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Page 40 of Call the Shots (For The Arena #1)

BEAR

OH, YEAH, IMPORTANT CONVERSATION

Denali and I came up with an accountability system for gym slots. The Gladiators could work out individually, but they had to log those hours into the apps Cleo put us on. If not, they were fair game for a group slot. For my afternoon slot, I grabbed Montoya, Charlie, Buttons, and Laki.

“Bear!” Buttons motioned me over and I pushed ahead of the others to the posters pasted on the gym’s walls with the same message.

HOCKEY PLAYERS CAUGHT DISPARAGING THEIR COACH WILL FACE DISCIPLINARY ACTION

The guys turned to me, and I swore under my breath, ripping one down to take a photo for the chat. No more jokes about Vernon’s perm, no more Kokomo bullshit. No more photoshopped pictures of him in prison guard uniforms.

“Well?” I crumpled the paper and tossed it to the garbage. “We’re not here to stand around.”

Some of our teammates were leaving the gym, and I didn’t pay attention to who . Riley stopped me. “Did you tear up a coach announcement?”

Oh, goddammit.

“You have eyes, Twinkletoes?” Elijah taunted, his shirt damp with sweat. “Wouldn’t have guessed from your shooting percentage.”

“Call me Twinkletoes again,” Riley warned, getting in his space.

I grabbed Elijah by the back of his shirt. “That’s enough.”

“Are you writing me up?” Elijah demanded Riley. “Get out your little notebook?—”

“Vernon will hear about this?—”

“Hey, Leelee! Mind your own fucking business! ”

Riley dove for Elijah and we moved to separate them until I had my arms around Elijah, holding him back. I couldn’t believe him—the one thing he wasn’t supposed to say, and he shouted it in front of everyone.

Riley was furious. “Only my family calls me that, asshole!”

Family?

Holy shit. Were Vernon and Riley related? No—Cleo would’ve found that out. Even Marrs would’ve stumbled across that. I ushered my teammates to leave, either inside or outside of the gym, and dragged Elijah to the corner.

“What the fuck were you thinking?!”

“He’s Vernon’s favorite—it’s goddamn unfair?—”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t,” I said, careful to keep my voice low. “I’m telling you to stop speaking to him. Ignore him and move on. Don’t let him in your head.”

“We know they’re family?—”

“We don’t know shit.” I took out my phone and sent a message relaying the conversation to the chat with Denali, Cleo, June, and me. “Don’t interfere. If Vernon figures out we’re on to him, this shit could get so much worse.”

“I hate when you’re right,” he sighed. “I wanted to talk to you about something else anyway.”

“What about?”

“I don’t like King.”

Jealousy was a bitter taste, and I took a swig from my water bottle to wash it out. “What about him?”

“I think you and June should get together.”

I choked on my drink. “ Huh? ”

“You’re an asshole but you could be June’s asshole. She’ll need it after she breaks up with King.”

“Why would June break up with King?”

“She needs to. King has some fucked-up charges from high school. Violent shit.”

I froze. “Does June know?”

“Come on, Bear. Like girls never pick shitty dudes? Welcome to the real world.”

I didn’t like King, but it was hard to separate not liking him as a person and not liking him because he had June. Was he dangerous? Was June in trouble?

“I don’t want her to get hurt and I think she’d actually listen to you,” Elijah confided. “Can you talk to her?”

I didn’t think she was in any immediate danger. June was surrounded by her friends, or I would’ve left for Austin already, but we had to talk. At the very least, I needed to hear that Elijah was wrong.

If I couldn’t get my confirmation…I had a full tank of gas. Enough to get to Austin.

me

hey

i have to talk to you

killer june

no problem can i call tomorrow

me

no

tonight

elijah told me some stuff about king we need to talk for real

If I didn’t hear from June by six o’clock, I’d drive to Austin. Three hours to drive there, time to handle whatever needed to be handled, then bring her back to Houston.

Up on a ladder in the Colo, I checked my watch. Quarter to four.

We had almost the entire team for the shift, music playing, boxes of pizza down below, courtesy of Cleo taking care of us from an entirely different city—we were working hard on fixing some lighting structures. Not that it helped the anxiety making my stomach roll.

I checked my watch.

Still a quarter to four.

Fuck.

One of the phones below started ringing. We had a charging block with a dozen devices connected to it. “Montoya?” I yelled. “Is that?—?”

“It’s your phone.” He bent over. “Uh, it’s June!”

With new speed, I hurried down the ladder, barely grazing the steps before I jumped to the ground, ignoring the snickers from my teammates.

“Hey, June,” I said, striding to the locker room. “Give me a second, I’m with the team?—”

“Do you guys hear how deep his voice got?” Nick said. “James Earl Jones over there.”

“ Hey, June, ” another teammate drawled.

Charlie laughed. “ Heyyyy, June. ”

I threw up my middle finger while the guys laughed behind me.

June exhaled over the line. “So you know.”

Oh, fuck .

I didn’t really believe Elijah. King being a shitty boyfriend was one thing, him having a violent, fucked-up past was another. Holy fuck. Was June making excuses for him? Was that why she was fine with him never coming over? I sank to the bench in the locker room. “About King? Yeah.”

“I didn’t think you’d find out,” she admitted. “I wanted to tell you but my NDA is solid, and I’d never want to hurt King.”

“What’s an NDA?”

“A nondisclosure agreement, saying I wouldn’t talk about anything that’s happened between us.”

“ What? ”

“I can’t believe this. If Elijah knows, half of the hockey team knows about the fake relationship?—”

I jerked up. “The what?”

“What?”

“Huh?”

“What?”

“Fake what? ”

“Fake relationship?” June paused. “Wait…?”

“What the fuck is a fake relationship?”

“Isn’t that what…you wanted to…talk about?”

“Uh, no, I wanted to talk about how King has charges from high school.”

Silence.

“Um…” June struggled with her words. “I—I told you? I’ve been so worried about everyone else slipping up—you need to sign an NDA too. Oh my god?—”

“What’s a fake relationship?” I repeated, confused.

“A fake relationship is where you’re ‘dating’ for the cameras,” June explained, like she wasn’t smashing into me like the window in the rage room.

My heart stopped so suddenly, I could feel it when it started pumping again.

“We've been doing it since freshman year. I’m not actually dating him, he’s like my brother. ”

“Bear?” Denali strolled in. “Where’d you put the screwdriver?”

I yanked down the phone. “If you interrupt this conversation, I’ll punch you in the throat so hard, you’ll have to whistle calls to the team.”

“Jesus Christ.” He backed up. “Fine.”

I shifted away from him, hiding the call. “So, dating…?”

“Oh, yeah, important conversation,” Denali muttered on his way out.

“No, not dating. Wow. I can’t believe you know. I thought Elijah was telling you about the weird situation we have . ”

“Uhhh…” My ears were ringing. “What?”

I didn’t speak for the rest of the call as June unloaded backstory about Coach Lawson and how her football friends owed him everything, especially King. I couldn’t focus worth a damn because my brain kept spinning with the new information.

“Sorry, I’m using you as a diary,” she apologized. “I’ve been holding this in.”

“You can unload on me any day.”

“Really? Thank you, Bear.” She hesitated. “The lawyers will email you an NDA. If you sign it, I’ll tell you everything.”

The facts whirled around my head. King meant nothing to her in any kind of romantic or sexual way. June was single. The spot was open.

So, someone…potentially me, could be her boyfriend.

My pulse raced as I started pacing, hitting a locker every time I came close, thinking it over. A boyfriend would mean—what would that mean?

With Paisley, it meant exhausting conversations about how I wasn’t allowed to go to certain frat parties because her friend was kicked out for throwing up in their hot tub.

Being June’s boyfriend meant…

Seeing her in the stands for my hockey games. Supporting her during the bar exam. Road trips, fairgrounds, hickeys she’d have to hide, and getting closer to June’s family than Xavier ever was. It meant…kissing June.

My heart kicked around in my chest.

June was single. I was single. We could go on dates. Spend time together but different spend time together than how we already did. Deeper stuff. More important stuff.

She wasn’t dating King at all, he was in love with somebody else, he didn’t fucking matter, I’d spent sleepless nights over it for nothing .

“June’s single,” I repeated, dumbfounded. “ I’m single.”

Determination took hold. If I could hit sixty-eight points on defense during a season, fuck yeah, I could become June’s boyfriend.

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