Page 35 of Game Misconduct

His eyes narrow. “But you are sorting it out?”

“Working on it.” I heave a sigh. “It’s harder than I thought. Being here, with this new team… I thought I’d retire in New Orleans. My family is from Boston originally, and it’s bringing up all these bad memories, and whether I intended to or not, I’ve been taking it out on you, and I’m sorry for that.”

I meet his eyes, holding contact until he relaxes. “I really am sorry. I’ll work on it.”

He nods, the motion stiff. “Okay. Apology accepted.” He settles into his seat, picking up his book again.

“What are you reading?” I force myself to ask.

His face lights up, and he launches into a monologue about the book, the author, and the other books she’s written. I listen to him ramble, his words filtering in one ear and out the other. When he finally runs out of breath, he turns to me expectantly.

“Sounds great. Maybe I’ll pick it up next.”

He beams at me, so fucking overjoyed it makes my teeth ache. “You won’t regret this.”

I’ll never regret reading a good book. But I might regret befriending my enemy’s brother. How do I keep them apart? How do I keep my disdain for Luke from feeding into my dealings with Seb?

I turn the thought over in my head for the duration of the flight, but by the time we land, I’m no closer to having an answer.

Luke Henry has adopted Elsy as his sister. It doesn’t matter that we live in different cities; she’ll always be my best friend.

Luke Henry is my rival’s best friend. It doesn’t matter that Whitney and I are good now; he’ll always be my rival.

Luke Henry has an intimate relationship with my dream girl. It doesn’t matter that Bex hates me; she clearly doesn’t hate him.

He’s taken everything from me. They’ve all chosen him over me.

Do I even matter anymore?

I have nobody in my corner. My mom passed when I was in college, and my dad and I have a… volatile relationship. He hasn’t hit me up for money in close to five years now—a record for him—and I’m aware living in the same city as him, it’s only a matter of time before he crashes back into my life.

There are guys in the league I’m friendly with, players I can grab a beer with when I hit their cities, but none of my old teammates have reached out since I left New Orleans.

Elsy is busy with Whitney, with being a newlywed. She doesn’t have as much time for me as she used to.

I get the whole male loneliness epidemic thing now. I’m not an incel, and I’m certainly not about to blame women for my lack of friendships. It simply feels like all of my relationships these days are transactional; what can I do for them? Nobody wants me for me.

If I weren’t so hung up on Bex, I’d go out to a bar and find a woman to take home. But despite my wish otherwise, my dick is only interested in one woman.

When I sat beside her at that bar three years ago, I never expected to end up here, pining for someone who doesn’t want me. I was the champion of the quick hookup, and there was never a shortage of willing women waiting for me.

Now… no thanks. Been there, done that, no interest in repeating it.

A few years before Bex, I had a woman I thought was the one. When Stephanie suddenly ended it, I was stunned, and to this day, I can’t be sure our timeline didn’t overlap with her next relationship with my teammate.

She wanted a ring, and she didn’t care how she got it. I’m not opposed to marriage, I was just on a different schedule than she was, and her pressuring me didn’t help. I’ve seen firsthand the damage it can cause to a kid when their parents’ relationship isn’t in a good place, so I wanted to be sure.

Turns out, I had every reason to doubt.

After everything that went down with Steph, I ventured back into the hookup scene, but it was already getting old by the time Whitney knocked my team out of the playoffs.

And then I met Bex.

And nothing has been the same ever since.