Page 10 of Shootout
“About that drink?” Vick asked.
“I’ve never needed a drink more than I do now.”
Together we left the locker room. I didn’t look over my shoulder, but I felt Wild’s eyes bore a hole through my back.
ChapterThree
SPEECHLESS
~~Jessie~~
Before leaving for work this morning, my brother and I made plans to meet for a beer at the Place after he was done with practice. I said nothing about my embarrassing experience with one of his teammates. He already hated the guy, and I had no interest in adding to the team drama, which my encounter with Banks surely would.
Staying with Jason for a few months until I could afford my own place had seemed like a good idea when I’d first moved in. Now losing my privacy and being under his overbearing thumb wasn’t looking so great.
I was late. My fellow youth coaches disappeared and left me to make sure everything was tidied up and put away. These guys had mostly ignored me, and I was assigned to coach the less-talented kids rather than the premier kids. I wasn’t going to fight about it. Coaching average kids was often more rewarding than coaching talented kids. Both had lots to offer and deserved the best coaching I was capable of. Often the average players worked harder and didn’t have the egos of many elite players, especially teenagers. Regardless, I’d be lying if I claimed being excluded from any contact with the premier youth players didn’t rankle me. Once again, I’d be forced to earn respect solely because I was a woman. If I’d been a man with the same credentials, they’d have been bowing down and kissing my feet.
Jason stood outside, arms crossed over his chest. I spotted his glower a block away. After the day I’d had, I wasn’t sure I wanted to deal with his cranky ass.
“What’s your problem this afternoon?” I asked, unable to resist baiting the bear.
“You are.” He shook a finger in my face. I hated when he did that, and he knew it.
“Me? What the fuck did I do?” I searched the events of the past several hours. This morning everything had been fine. No reason for him to be upset.
He fisted his hands next to his thighs and visibly drew in a deep breath and held it. I watched with wicked amusement as he let it out slowly in what I’d guess was a futile attempt at tamping down his temper.
“What the fuck were you thinking?”
I looked to the sky and back to him. “I don’t know. What was I thinking?”
Irritation rose in him like steam off a teakettle. “Don’t play dumb. Why didn’t you tell me about last night? Instead, I had to hear the sordid details in the locker room.”
“Last night?” I spoke before thinking because, in the next beat, reality slammed into me. I’d hoped he wouldn’t have heard about my escapade with his least favorite player in the league.
“Yeah, in the shower. You and him.”
I had to laugh. “Nothing happened, I—”
“Was he naked?”
“Mostly, but it was an—” Frustration welled inside me as he overrode my attempts to explain the situation.
“And you were, right?”
“I was taking a shower. Of course I was naked, but nothing—”
“Nothing? Are you fucking kidding? Geneva, the wife of my teammate, caught you two in the act. How does a guy live that down?” Jason roared like a lion with a thorn in his paw.
“It’s my problem, not—”
“You’re my sister. Anything that happens to you is my problem.” His high-handed declaration brought out the worst in me. I hated it when he came across as though I needed a protector or some such bullshit.
“You’re not my boss.”
He scowled so deeply the corners of his lips dropped to his jaw. “Stay away from that asshole. He’s no good, and I won’t have a sister of mine going near him.”
Those were fighting words. I could tell by the look on his face he’d realized too late that he’d gone too far. I didn’t like being told what to do, and he knew it.
