Page 7 of Between the Boards
“Yeah,” I nod. “Exactly.”
“I find that interesting,” he says, a slow smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t think Zale is capable of possessing range, and yet you’re head-over-heels for the guy.”
“Be nice.” I scowl at him as I unwrap my burger. “He’s still your teammate.”
Colton clicks his tongue, his eyes narrowing slightly. “And you’re still protecting him, even when he’s with another girl.”
My stomach drops from the reminder. I feel stupid for letting it bother me, and for letting Zale take up space in my head and heart when I clearly don’t take up any in his.
“Next question,” I say before taking a bite.
“Okay,” Colton says with a shrug. “What about someone who challenges you or someone who comforts you?”
I think about that for a moment, feeling conflicted.
“It’s important to be with someone who challenges me if his intention is to help me grow,” I say slowly. “But it’s also important that they know how to do that right, and when to comfort me instead.”
Colton chuckles, shaking his head as he reaches for his burger.
“What?” I ask, already defensive.
“It’s nothing,” he says.
“No. Tell me what’s so funny about what I said.”
He sighs and pauses before taking a bite. “I’m not laughing at what you said. I’m laughing because I think you might be too good for any of the guys in this shitty little town, Kai, and that means we have our work cut out for us.”
My heart thumps hard in my chest, and my lips part but no words come out. He must notice because he suddenly looks away, the tips of his ears turning a subtle shade of pink.
“But,” he adds quickly, still not looking at me, “I’m sure we can find someone that at least checks offmostof your boxes.”
I nod slowly and swallow. We finish our food while making small talk here and there when we’re both not lost in thought, because the more I think about it, the more I start to wonder if the person I’m looking for even exists in Saltwater Springs.
Or anywhere in the world.
“There you are.”
I glance over my shoulder and find Zale stepping down the stairs. He walks over and drops onto the couch beside me, grabbing a handful of popcorn from my bowl on the coffee table.
“Hey,” I say quietly, turning my attention back to the TV, trying to ignore the way his arm drapes behind me.
After nearly two and a half hours of detangling my curls, my scalp is so sore that I can’t comfortably lay down to sleep. So instead, I came downstairs to watch competition reruns until thepain subsides enough to try sleeping again, but the last thing I planned for was Zale joining me at two in the morning.
“I was looking for you earlier,” he says through a mouthful of popcorn. “Alessia wants to meet you.”
“Your girlfriend wants to meet me?” I ask, raising a brow. “Why?”
“Don’t be weird,” he says, frowning slightly when he spots the bandage on my forehead, but he doesn’t ask about it. “You know she’s just a friend.”
“A friend you fuck, who flew across an entire ocean to share a bed with you for the summer.” I snort. “Sure sounds like a friend to me.”
“You and I have fucked before,” he reminds me, “and we’ve shared a bed once or twice too. Aren’t we friends?”
Pain pierces through my chest so sharp it steals the air from my lungs. Maybe I’m overthinking what he said, but hearing our complicated twenty-year history reduced to something so casual—something comparable to this random girl he met abroad only a year ago—hurts.
