Page 24 of Shootout
Things had worked out for the best, but I wished they hadn’t.
ChapterEight
DIGGING DEEPER
~~Banks~~
Last night had thrown me for a loop, and I wasn’t sure what to do. After working off some of my frustration in the shower, I’d lain awake all night going over my options and didn’t like any of them. I must’ve fallen asleep sometime early morning because I felt like shit when I woke up at seven thirty a.m., and I didn’t even have a hangover.
Sitting up in bed, I rubbed my eyes and yawned. I dragged my tired body to the shower and stood under it for a long time. Images of Jessie flashed through my mind, how she looked when I’d kissed her, how she’d pressed against me, how she’d buried her fingers in my hair. And her breasts. They were beautiful, and I enjoyed looking at them and tasting them. Everything had been going so well until we’d been unable to find a hotel with a vacancy. The mood was ruined, and Jessie had skittered away like a scared rabbit who’d come to her senses around a big bad wolf.
I’d been shut down before, not often but once in a while, and rejection hadn’t bothered me. Usually, I had another girl waiting in the wings. This was different. She’d staked a tent, built a campfire, and camped out in my head. And that freaking fire wouldn’t go out. It’d burned all night. My attempts to pleasure myself fell far short of the pleasure I imagined I’d receive from Jessie.
Not feeling at all refreshed, I toweled off and stared at my face in the mirror. My eyes were bloodshot with large dark circles under them.
I called my brother at eight a.m. He’d always been the early riser of the two of us. He answered on the second ring. Braden and I had been shell-shocked when Portland had taken him in the expansion draft, and only a month or so later, I’d been traded to Seattle. Neither team had been on our radar even a few months before. We’d naively assumed we’d be playing together for Detroit our entire careers. We should’ve known better. That wasn’t how the league worked.
“Banks, so fucking good to hear your voice. I thought you’d dropped off the face of the earth or joined a monastery or something.”
“More like or something,” I muttered. “Sorry I’ve been out of touch.”
“No apologies, it’s not like I’ve been burning up the phone lines in an attempt to reach your sorry ass.”
“How’s the new team? And I do mean new.”
“It’s exactly what you’d expect from an expansion team. A bunch of guys who don’t know each other fighting to become a team in an impossibly short time frame. Add to that, I have teammates who’ve made it obvious they don’t want to be in Portland, especially one guy.”
“What guy would that be?” I racked my brain in an attempt to recall who’d been drafted to his team.
“Briggs Pierce.”
I whistled long and low. Everyone in the league knew what a troublemaker Briggs was. He hadn’t always been like that, but a few years ago, something had changed. I don’t know if he’d been hit up the side of the head too many times or had experienced some other trauma in his life, but he’d gone from nice to nasty in a matter of a few months, and I don’t mean nasty in a good way.
“I feel for you. Briggs makes me look like a nice guy. He’s the definition of asshole.”
“Tell me about it. I feel sorry for my rookie roommate. He’s been paired with him. Briggs is on that poor kid’s ass constantly and undermining his confidence.”
“Shit. What’s that coach thinking sacrificing a rookie like that?”
“No idea. There’s some weird history between Coach and the kid. I think they’re related somehow. They have the same last name.”
“Wow.” I absorbed this piece of information and was sorry my brother was going through his own special hell on the Icehawks, just as I was on the Sockeyes.
“Enough about my fun times. How about you? How’s Seattle treating you? I hope better than you figured, considering your history with them.”
“A little too early to tell. I’m definitely the team pariah, and I’m trying to tone down my usual outspoken self.”
“Outspoken? You mean braggart, obnoxious self.”
“That’s how you see it.”
“Me and everybody else.” Braden chuckled but sobered quickly. “In all seriousness, how’s it going?”
“I’m doing everything wrong instead of everything right. You know how trouble finds me even when I’m not looking for it.”
“What kind of trouble this time?”
”The worst. Wild’s sister and I are fake dating, and he’s plotting my demise.”
