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Oh, I see them. I see them, and I’m gripping them with an iron fist.
22
Micah
The laughter surrounding me builds, and I stick up my middle finger with my free hand while I glance at my phone. All around me, guys are shoving helmets in the visiting team lockers, or stuffing things into their duffel bags.
The laughter dies, and when I look, most of my teammates’ heads are in their phones. Reid, Cade, Tipper, all of them. The only ones who are still shaking their heads at me are Davis and Levi, and that’s because they haven’t found the one to obsess over yet.
“I would say you guys are pathetic, but I’m feeling a bit outnumbered,” Levi groans.
“I don’t know,” Davis admits. “It would be kind of nice for someone to care where I am who’s not my mom.”
Levi shrugs. “That’s what I have you assholes for.”
Cade lifts his attention from his phone briefly. “Nah, bro. We don’t care where you are.”
Reid and I chuckle, but the more I look at Raeann’s text, the more concern solidifies inside me.
Levi scoffs. “But you guys are like lost puppies. Heads in your phones all the time when you’re not with them, and even thinking about them when you are.”
“It’s called caring about someone,” Reid answers, tapping at his phone before putting it away.
“It doesn’t make sense because you’re, like, the biggest, baddest guys out on the field, but you cater to your women.”
I put my phone down for one second, mostly in hopes of unseeing what I just saw, but to also set Levi straight. “Does catering to them mean putting them up on a pedestal and worshipping them? Then yes, I sure as fuck do. I want to make sure she’s loved, wanted, respected, and well taken care of because I’ve never had it so good and I know I never will again.”
“But how could you know that?”
“Because it wouldn’t be her.”
Levi shakes his head, tearing his practice jersey off. He’s just a young kid. He’s still full of every girl wanting to get with him because of who he is. I spent the first few years in the league feeling the same as him. I thought I had it all. Money. Respect. Pretty much any girl I could want. I dated models like it was my side hustle. Still, none of them come close to Raeann.
“I think I’ll take the five chicks who are begging me to come back to Nashville rather than one.”
Cade puts his hand on Levi’s shoulder. “Empty fun. It’ll get old sooner or later. Then you’ll find someone you would do anything to get, and I mean anything.”
“I just don’t get the point.”
“You will,” Reid answers with a smirk.
“Or you’ll die completely alone,” I tack on, the rush of fear the texts started heightening even more.
“Well, that was morbid. Bet you I could still get them lining up outside my room. Got to stock up on that Viagra.”
“Levi, starting his own personal STD strain in nursing homes.”
“Better than being locked down for literal decades.”
“Freeman, you okay?” Cade asks. “You look a little tense.”
“I have to fly back to Nashville.”
“What?” all four of them exclaim at nearly the exact same time.
“It’s Raeann.”
“Is she hurt?” Reid asks. “I can get Briar to go see her.”