Page 41 of Call the Shots (For The Arena #1)

JUNE

GETTING RID OF THE WEEDS

Okay—it was bad that I told Bear. Of all the people I’d been worried about spilling the secret, myself was the last person on the list. How was I supposed to explain? I sat on the bed in my hotel room, hesitating for only a few seconds before putting the video call through.

Bear flashed across my screen, a crooked smile on his lips. “Hey, killer.”

His words prickled me with goosebumps. That was the same voice he had when he woke up. Husky and thick with sleep. Did he get up from a nap?

“Hi.” I cleared my throat. “I’m sure you have questions about the NDA.”

“I already signed it.”

“You did?”

“Yeah. So you and King have been doing this pretend relationship thing for a while?”

“I—yeah. You do realize what you signed…?”

“Uh-huh. Anyway?—”

I was taken aback. “Did you even read it?”

“I skimmed it.”

“What does ‘skimmed it’ mean?”

“It means I wrote my signature at the bottom and you can sue me for a lot of money if I talk. So, the pretend relationship…?”

I gave him one last incredulous look before I started.

“So, I’d been dating Xavier since high school, but we had this idea that a fake relationship would gain major points for popularity—which, of course, is so important,” I said sarcastically.

“I actually asked another friend to do it but Cleo came up with King. He was…so quiet and didn’t fit in with the other guys.

He didn’t even speak to me for the first month. I thought he didn’t like me.”

“Why wouldn’t he like you?”

“Um, the airhead obsessed with popularity part.” I snorted. “It’s so embarrassing. I was trying to impress people I didn’t even like.”

“That’s a pretty regular trait for teenagers.”

“It’s still embarrassing. You ever wish you could go back in time and shake your past self?”

“No. Because I never make mistakes.”

“ Mm-hmm .”

Grinning, he laid on the couch, an arm behind his head. “You thought King didn’t like you and…?”

I reached for a pillow. “King’s mom is a diabetic, and she can faint from it. She fell and hit her head, he was the first person she called. We were in Alabama for a game. King contacted the police but during the flight to Houston, he only knew she was in the hospital. Like…can you imagine?”

“No. I can’t,” Bear said quietly.

“I found out and got my family involved. My mom and I called these doctors, scheduled treatments—I had no idea diabetes was so bad.” I wrapped an arm around my knee.

“Did you know your body can reject the medication you need to live? She can’t even stay on the same treatment, it’s like a boomerang cycle.

” I hesitated. “Mrs. King became my second mom and King and I got closer than I ever would’ve thought possible. ”

There was something else I wanted to tell him.

Bear didn’t need to know, but I couldn’t talk about it with anyone. I picked at the seam of the pillow. “Elijah was wrong when he said King had charges from high school.”

“Yeah, I figured. It’s Elijah.”

“There weren't any charges because the…situation didn’t go to the police.”

I watched Bear stiffen through the screen. Both of us were quiet. I didn’t have to tell him, but I wanted to. Talking to Bear was weirdly comforting. Like a big hug, even if hugs weren’t Bear’s thing.

“You can’t tell anyone about this,” I said. “Do you understand? The NDA is expensive.”

“I wouldn’t do that to you, June,” he said softly.

“King’s dad was…physically abusive. When King was in high school, he threw his dad out of the house for good, but…”

There was a hard lump in my throat. King’s mom meant so much to me and thinking about this was painful. I couldn’t imagine how it was for King.

“His dad came to the house while he was gone and—um—attacked his mom. She had to be hospitalized for six weeks.” Silence lapsed, as I struggled with what to say. “King searched for his dad but his family was protecting him.”

“Protecting King?” Bear said, dumbfounded.

“No. Protecting his dad.”

“Holy shit.”

“He literally went through his family to find his dad.” I squeezed the pillow tight and told Bear everything.

“Fuck,” Bear whispered.

“King had his baby sister to think about, his mom in the hospital, and he didn’t want his dad to come back so…”

“Did he find his dad?”

I nodded slowly. “Yeah. King didn’t kill him, but he messed him up.

” I bit my lip. “Our sophomore year, this police officer tried to blackmail King about the situation, but his coach intervened. The fake relationship was supposed to be done—Xavier was ready for it to be finished—but we figured keeping it going was the best move for King. It’d look so much better if stuff came to light.

And I’d always be there for him, he knows that. ”

“That’s why you kept it going.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“ Fuck .”

“Yeah.”

Bear put a hand on his face. “I’m the biggest asshole.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I’ve been shitty to King for no reason.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, breathing deeply. “I used to hide his tools during the renovation shifts and put his phone at the bottom of your bag. Traffic cones behind his car, I locked him in the storage closet—fuck—I feel so stupid?—”

“You did what? ”

“I’ll apologize?—”

“You locked him in—?” My mouth fell open. “Why would you do that?!”

“I thought he was being an asshole to you! I had reasons!”

Oh my god, I could remember panicking because King disappeared before finding him in the storage closet, scrolling on his phone, unaware that an hour passed.

“He’s on cloud nine about Willow,” I groaned. “He didn’t notice.”

“You’re fucking with me.”

“No—King calls you Beau. You’ve been having a one-sided fight. I don’t think he knows who you are.”

Following my late-night conversation with Bear, I caught myself mentally taking notes of everything to tell him about Austin.

Because we didn’t only talk about King’s past. We bounced to every topic.

I must’ve been boring him but if Bear was uninterested, he was great at hiding it.

He kept asking new questions until we cut the call for the sake of sleep.

I watched King in the morning, orbiting around Willow. Their attraction was so obvious I couldn’t believe it was a secret. I was giddy with happiness for them.

“Will I be invited to the wedding?” I whispered to him.

“How could I tell the kids their godmother wasn’t invited?” he said absent-mindedly.

“ Kids?! ”

King shushed me, blushing hard. He was already thinking about their future. It was so cute. I headed to the table, mentally repeating the comment to myself, because I knew it’d make Bear laugh.

“Hey?” Cleo stopped me before I sat down. “If I told you not to look at the housing groups, would you do it?”

I groaned. “You know someone will send it to me.”

“That’s what I thought,” she sighed, passing me her phone.

There were a dozen pictures of my house. Well, my garden, my pride and joy. I scrolled through the pictures labeled ‘before’ and frowned.

Before what?

The caption said, ‘ getting rid of the weeds! ’ and my heart sank, seeing the new update.

My garden was gone.

The buffalo grass mix was ripped out and in its place was the golf course crap that needed to be watered constantly. The shrubs, the bushes, the flowers, my favorite trees were scattered across the backyard, roots ripped out. Pebbles had been poured on the soil to prevent anything from growing.

In the background, I could see a familiar car, and if I didn’t know any better, I could’ve sworn it was Warren Hodges’s. No, it couldn’t be Xavier’s stepdad. How fucked-up would it be if this was a family project?

“I don’t know what Xavier’s problem is,” Cleo muttered.

“I wasn’t getting the house back anyway,” I mumbled, pushing down the shitty, terrible feelings twisting me up inside.

My phone pinged from my back pocket. I saw the messages already flying through, concerned people from the housing department, asking what happened to my house.

“Can you do me a favor and make an excuse for me?”

“What about lunch?”

I pushed the door to the outside. “I’m not hungry.”