Page 43

KAI PACED HIS room, grip tight on his phone.

Atticus’ game was set to start in a half hour, and Kai had yet to decide if he was going.

Honestly, it was probably too late. He’d checked an hour earlier for tickets online, and they were all sold out. A few had been listed with resellers, but Kai wasn’t about to fork over that kind of money. Sure, he made a decent living as a streamer, but it rankled to pay scalpers that much.

And besides, he knew he had other options if he really wanted to get into the game. The first of which was to call Atticus himself and ask if he could get Kai in.

Kai chewed at the inside of his cheek. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to call Atticus…

he was just so scared. So filled with fear that Atticus would tell him no, that he didn’t want Kai at the game anymore.

And Kai just wasn’t sure he could handle that sort of rejection, even if a part of him was sure he deserved it after the things he had said that morning.

That left him with the only other option he’d come up with. The option that had set him pacing back and forth across his room, phone in hand, for the last twenty minutes .

There was someone else at the game that just might be able to get him in.

Kai frowned at his phone screen as he unlocked it, brows pinched as he pulled up his recent calls. He hesitated for a few moments more before pressing a number with no name attached to it.

The sound of the call ringing through seemed too loud as he held his phone to his ear, drowning out the pounding beat of his heart.

“Hello?”

The sharp question, laced with hesitance, all the more piercing because of his posh accent, made Kai’s palms go sweaty as Theo answered the call.

“Theo,” he began, his tongue nearly tripping over the name. “It’s Kai.”

“I know. What do you want? I have a game in half an hour.”

Always to the point, something Kai had admired about Theo in the past, before their friendship had evaporated completely.

“I, ah…” Kai trailed off, his nerves getting the best of him.

This was a mistake. Theo hated him, he’d made that much clear when he had called Kai days earlier.

And Kai hated him back, didn’t he? Except that now Kai wasn’t sure that was entirely true, at least on his part.

No, Theo had never given Kai much of a real reason to hate him.

Sure, they had begun to drift apart when Theo had left Chicago to play in St. Louis.

But Theo had always checked in, until Kai had cut off all contact.

Ori had always assured Kai that Nicholas hadn’t cheated on him. That nothing had happened with Theo until months after Nicholas had also moved to St. Louis. That Theo had been the hesitant one, had waited longer than even Ori had expected, despite his longtime feelings for Nicholas .

Kai had known Theo, had known that he was abrasive, sharp, sarcastic. But he also knew that Theo was observant. That he was loyal and good.

“Kai.” Theo interrupted Kai’s too-long silence with a sigh. “I have to go, coach is going to start yelling soon.”

Of all of the things Kai expected to hear in his old friend’s voice when he’d pressed the call button, resignation and defeat hadn’t been among them. Kai wondered if maybe Theo’s decision to be with Nicholas hadn’t been as easy as Kai had always thought it had been.

“Wait,” he blurted. Silence met him, but the line didn’t go dead. Kai screwed up his courage.

“Kai, I’m serious, if I don’t go now-”

“Can you get me into the game?”

It was Theo’s turn to fall silent. Kai’s heart threatened to beat out of his chest as he waited for an answer.

“Can’t you ask your friend on the Cats?”

Kai winced. “Attie doesn’t… I can’t, actually. Please, Theo. If you can get me in we’ll call it even.”

Theo sucked in a sharp breath. “I…” A long pause that had Kai nearly squirming. “Okay, yeah. I’ll have coach put your name down. I really do have to go now.”

“Thanks,” Kai said, offering a quick goodbye before ending the call. He glanced at the time. The game was set to start in twenty-five minutes, and he was a half hour from the stadium. Probably closer to an hour with downtown traffic.

Was he even doing the right thing? Hesitance gripped Kai, threatening to choke him.

What if Atticus didn’t want him at the game?

Sure, Julian said that Atticus wasn’t going to be done with Kai, despite what had transpired between them.

But what if it was too soon? What if Atticus was still too angry to see him?

Kai moved through his home mechanically as his mind whirled with indecision.

He paused next to where he’d dumped his keys onto the kitchen counter earlier that day.

All he could see was the defeated look on Atticus’ face before Kai had left him standing in his doorway.

There hadn’t been any more anger there, no more of the vitriol that had colored the awful things Atticus had said to him.

Only hurt, regret, and something pleading in those pretty blue eyes.

Making up his mind, Kai snatched his keys up and headed out the door.

“Huddle up!”

Coach Rodriguez’s shout boomed through the locker room.

Atticus moved in close, sandwiching himself between Kieran and Bowen.

Where Kieran was the same rock-steady presence as always, calm and focused, dirty blonde hair tied back for the game, Bowen was nearly vibrating with energy, excitement lining his posture.

Atticus normally would have been bouncing around just as much, under normal circumstances.

He shook off any reminders of the shitty way his day had started, leaning in as their coach gave them one final pep talk.

“We only get to start this season one time, and we’re going to start it letting the rest of the league know that we’re the ones they need to be afraid of this year.”

Whoops echoed through the room as his teammates voiced their agreement. Atticus felt a familiar thrum start up under his skin, his pulse ticking up as anticipation rushed through his veins.

“You men have trained hard for this, and even if it felt like I was wrangling clowns half the time…” Coach shot a pointed look at Bowen and Eric.

Both of them grinned broadly, not a hint of shame in their expressions, earning them a hearty eye roll.

“You’ve made me proud to be a part of th is team, regardless the outcome of this game.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see you all out there on the court giving me and your fans everything you’ve got.

And if you lose tonight, I’m going to kick all your asses on Monday. Hands in!”

Each player reached toward the middle of the huddle, hands slapping atop one another.

“You ready?” Coach grinned at them, something feral and gleaming that Atticus saw reflected on the faces of the rest of the team. They all shouted in unison, breaking the huddle with more whoops and hollers.

Atticus followed, ready to file out of the locker room, ready to let the din of the cheering crowd fill him up and, hopefully, block out everything else, when a hand clamped around his forearm. Kieran pulled him to the side as the rest of the team made their way out into the gym.

“You good?”

Atticus should have known that if anyone could pick up on his less than stellar mood, it would be his oldest friend.

“I’m fine.” He winced when Kieran only raised a brow at him, expression bored.

“Try again.”

Atticus sighed, and worry quickly filled his captain’s expression. “Is it Sammie? Is she okay?”

“It’s not Sammie,” Atticus mumbled. He sounded pathetic, even to his own ears. “She already let me know she’s on the sidelines cheering for us.”

Relief flickered across Kieran’s face, before he tilted his head to the side in question. “Is it that streamer you’ve been hooking up with?”

Atticus flinched. “It’s not like that. Me and Kai haven’t been hooking up…”

“Attie boy here doesn’t do more than one night!” Bowen’s voice was too loud as he slapped Atticus on the back .

“Nah,” Eric said, popping up out of nowhere. Liberos. “He made an exception this time. Must have been a good lay to rope Mills in for another round.”

“Guys.” Kieran’s voice turned sharp, but Eric barreled on.

“Maybe this one’s a good luck charm.”

Atticus’ hands tightened into fists, his nails biting into his palms. He was sick of it, so sick of the way his teammates talked about him, about his past, about the person they thought him to still be. And now Kai was being roped in, associated with Atticus’ playboy reputation.

“No, you heard what he said,” Bowen answered with a laugh that grated along Atticus’ spine. “They aren’t hooking up. Not even the great Kai Reid was good enough for our Atti-”

One moment, they were standing next to the door to the gym.

The next, Atticus slammed Bowen back across the room, hands fisted in his spiker’s shirt as he shoved him up against the wall of lockers.

Fury filled Atticus, vibrating from his core, even as Kieran pounced on him in an instant, tearing him away from their teammate.

“What the fuck, Mills!”

Bowen was angry now too, face red as he pushed off the lockers and stepped toward Atticus. Eric jumped in between them, arms out to keep them separated.

Atticus pointed at Bowen, adrenaline pumping through him. “Keep his name out of it. Say whatever the fuck you want about me, gossip about my sex life as much as you want, but don’t say another fucking word about Kai.”

“Jesus christ, man,” Bowen spat, brushing Eric off as he threw his hands up in surrender. “I didn’t mean anything by it. Chill out.” He left the locker room in a rush, Eric following two steps behind him.

Atticus pulled out of Kieran’s grip, planting his arms against the cool concrete wall before leaning his head against them.

“What was that?”

Kieran sounded mad, madder than Atticus had heard him sound in years.

“Nothing,” he said, struggling to calm his racing heart as his limbs tingled from the rush of emotion.