CHAPTER 20

ANYTHING, LEFTY

DAVID

David couldn’t sit still.

From the second Sage had walked out of the hotel he’d started pacing. Nervous, frantic energy coursed through him, preventing him from even a second of peace. Not when she was gone. Not when she was gone with him .

Whatever he’d seen between Sage — his Sage — and Evan White had landed in his gut and curdled like spoiled milk.

It was obvious that there was some kind of history between them, and, based on what he’d just seen, it was probably a history that went way beyond what should have transpired between a high school player and her coach.

Bile rose in his throat.

It didn’t help that there were a million unsaid things between him and Sage. That he felt — no, he knew — that she was his, in some way. But there had been nothing between them except promises and exchanges of friendship. And then she’d kissed him, and they’d parted as friends?

He couldn’t figure out a goddamn thing, and until she was back and he’d seen for himself that not a single blonde hair on her head had been harmed, he was going to stay right where he was.

“Coach?”

He whirled around, not giving a shit that he probably looked maniacal since he’d lost the sweater after anxiety had driven him to sweat like he was playing in the fourth quarter.

“Tim?”

The older man approached him, dressed down in simple black sweats and tennis shoes. His eyes searched the rest of the lobby before he turned his concerned expression to David. “Is she still gone?”

David opened and closed his mouth. “What?” His voice was wrecked from the game, and he realized in that moment that Sage hadn’t given him a lozenge like she usually did.

“Fogerty. Is she still gone with that Coach White?”

“How do you —”

Tim waved off the question. “I saw him harassing her earlier. In the hallway.” He shook his head as his frown deepened. “That man is bad news.”

David felt his stomach drop. “What do you mean?”

Again, Tim shook his head. “I knew him back when I coached in Nashville at a junior college for a while. It was about five years ago, and he was fresh out of coaching club ball in California.” He scratched at his collar. “He got in some hot water for pursuing younger girls, and ended up leaving rather than making a scene. After the school let him walk away without facing any consequences I got the hell out of there. Couldn’t stand being a part of a program that let someone get away with that.”

David couldn’t suppress the shudder that went through him. “Damnit, Tim. She’s out there with him now, what should we —”

“We wait. Or, I should say, you wait, because it’s obvious that the two of you have something going on.”

“We, no, we don’t,” David stammered, panicking at the thought of now trying to explain away the closeness between him and Sage: the friendship, the maybe something more.

“Stop it.” Tim leveled David a look over the rim of his glasses that had him shutting his mouth. “I’m not here to give you a hard time. Do I think it’s wise? No. But she’s a grad student, an adult, and if I thought that you were the kind of man who would put the two of you into a compromising position while working together then we would have had this conversation months ago.” Tim’s face softened into a small smile. “But aside from all of that, it’s obvious that you are friends , and that’s why I think that when she walks through those doors after whatever the hell is happening right now, you should be the one waiting for her.”

David could do nothing but nod. Tim returned the gesture before walking back to the elevator. As soon as he was out of sight, David resumed his pacing, never taking his eyes away from the door.

He had no idea how much time had passed when the doors opened.

Sage stood there with her head held high, her expression defiant, and silent tears streaming down her red cheeks.

Immediately he was running. Help her, help her, help her pounded in his head and he reached for her, gently gripping her shoulders as he lowered down to look her in the eye. “What happened,” he breathed, trying to control the maelstrom of emotions warring within him.

She sniffed once, shifting her gaze so she looked over his shoulder. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Sage,” he started, fighting the need to pull her close to him and hold her tight until all of the pain was erased from her eyes.

She shook her head, and her loose blonde hair shifted where it was draped over her shoulders, shining like honey in the lobby lights. “Please,” she said, quiet and resigned. “I just want to go to bed.”

With a nod, David stepped back from her, and something broke in his chest as he watched her posture slump, her long, strong arms wrapping around her stomach as she started toward the elevator bay.

The elevator ride up was silent.

He fought the urge to hold her, knowing deep down that if he touched her it would be for the selfish desire to satisfy something within himself and not for her benefit. There were a million things he still had to learn about Sage. He wasn’t naive enough to think that she’d shared all of the pieces of herself with him in the few short months they’d been friends.

But he had learned that she was the kind of person who needed to stand confidently on her own before accepting the company of someone standing beside her. And he had the feeling that tonight, in the wake of whatever had happened, Sage needed to stand alone.

When the doors opened, Sage turned to the right, and David followed, silent, even though his room was the opposite direction.

He stood back while she unlocked the door. When she pulled it open, she glanced back over her shoulder, hesitating as her red-rimmed eyes met his.

“Let me know if you need anything,” David said softly, mindful of the quiet rooms around them. “Anything, Lefty.”

She nodded and then slipped inside, the door clicking shut softly behind her.

* * *

David had showered and was laying in bed with his book when his phone buzzed on his nightstand. He’d texted Tim that Sage had made it back safely, and thought it was most likely a response from him.

When he picked it up, he barely glanced at the screen before he was out of bed and pulling on sweats and a t-shirt, not even bothering with shoes.

Phone in hand, he walked as quickly as he could down the carpeted hallway. As he knocked softly on the door, he glanced back at the message on the screen.

Please come over.

The door opened, and Sage stood there, hair pulled back in a braid that hung over one shoulder. She still wore the same thin shirt she’d been wearing earlier, only she’d changed into sleep shorts.

But David couldn’t think about how beautiful she was, not when her face crumpled and another wave of tears streamed down her face.

A choked whimper shattered the quiet between them. “You shouldn’t be here,” she said, wiping at her tears with both of her hands.

Pain constricted his chest. “You asked me to come, Lefty,” he said, softly. “I’ll always come when you ask.”

She didn’t respond, only pushed the door open wide enough to let him in. David walked past her, catching a whiff of her floral scent before stopping in the open space next to the single queen bed. “What happened, Sage?”

Her bare feet padded over, and she dropped down on the edge of the mattress, leaning forward to bury her face in her hands. “I,” her muffled voice began. “Do I have to say?”

David decided that listening to his instinct to go to her was the greatest idea he’d ever had. He moved to the bed, kneeling on the ground in front of her and bringing his hands up to encircle her wrists.

“You don’t have to say anything. But you’re crying, and I’ve never seen you sad like this.” His thumb brushed across her skin. “Do I need to hurt someone?”

Sage shook her head. “No.”

“Then what do you need?”

Another sob shook her body, and David settled for tightening his grip just slightly. Only enough to let her know that she wasn’t alone.

“I think right now I just need you to be here with me,” she whispered, still hiding her face in her hands.

“Done.” David stood, and then climbed onto the bed. He settled himself against the headboard, patting the open mattress next to him. “Come here.”

He was honestly surprised when Sage complied, crawling up and taking the spot next to him. Her posture was stiff, and her eyes looked down at where her hands were clasped in her lap.

It was so obvious that she was in pain.

He let one of his hands come to rest on the mattress between them. He kept his fingers open, relaxed, on the off-chance that she might need him. Letting out a careful breath, he tilted his head to look at her. “Please tell me what happened so that I can fix it.”

Sage let out a harsh, wet laugh. “You can’t fix it. It’s already done.”

“But it has something to do with Evan White.” He didn’t phrase it as a question.

Somehow her posture stiffened even further. “Do you know him?”

“No,” David quickly replied. “I’ve just heard rumors that he’s an asshole who chases after younger girls.”

She shook her head with a pained smile, her gaze fixed on the door.

“Sage. Look at me.” She turned back to him, eyes squeezed shut. David tried to slow his breathing, to keep his voice calm and controlled. “What did he do to you?”

She opened her mouth to respond, but all that came out was a broken cry.

David was officially over being a gentleman.

He reached for her, gathering her in his arms and tugging her towards him. She barely needed the encouragement, burrowing her head into his chest as her hands grabbed at his shirt, gripping him like he was a lifeline in a storm.

His heart hammered as he held her, and on a whim, he brought a hand up to brush back a piece of hair that was stuck to her tear-streaked cheek. He couldn’t bring himself to take his hand away, instead finding a steady rhythm stroking his fingers over the soft skin of her temple.

“Sage,” he whispered. “Please talk to me. I’ve got you.”

A minute passed, where the only sounds were her ragged sighs against his chest. He felt the rise and fall of her breathing slow.

“I…we…we used to have a thing.”

“A thing.” David tried to keep his touch soft. Steady.

She nodded.

“When?”

He could see her hesitation. “When, Sage?” He couldn’t keep the command from his voice.

He felt her exhale. “It started when I saw a sophomore.”

“At Southeastern?” In his effort to wish away the unthinkable, he willed himself to forget that she’d never played college ball.

“No.” Her voice was barely a whisper.

Goddamnit .

David was going to kill that man. He’d never been even remotely violent, but the cold, calculating rage that filled him was quite possibly the most real and potent emotion he’d ever experienced in his life.

But he shoved that down — as much as he could — knowing that Sage didn’t need that from him. She didn’t need his rage on her behalf. He forced himself to take a painfully slow deep breath. “Was he your high school coach?”

“My club coach,” she confirmed.

His stomach turned. “So you guys had a thing?” He was proud of how nonchalant he sounded. Like he wasn’t about to track down the bastard who had preyed on this incredible woman, likely assaulted her, when she was just a kid.

A fucking kid .

“Yeah.” Her admission was quiet. “Looking back, it’s such an obvious cliche.” Her voice was starting to regain some of her usual strength. “He told me he was going to leave his girlfriend when I turned eighteen, and I was stupid enough to believe him.”

He hated hearing the harshness that she directed toward herself. How could she think that anything about that situation had been her fault? He opened his mouth to respond, but Sage kept talking.

“Honestly, it wasn’t even the hooking up and all of that that hurt the most.” There was a hitch in her voice. “He…he took basketball away from me. I couldn’t see it at the time. He always said he was trying to make me better. He had me on a diet that sapped all of my strength, saying it would help me get faster. He told me that my high school coach was trying to sabotage me, so I stopped trusting her. I trusted him when he told me that he was reaching out to college coaches, and when no one came to watch me play, I believed him when he told me that I just needed to work harder to get their attention. I don’t know what he was telling them, or if he was even talking to them at all. Whatever he did, it kept them all away.” Another sob shook her body. “Fuck, I was just watching my life-long dream fall to pieces around me and he was there, ready to comfort me, when the whole time he was the one tearing me down.”

David was speechless, his insides a complete wreckage in the aftermath of Sage’s admission. “Goddamnit, Sage,” he said, his voice grating from his chest.

Her head tilted back, giving him the first glimpse of her face. Her eyes were brutally green and red-rimmed, her expression soft and sad, but somehow more settled than before.

She offered him a small smile. “It’s really fine. It’s all turned out okay.”

David shook his head. “I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

“I think I needed to go see him tonight to prove to myself that it was all a lie, you know?” She leaned absently into him, her eyes drifting shut for a second before she looked back up at him. “The second that I saw him tonight it was like I went right back to being that girl again. Everything that I’ve made of myself just disappeared the moment he said my name, and I hated that, David. I hated that he could do that to me after all this time.”

There was so much to say. A million things he wanted to say to her, reassurances and condolences and, more than anything, the need to convince her that she burned so brightly that no one — no one — could take it away from her.

Instead, he settled for simply being there. She’d asked for him, and he was going to do exactly that: be there with her. “I’m glad you’re safe now,” David said, letting out one small bit of truth.

“Me too,” she said, settling her head back into the crook of his arm. “I’m just glad I’m here with you.”

David took a deep breath. “Me too, Lefty. Me too.”

They settled into silence. One minute bled into the next, and his fingers kept trailing over her skin, brushing through her hair. He couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

Eventually Sage’s breathing slowed, her body softening against his. He craned his neck to catch a glimpse of her face — she was sound asleep, her lips parted and her features finally relaxed.

He shifted carefully, pulling his phone from his pocket with his free hand. He set an alarm for early enough in the morning that he’d be able to get back to his room before the rest of the team was up. Tossing his phone down, he settled back and let his eyes drift shut.

Before exhaustion pulled him under, he let himself, for just a moment, indulge the hurt. There were questions he hadn’t asked, and damn it he wanted to trust her more than anything in the world. But had something happened between Sage and Evan in that car?

And if it had, what did that mean for him?