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She sucked her teeth. "As if I'm the first woman outside your family to worry about you," she mused.
”Seriously," I admitted. "I told you, I usually keep a distance from people during these flare-ups. This is new for me too."
"That's kinda scary, you know that, right?" she said softly.
"Yeah, I agree. It is. But it’s gonna work out like it needs to.”
"Yeah," she murmured, but I couldn't help noticing how uncertain it sounded.
Which wasn't unreasonable, considering what she'd gone through with Monty.
“Hey," I told her, prompting her to turn her gaze back to me. "You know you’re mine, right?"
She smiled. “Yeah.”
"And I don't play about what's mine. So whatever is going on in this noggin of yours… cut it out," I said, giving her a gentle tap to the forehead that made her laugh.
“I don’t think it works like that.”
“It does actually, ’cause I said so. We good.”
She scoffed. “And if we're not good?"
“You gotta get a soccer player next time. Really shake shit up."
"Oh god," she huffed.
"That's what they said about you, ain't it?” I asked, referring to the headlines that came out after she got pictured with Jay, and then back with me. “Baller hopping!”
“This is not at all funny," she said, wearing a smile that directly contradicted her words.
"It's pretty funny, actually. There was a whole infographic," I reminded her, and she couldn't hold back her laughter anymore.
"With you ranked at the bottom," she teased, and my eyes went big as I remembered that part.
"Yeah, you right. Monty and Jay have bigger contracts. Kinda hurt my feelings a little bit."
"Oh well, your dick is bigger than both," she said, and I grinned until?—
"Wait, how do you know how big Jay's dick is?"
"Oh, he sent me a picture." She shrugged. "Like the next day. To show me what I was missing out on."
"I'm gonna put his fucking head through a wall."
The football camps were one of my favorite things the Kings community outreach put on every year.
A bunch of kids running around, smacking into each other, screaming, laughing, learning the game of football. Just that energy—I loved that shit.
Maybe because of the way my life had changed when I was introduced to football, it was always one of my highlights to be able to introduce or nourish the love of the sport at this early age.
For some reason, though, when Cole and Jordan pulled me aside before the event started, there had been a lot of emphasis on me being on my very best behavior.
I didn’t understand the purpose of that until we were out on the field and the event coordinator made the announcement that this wasn’t a Kings-only event.
They’d invited players from other teams.
Including the most recent Super Bowl champions… the Behemoths.