54

Ryan

Non-Refundable Membership Card

Back in high school, our coach had a list of the sayings he'd bellow at us. One of his favorites kept circling my head.

These girls are going to find a way to fuck with your head.

Back then, I'd written it off and didn't pay much attention to it. Football was my life. Football was my morning, afternoon, night, everything I thought about, everything I worked towards. The idea that I'd let something else take that top place was impossible. But sitting across from Kassie in that booth, with her hand in mine, I understood.

I'm ruined .

I was nothing more than one of her drawings that she'd created. Erased, redrawn, erased me again, until I wasn't the same piece of paper anymore. Crumpled. Stuffed in her back pocket. Undoubtedly hers.

Slowly, she touched me too, trailing her thumb along my skin and bringing goosebumps on the back of my neck.

But I had to remember something. My girlfriend had no problem going toe-to-toe with my teammates or snapping at someone who made a comment about the Romans at the grocery store, but she was still…fragile.

All I wanted to do was tell her how much I loved and thought about her all the time and how fucked she had me but we needed to take steps. And that was a hard thing to swallow. I've never been a patient person. I worked hard and put in the sweat to get what I wanted.

That wouldn't work with her. I needed to bide my time.

I kept quiet while she took my hand in hers, outlining my hand. Even if she ran my finger across my wrist, I kept quiet. It reminded me of watching her draw. Like she was trying to memorize me.

My eyes flickered down to her other hand.

The bruise .

I stiffened in the booth, still silent. The fact that he was still in this fucking city was inexcusable. He put his hands on her.

"I had fun last night," Kassie told me, her voice soft.

"We can do it again," I promised immediately, still staring at the bruise. It'd take a few days to fade but it wouldn't fade from my brain.

One of the few times I had to leave her behind and this shit happened. I'd been so careful too. Putting the off-limits tag on her, warning my teammates that they needed to keep an eye on her while she wandered the training center, I even made sure her schedule was set while I was out of the state.

And this still happened.

A knock on the window next to us made Kassie jerk over. I put my arm on the back of the booth and scanned the windows. Adam,

"Morning!" he greeted, once he crossed the front door.

Kassie's hand slipped from mine instantly, embarrassed, and that should've caught my attention instantly but I frowned at him as he slid into the seat next to me. Thinking it over.

If I wanted to, I could've told him to fuck off. But the more I mulled it over, the more I knew I needed him after I dropped Kassie off.

"I can't believe you're up," Kassie hurried to say, her words stumbling over each other. "I thought you were going to sleep in."

"I'm the distraction for King and June," Adam explained, making a show to look out of the booth. He wasn't even focused on us. I doubted he even noticed the blush on Kassie's face. "They're having breakfast together and June's got to meet up with her boyfriend. I'm the ‘out' for the crowd."

Across Gianna's , I could see King and June sitting with finished plates. They were eating and I didn't even notice.

I didn't notice?

King drove an old, red truck that everybody made fun of on the team. That truck was older than King. It was easy to clock every time in a parking lot. How the hell did I miss that?

Adam gestured at him and King nodded, lumbering over. Even better. Having Adam along with me for the ride after breakfast was great but King wasn't just level-headed, I could trust him more than anybody else on the team to keep his mouth shut.

"What are you doing after this?" I asked Adam, my voice low.

Kassie raised an eyebrow. "Uh, Ryan, you're going to sleep."

"Yeah, Ryan-cakes, you're going to sleep." Adam laughed and pointed at Kassie's orange juice. "Can I have that? I'm hungover as shit."

I pushed him out of the booth and gave him my orange juice, taking the place next to Kassie while King sat in the place I just left. I draped my arm over the back of the booth, and my hand hung over Kassie's shoulder. She didn't need to know what I had planned.

I'd have to ask Adam and King after breakfast.

"You're right," I told Kassie. "I need to sleep."

That wasn't happening but my art girl didn't need to know that.

"We missed you on the bus, illustrator-in-chief." Adam threw back the rest of my orange juice. "I hope your art meeting was worth it. Ryan's annoying as shit when you're gone."

"We're not talking about that," I told him, with a clear look his way.

"The bus?" Adam set the glass back down and took a long look at both of us, confused. "You two look like shit. Why do you two look like shit? You didn't even come to my party. And fuck you, by the way."

Kassie hummed under her breath, avoiding the question.

Something new dawned on Adam's face and he took another, longer look at both of us. And another one. With a snort, Adam burst into laughter. "Holy shit!"

I glanced down at Kassie but she looked just as confused.

"Zariah owes me fifty bucks!"

"What dumb shit are you talking about?" Kassie asked, exasperated.

King pointed at the french toast. "Ryan, you ordered her two plates for breakfast?"

That took Adam's attention. Both of my teammates stared in surprise at the plates before Kassie pushed one in front of me. My agreement for the conversation.

"Nope, he's eating that," Kassie told them and passed the syrup to me.

"Who?" Adam frowned.

"Ryan."

King glanced back at me. "What?"

I poured out a fourth of the glass bottle of syrup over the french toast and broke a piece of bacon in half, scooping up a piece of the french toast in it. Fuck, it was good. I picked up the fork, cutting into the eggs.

"What the fuck?" Adam snickered.

Kassie put her elbows on the table, a warning in her words. "And what is wrong what that?"

"Nothing's wrong with that, Kassie. Nothing at all. But…you got him eating French fucking toast?" Adam blanched. "You have him eating sugar? "

With his eyebrows up to his hairline, King nodded, just as perplexed.

"You're exaggerating," I told him, digging in with my fork again.

"Exaggerating, sure." With his hands pressed together, Adam waved at the two of us. "King, buddy, do you notice something odd about our friends today?"

"Odd?"

"It's like having breakfast with the court jesters," Kassie muttered and I guffawed.

"Don't they seem tired? " Adam pressed.

"Tired?" King shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

"Ryan here made a change to tight end." Adam‘s grin stretched wide. "Personal foul, penetrate the o-line, ate up the secondary—one minute, I had another one—"

Kassie clicked her tongue. "Are these football terms?"

"They better be," I replied.

"Ryan motherfucking scored!" Adam laughed harder. "They just boned!"

Kassie dropped her fork, and I could feel her blush without even looking at her. But it was hard to be that upset at the guys when I was trying not to grin too. I already put an off-limits tag on her. How was I supposed to be embarrassed that she came on my face?

"Actually, you owe me money too," Adam thumped King's shoulder with his. "Get your wallet out, babycakes. I want my fifty bucks."

King grimaced but he still pulled out his wallet.

"You—you had a bet—? " Kassie sputtered. She turned back to face me. "Did you know about this?"

Adam snorted. "How would he? We don't see him anymore."

"Fifty bucks," King muttered, handing him off the bills.

"You were betting if we were going to have sex or not?" I ate another slice of bacon. "Good to know you've got the time to talk. We definitely need to up the gym slots."

"Oh, fuck that." Adam groaned. "We just won a game. Come on, captain."

King shook his head. "The bet wasn't if you had sex or not, it's when you had sex. I thought it was going to happen last month. Zariah thought it'd happen right before Kassie goes to Florida."

"Part of that money should mine, " Kassie reached over and plucked the fifty off the table. "You'll get ten percent."

"Ten percent?" Adam demanded.

"Five percent."

I grinned and Adam snatched off a piece of bacon from her plate before Kassie tossed the fifty at him with a laugh. Even King was grinning.

"So that's what the Romans do?" Kassie pushed. "You just swagger around with your protein shakes and discuss other peoples' sex lives."

King shrugged. "Sometimes."

"I'll talk about mine so it evens up the score," Adam reassured her.

"Adam." I pointed a piece of bacon at him. "I'd enjoy my breakfast more if you didn't do that."

"Okay, so I was fucking this girl at the party last night, right? She's hot, great tits, sucked like a vacuum cleaner, but I wasn't feeling it. I had to pretend to come." Adam screwed up his face and gave a huge grunt at the table. "Just like that, patted her on the back, had to go grab her roommate."

"You did what? " Kassie clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. " What? "

"I patted her on the back. I felt bad. She put in the team effort."

"Wait, wait, wait." She held up a hand. "Guys fake it too?"

"Not a problem I've ever had to deal with." King shrugged again.

Adam roared with laughter. "You'd actually have to fuck people to discover that, King!"

"I've had sex."

"Mattresses don't count, babycakes."

King dove for Adam and grabbed him around the neck, digging his knuckles in Adam's hairline while Adam shoved him off, laughing the whole time.

"You know what?" Kassie folded her arms over her chest. "That's too much for me. I don't want to know any of this guy stuff. I prefer the mystery."

"It's too late, art girl." I brought my arm down from the back of the booth and wrapped it around her shoulders. "You're already roped in."

Kassie gave me a long look. "I revoke my membership card."

"Non-refundable," I told her. "You can't get out of it."

King gave a solemn nod in agreement and Kassie laughed again. It felt so fucking good watching that.

"Boss captain," Adam told me, chewing on the bacon he stole from my plate. "Bruise looks shit by the way."

Adam was so busy, he didn't notice the way Kassie and I tensed in the booth. I stole a quick look down at her. All the hickeys were covered. Not one of them shone through. What could he see that I didn't?"

"Because I really should thank you," Adam admitted. "Thanks again."

The huge bruise on my face. Right .

We both breathed out a sigh of relief, but when Kassie looked up at me, a grin tugged on my lips. I didn't start laughing, she did, and then we were both bent over the table, laughing so hard together, my sides ached.

Adam stopped chewing. "Was it something I said?"