Page 66 of Fighting Chance

“Debby downer,” Lewis mutters, earning a snicker from Irving.

Grayson claps, stepping into his roll as captain, the one rightfully made for him. “All right boys, we got this. Irving, you’re in charge of separating and sorting the nuts and bolts.” He points a finger at him. “Don’t swallow anything.”

Irving throws his hands in the air as everyone laughs. “You swallow a battery by mistakeonetime and are forever marked! It’s ludicrous.”

“Not as ludicrous as swallowing a battery,” I mutter under my breath.

Johnson pinches the bridge of his nose. “I mean, who the fuck mistakes a battery—abattery—with a black olive?”

Irving sends a seething glare in his direction. “Very fucking easily when the battery looks identical to the bowl of olives next to it!”

“Mitchel, Johnson, and Lewis, you’re on the building portion with my dad.” Grayson turns to me. “Valenti, Ellington, and Ashford, you’re on cardboard duty. Break up all the pieces and take it to the front and while you do”—he looks over at Valenti—“find a damn manual.”

“Hey!”

Ignoring me, Grayson turns to his dad. “Let’s get this done before the sun sets.”

Valenti, Ellington, and I get to work on breaking down the boxes and moving them to the front of the house where I’ve been storing the trash cans. There’s a mountain of boxes already piled up here waiting for collection on Tuesday.

Ellington throws one of the boxes a little harder than necessary, and when I look over, his jaw is clenching and unclenching. Valenti is also quiet but that’s normal; he’s the broody asshole out of the bunch of us. But Ellington’s silence?

Something’s wrong.

“What happened?” I ask, my voice seemingly jarring Ellington out of his thoughts.

“What?” he asks, following me as we go to break down more boxes. In the backyard, the guys have unsurprisingly begun fighting and yelling over which piece to put where.

“Did something happen?” I probe again.

“Nothing,” he mutters, ripping up the boxes, again far too aggressive for what’s needed.

Valenti pauses. “Kieran’s right, you’re…acting like me.” He pulls a face as if he sucked on a lemon. “Why the hell are you acting like me?”

“And how do you act?” Ellington asks, hauling together a pile of boxes.

“Like a moody prick,” he says, making me snort. Valenti turns to me. “Am I wrong?”

“Not at all. I’m very proud to hear you’re self-aware.”

Ellington rolls his eyes as he throws the boxes down and spins to us abruptly. “It’s Evie.”

“Your sister?”

Valenti turns to stone beside me.

Ellington nods. “It’s that pathetic fucking boyfriend of hers.”

A frown furrows my brows. “I didn’t know she had a boyfriend.”

They both roll their eyes at me.

“Fuck, is hethatbad?” I ask.

Valenti cuts his gaze toward me, the sun shining along his brown skin. “He doesn’t deserve the title of boyfriend, let alone being hers.” That last word is punctuated with a growl, making one of my brows rise. “What did the fucker do this time?” he asks.

“What didn’t he do?” Ellington all but shouts in frustration. Sliding his fingers through his tousled hair, he groans. “They weremeant to go on a trip together in six weeks, and guess what this bastard does.”

“No,” Valenti says.