He had a wide chest and generously sculpted arms, ice blue eyes and a narrow mouth. He made up for that last one with a ridiculously kind smile and a cheerful attitude.
I liked him right away.
“Sorry,” I said after I realized I was still staring. “Teagan Fletcher,” I held out a hand and took the drink from Kai's big hand. “I think I'll say yes to both the drink and the dance if you don't mind.”
“Right on,” he said, lifting up his glass for a toast. I clinked our cups together and downed a good half of my drink in one go, letting Kai set them both aside on one of the tall black tables nearby. When he pulled me back onto the dance floor, “Panda” by Desiigner started up and we ended up dancing a hell of a lot closer than I was used to.
The alcohol swept through me, loosening my inhibitions, but it didn't knock me on my ass. When I was fourteen and Tyce was seventeen, right before he skipped out on me, we'd drive all the way out to this crazy secret swim spot and spent the day sipping whiskey. Having a mom who was a (sometimes) alcoholic had introduced me to booze at a young age. I could hold my liquor.
Still, even though Kai offered several more drinks throughout the night, I turned them down, letting my gentle buzz fade away until all I could feel was the heat and the sweat of the club, the crush of so many bodies moving together. Kai and I stuck close throughout the night, even though he was approached by a number of other girls. Clearly, he was a popular guy.
“Good luck at the game on Saturday,” one of them said after last call was made and another round of drinks circulated through the club. I paused for a moment as Kai traded in an empty shot glass for water and downed it all in one go. I seemed to be a magnet for coincidences lately, so …
“The game?” I asked over the wild bass, leaning up on my tiptoes so he could hear me above the murmur of the crowd. “Are you on the team? The football team,” I clarified although I needn't have bothered. During football season, there was only one team anyone really cared about.
Kai grinned nice and wide, his teeth bright white in the swirling darkness and the strobe lights.
“Linebacker for the Oregon Ducks,” he stated proudly, holding out his hand for another shake. “Nice to meet you.” I shook his hand back and returned the friendly smile. Speaking of coincidences … how random is this? With the luck I'd been having, of course the first nice guy I met was on the team.
“Do you know Tyce Winship?” I asked. I couldn't resist. Kai's smile slipped a little, and I realized how that probably sounded out of context. “I'm not, like, a fan or anything. I don't even really like football.”
“Well that's good to know,” Kai said with a boisterous laugh, nodding his chin towards the door. “Can I give you a ride home?” he asked, and I paused, thinking about the number of drinks he'd had. He should be good to drive.
“That'd be great, thanks,” I told him as we left the club and the cool autumn air pricked my bare arms. “I took a cab over here, but if you don't mind driving me over to the stadium, I'd love a ride.”
“Sure thing,” Kai said, showing me to his car, a swanky new black sedan that must've been a gift from a family member. I knew the guys on the team, although swathed in luxury, didn't actually get paid. “Hop on in.” Kai opened the door for me, still smiling with those warm brown eyes of his.
After he climbed in on the driver's side and we pulled onto the nearly empty street, he brought up Tyce again.
“So how do you know Winship?” he asked, and I could tell from the tentative note in his voice that Tyce probably had a reputation. Based on what I'd already seen from him, I wasn't surprised. I could still see the image of his hand cupping Jia's ass firmly in my mind. And taste the warm bourbon vanilla flavor of his lips. He tasted like home and comfort and old memories.
I blinked back the blurry memory of my first kiss. It might've just happened this afternoon, but the moment was so heated and emotional, I could hardly bring it up in my mind. I picked at the red tie on my pink clutch, staring at the painted face of a woman with a butterfly in her hair.
“Tyce and I go way back,” I said, looking over at Kai's rugged viking face. He had a much rougher look than Tyce, just as wild but in a different way, like he was a polar bear and Tyce was a panther. “We grew up together,” I continued, wanting to wipe that knowing look off of Kai's face. If he'd thought I'd slept with Tyce, he was dead wrong. That would never happen. “I was just curious about him. He seems different now.”
“Yeah, well, he's kind of an asshole,” Kai laughed, glancing over at me. The streetlights flickered through the window and highlighted the wide bridge of his nose. “And he definitely has a reputation, but he's the best damn QB this school has ever had. He's on his way to a career in the NFL.”
“How long have you known him?” I asked, wondering if Tyce had ever mentioned me. Based on Kai's reaction, I highly doubted it.
“Since he was seventeen. We actually finished up our junior and senior years together at Thurston High. He practically lived in my basement,” Kai joked, pausing at a stoplight and looking over at me again. Something on my face must've given me away because his laughter cooled and he looked serious all of a sudden. “I don't remember him mentioning you before, but it's probably because I'm a dumbass and I wasn't paying attention. I have a habit of missing things.”
“Thanks,” I said, trying not to lose the spirit of the night. Too late. I could feel the heavy weight in my chest. Tyce ran away from home to couch surf and finish school here. Why? Why not come back home and visit us? Or at least call? I couldn't figure it out without asking him, and that was something I just wasn't prepared to do yet.
Kai and I finished the drive in silence, and when he asked if I'd like him to walk me to my door, I said no. We could both tell that nothing else was going to happen between us tonight—not that I'd been planning on sleeping with Kai or anything. Still, I had a feeling that the ghost of Tyce had interfered in my life yet again. I doubted Kai Duran would be calling me back for a second date.
“You didn't tell me you had a childhood sweetheart,” Kai said the next morning, ambushing me in the locker room. He snapped his towel at my ass which he knew I hated. I turned around, letting my dick hang out, nice and proud, and flipped him off.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked as he slipped off his shirt and tossed it on a bench. He was smirking when he turned and punched in his key code for the locker door. They were fancy as hell, like something out of a sci-fi movie, all hooked up with ventilation and temperature control, things that Teagan and her mom hadn't even had in their trailer. I felt like a prick just being in here sometimes. I knew the facility had to cost tens of millions of dollars, and whether it was donated or not, I felt uncomfortable there at times. In my mind, I knew I'd earned the right to stand here, but in my heart, I felt like a coward.
“You know, that sexy Irish thing with the cute little freckles,” Kai told me with a grin, holding his hands out in front of his Swedish pale chest. “She was stacked out to here and packing an ass like nobody's business. Too bad she was too caught up on you to have any fun.”
Before I realized what I was doing, I was shoving Kai in the chest and sending him stumbling back into the row of lockers. Before I could chase him down and pummel the crap out his ass, he was holding up his hands in surrender.
“Dude, I'm sorry. Chill, man, relax. Jesus Christ.” He swore under his breath in another language and rose to his feet, looking at me carefully, studying me like h
This is exactly why I left, I thought to myself as Kai slicked his fingers through his blond hair and gave me a sheepish look.
“Nothing happened between us, okay? I'm sorry, bro. I didn't realize you had a thing for her.”
“I don't,” I snapped at him, turning back to my locker and tossing shit around like I was actually looking for something. In reality, I was just pissed. Again. And for no reason. I was seriously going to need some therapy after this. “I just don't want to hear you talk about her like that, okay? We grew up together.”
“So I heard. How come you've never mentioned her before?” I shrugged my shoulders and stared at the rose tattoo on the back of my hand, at the sparrow taking flight between my thumb and pointer finger. It gave me something to focus on while I calmed my suddenly frantic heartbeat.
“Dunno. Didn't think it was important,” I said, snatching my practice gear and covering up my dick with a jockstrap and a cup. Kai waited until I was covered before he broached the subject again. “She seemed to think it was. As soon as your name was mentioned, she fell apart. She was a fun girl and all, but holy crap. She went all super goth on me when we started talking about you.”
“Yeah, well, maybe you should keep our mouth shut around Teagan,” I said, slamming my locker closed and tossing Kai a glare over my shoulder. “In fact, maybe you just shouldn't talk to her at all.”
At least practice wasn't a complete bust.
We spent our day on the outdoor practice fields with full pads, giving me a chance to let out the pent up frustration I was feeling. This is why I left, I kept telling myself as I went through the motions, leading the first string players in a game simulation. This is why I disappeared. With Teagan around, I can't think straight. I bent over and blew out a breath of sweat, enjoying the burn of my muscles before standing up and surveying the field. Kai was still giving me weird looks, but I didn't give a shit. He could have any girl he wanted, so screw him. What was wrong with having some limits? I'd never screwed his exes. Although Teagan was never anything like that to me. She wasn't an ex because she was never my girlfriend or my lover, just … a friend.
I gritted my teeth and forced myself back into the game, the green of my uniform a beacon of hope in my suddenly cluttered brain. Shit might be going down around me, but I had this. I'd always have this. Football was both my god and my muse, my reason for living. It was the reason I'd left my hometown, come all the way up to the Eugene metro area to play, to snag that scholarship out of nowhere. I'd followed a dream and I'd made things happen.
While leaving a nightmare at home behind me.
I refused to think about Teagan's mom, Venus. Knowing she was gone was fucking devastating, and if I let myself go there, I'd screw up my whole game. Smack dab in the thick of the season, going to the dark places in my head wouldn't get me anywhere. I refused to let that happen. I shut all of that down and dove back into practice with a vengeance.
My team had a three point lead with four minutes on the clock so I moved the chains once, used a hard snap and got the defense to jump offsides. Easy as frigging cake.
“Nice job today,” Coach said was I made my way off the field. “Looks like you finally got those panties untangled?” I gave him a one shoulder shrug and a smirk, my helmet tucked against my body on the other side. “Well, whatever it is, don't let it distract you on Saturday, you hear me?”
“You got it, Coach,” I said as I made my way back towards the locker room.
I had to wonder the whole way if that would be a lie.
The next day, I went running again, as if that was a surprise.
Coach was seriously going to kick my ass. Let's just hope I don't twist my damn ankle out here, I thought as I wound my way through the park. At nearly four hundred acres, the chances of actually running into Teagan again were pretty slim. Hell, having it happen even once was a goddamn miracle. It was fate.
I gritted my teeth and pushed myself harder, veering off the cement and onto a winding dirt path, the trees swaying overhead in the dying twilight. Even though it was fall, there were plenty of evergreens to keep the atmosphere emerald and lush, a far cry from the dry desert shit hole where Teagan and I grew up.
Deep breath, deep breath, deep breath.
The rhythmic movement of my legs, the pumping of my arms and the thumping of my pulse in my neck kept me calm as I raced through the trees and over protruding roots. I leapt those like they were the enemies on the field, like I was a running a Hail Mary pass into the end zone.
I was so up inside my own fucking head that when I actually veered around a corner and came up on another runner, I didn't even consider the fact that it might be Teagan, not until I closed the gap between us and caught a flash of that bouncing red ponytail.
Fate.
Fucking fate.
I picked up the pace until I was literally running next to her, leaping over branches and stray bushes on the narrow path. The heavy sounds of our breathing mingled together, turning my thoughts in the wrong direction, sending all that pumping blood in my body to my cock. It didn't help that with each movement of her body, I saw the swell and bunch of long, lean muscles, the perfect roundness of her chest, the hot flush on her cheeks.
“What do you want, Tyce?” Teagan panted, flicking her gaze over to me. Her eyes were the color of chilled mint ice cream, and I wanted so badly to dig into that expression, pull it apart and figure out exactly what was going on in her head. “I'm a little busy here.”
“I thought you might need someone to catch you in case you fell,” I said, my voice pitching low despite my labored breathing. Without meaning to, I switched right into flirting with her when that was the last thing I'd meant to do. I flirted with girls that didn't mean shit to me. Teagan … was a whole different ball game.
“Haha,” she said, but at least she didn't elbow me off the edge of the path. Deep breath, deep breath, deep breath. “Seriously though, what?”
I wasn't about to cop to running on the off chance I'd see her again, so I lied. Again. Seemed like the easiest route out. I wasn't proud of it, but it was there.
“Didn't know I'd run into you,” I panted with a shrug she didn't see. Her gaze was focused on the path in front of us again, on the constant beeping of the heart rate monitor strapped to her arm. “Just trying to be friendly.”
“Really? That seems like a skill you could use some practice with.”
Pound, pound, pound. Our feet hit the dirt in unison as we rounded a corner and came up on the cement. Moving across the Autzen Footbridge, I could hear the roar of the river beneath us like a second heartbeat.
“We need to talk,” I said as we hit the end of the bridge and Teagan turned around to double back, coming to a stumbling stop and leaning hard against the cement railing on the edge. I moved up close to her, careful to keep at least a foot between us. I didn't know what I'd do if I got any closer. I wished I could say nothing, but I couldn't trust myself around her. This is why I left.
I took another deep breath, reaching down to pluck my sweaty shirt away from my chest.
“You … chased me … all the way down here to … talk,” she gasped, glancing over her shoulder at me, sweat dripping down the tip of her small nose, right over those freckles I used to tease her about way back when. “Don't you mean berate me? Yell at me?”
“I never yelled,” I said, feeling my fists clench and release. That old familiar anger was still burning inside me. It never went out, like embers in a fire, hot coals to burn anyone that got too close, who was either too stupid or too naïve to realize they should stay away. “I just … I want to know what you're doing here, Teagan?”
“I live across the street, Tyce. Why wouldn't I come here?”
“You know what I mean,” I snapped back at her, trying to control my temper. It'd never done anything good for me, so I don't know why I hung onto it. In the past though, anger had been my shield, so I held it up like a good soldier and fought the good fight. “Why did you enroll at the U of O? Why are you in here Eugene? What happened to Venus, Teagan?”
She whirled on me then, a force and fury that I recognized all too well. Now there's the girl I left behind. This calm, quiet new persona of hers was too weird, too unfamiliar. I didn't understand it at all.
“You don't own this town, Tyce, despite what some might say,” Teagan spat at me, reaching back and freeing the gorgeous orange and red of her hair from its ponytail. It was like a fall of autumn down her back, this flaming badge of pride that I wanted so desperately to run my fingers through. “And you don't own the university. I got a scholarship, a full ride, and I didn't have to toss around a ball to get it.”
“I fucking earned my place here,” I growled back at her, keeping my hands by my sides as she moved up close to me, glared right through the twelve inches that separated us. The wind blew a fierce stiletto of cold across my heated skin, bringing up goose bumps over my arms. “I worked my ass off. You know that.”
“Do I? Because the Tyce Winship I thought I knew seems to be good and dead. The Tyce Winship that I knew,” Teagan continues, putting her hand over her heart, “would never have left me behind. If he had to go, he would've let me know and I would've understood. What did you think, that I was going to hold you back?”
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