Page 23 of Before You (Reckless Love #2)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

JJ

I’M TRYING.

I can stop if I want to, but if it can make me feel a little better tonight, then it might be worth it.

I promised Marley in the letter I wrote her that tomorrow I won’t take any pills to make up for taking them twice today.

My hands are shaking as I drop them into my mouth, taking a swig of my water before swallowing. I can’t sit still, but every move I take feels like my knee is about to buckle underneath me after today’s game. I didn’t do myself any favors with all the running I’ve been doing, and I’m wiped out.

“JJ, are you coming or not?” Asher asks, walking through my door without knocking. “Dude, you’re not even dressed yet?”

I set the bottle back in the drawer, hopefully shutting it before he can see. “I’m coming. Impatient much?” I ask, pushing a smile on my face as I turn around to face him.

“Everyone else already left, and I thought you’d be a little more eager to celebrate the touchdowns you scored today.

The guys on the team are taking bets on when you’re going to set a new school record this season.

” Asher grins, completely skipping over the part where he made one hell of a block today keeping Trent from getting sacked. He’s a good friend.

“Only because of the yards you helped us get,” I add in, grabbing a shirt off a hanger in my closet, tugging it over my head. Turning around, I notice Asher’s staring at the drawer the pills are in. Did he see? I clear my throat, dragging a hand through my hair. “Ready?”

His smile never falters as he makes eye contact with me again. “Hell yeah.” I must be imagining things. Ash would ask a hundred questions if he saw.

“Are you driving or am I?” I ask, following behind him, grimacing as I force myself to walk normally. I just have to make it long enough for the pain to go away, but it feels like a dozen knives are being shoved into my knee, a new one added with every step.

“I got us a ride instead.”

Somehow, that doesn’t relax me, but it’s taking more of my effort to appear fine, so I don’t have it in me to ask questions. I swear, if this ride is an attempt to fix me up with someone, I’ll go inside and spend the night waiting for Marley to call instead.

I’m even more confused once I see Charlie’s car in the driveway, now a little irritated because he could have just said his cousin was picking us up. There was no reason for it to be a damn surprise.

Asher skips down the stairs, and I’m not sure what he has to be so damn giddy about.

He nearly lost his shit when we ran into Charlie at that house party a couple of weeks ago.

I like Charlie, but Asher’s weird about his cousin coming around the team, and I can’t blame him after hearing how some of them talk about girls.

“Shotgun,” he calls, and my leg nearly gives out underneath me as I step down the stairs, causing a grunt of pain to slip from my clenched jaw.

“Are you good?” Asher asks, turning around to look at me.

I exhale sharply, forcing a smile that hopefully doesn’t look as fake as it feels. “I’m fine, just a little tired from earlier.”

“I’ve got just the thing to put some pep in your step,” he says, and I’m surprised my answer is good enough for him not to inquire further.

Charlie honks the horn, and I shake my head, doing my best to get it together. Asher climbs into the front seat, but I freeze when I open the back door, greeted by the last two people I expected to be in this car.

“What’s up, superstar?” Bria teases from the middle seat, but my focus is on the other side of her. Marley offers me a kind smile, lifting her hand up in greeting. God, she’s fucking beautiful.

Every time I look at Marley, it feels like I’m falling in love all over again.

“JJ, are you getting in the car, or are we leaving you behind?” Charlie asks from the front seat, bringing me back to Earth.

As if I’d miss an opportunity to hang out with Marley for a night. I climb into the car, shutting the door behind me as I clear my throat. “Hey,” I greet, my voice coming out rougher than intended.

Charlie turns to smile at me innocently, far from her usual mischief. “Have you met Marley and Bria?” she asks, knowing damn well I run with Bria every day, and Marley is . . . well, Marley .

“In fact, I have, Charlotte,” I taunt, using her full name to get under her skin. She sticks her tongue out at me, turning around to reverse the car out of the driveway. “How exactly do you know them?”

“I saw Asher outside the business building last week, and he introduced me to Charlie. We hung out later, and she met Bria,” Marley answers, the soft lilt of her voice instantly captivating me.

Everything about her demands my full attention.

She’s had it from the moment I saw her across the street, lost in a small town out of a fairytale in France.

“I see why you like her, JJ,” Charlie says, winking at me in the rearview mirror.

I’m a little jealous Charlie’s been getting to spend time with Marley when I haven’t, but I promised I wouldn’t see her again until she decided to reach out.

Is this Marley reaching out?

I adjust the collar of my shirt, trying not to get my hopes up, but sweet Jesus, I hope this is her reaching out.

She’s the only thing making me feel like I can breathe.

~

We went to a different bar than the rest of the team, picking one that allows eighteen-year-olds in so Charlie and Bria could get in without having to use their fake IDs.

Normally, I’d avoid this bar like the plague, but if this is the price of spending time with Marley, this place will be my new favorite spot.

I wish I had Marley all to myself the entire night, but I’m happy to be with her in general, even if it means having to share her.

Setting another water in front of her, I can’t complain because I finally have Marley to myself, taking the seat across from her at the high-top table our group claimed.

Bria is reluctantly dancing with Asher, but if I saw what I think I did, Bria’s fighting a smile, and Charlie has disappeared with a friend from class.

My mood vastly improved after learning Marley was coming along tonight. Thankfully, the pills kicked in by the time our first round of drinks arrived, and everything wrong with me has disappeared without a trace.

“Thanks,” Marley says, wrapping her hands around the base of the glass.

“Of course,” I reply, smiling easily before taking a sip of my beer. The way I felt coming off the field tonight is nothing compared to this.

Marley taps her fingertips anxiously against the glass.

“Does it bother you I don’t drink?” she asks, looking at my bottle.

Why do I get the feeling this is something Trent made her feel like shit about?

If I didn’t think it would open a can of worms I’d prefer stayed shut, I’d ask why the hell she stayed with him, but I think I’d rather not know. All that matters is she’s here.

“Should it?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.

I remember the conversation when it came up after I offered to borrow a bottle of wine from my parents’ wine cellar in France, and she explained a little about her mom’s sobriety. The last thing I want to do is make Marley feel like shit about something she’s trying to be proactive about.

A slow smile forms on her plump lips, which I’m trying not to stare at as Marley’s eyes twinkle in the low lighting. “Nope,” she answers, and a flush crawls up her neck. “You played amazing today.”

“You went?”

Marley shrugs, feigning nonchalance as I grin. “I’ve heard a lot of hype about you, so I wanted to check it out for myself. All of it was deserved and true from what I could follow during the game.”

“I wish I’d known you were there,” I admit, chuckling under my breath.

“So you could do what? Make a dramatic grand gesture where you magically point to me in the crowd after running in another touchdown?” Marley asks, and there’s got to be something wrong with me because this conversation shouldn’t be turning me on as much as it is. I want her in the worst way.

“I guess we’ll never know.”

She leans forward, resting her chin on her hands, radiating pure fucking sunshine. “What would you have done?”

I wink playfully at her, feeling more like myself than I have in a long damn time, and this time, it has nothing to do with the pills numbing my pain.

“Sorry, sweetheart. If you want to find out, you’ll have to come to the next one,” I tease, loving how this time Marley doesn’t shy away from me.

Marley laughs, shaking her head at me. I love her laugh. I take a sip of my beer, enjoying the moment with her. “If I have time in my schedule, maybe I’ll go,” she says.

“Well, you know where I’ll be,” I say, tempted to ask what it means that she’s here with me, but ultimately deciding against it. I glance over at Asher shimmying toward Bria, shaking my head. “I will be shocked if she’s interested in him after tonight.”

“She’s stubborn, but I think Bria likes how goofy he is.”

“That’s one way to describe him,” I say, taking another drink as my phone vibrates in my pocket.

My heart stutters. Despite knowing it’s way too soon for Bailey to be reaching out, I check it immediately, but it’s only a text from a guy I played with in high school, asking if I’m watching Hunter’s game.

I should be, but I think he’ll understand when I tell him about Marley showing up.

“Everything okay?” Marley asks, and I set my phone down on the table, redirecting my attention to Marley.

“Yeah, all good,” I say, but I feel exposed as she watches me closely.

“Are you sure? It’s okay if it’s not, JJ,” she says softly, and I hate the look of pity on her face.

I don’t want to talk about this, but especially not tonight when things are finally feeling normal.

I shouldn’t have shown up at her door as upset as I was the night Bailey called, and I know it’s only fair for Marley to be worried, but I want to just be a guy in a bar flirting with a pretty girl right now.

“Marley, don’t .”