Page 25

Wild

Two things. One, Evie is watching me train. She has had front-row seats to most of my games. Lots of games and practices, I've had her up in the stands cheering for me. Between me and Charlie, but mostly because of me, Evie knows so much basketball she can fill in for a youth coach for about two minutes.

The point is, she's watching me train.

Two, I, a league vet, am fumbling through practice because she's there. She's up there watching, and I know it.

Evie is here right after work because Lila and Megan put their heads together and decided some pictures of us in my world would make for a good promo. Between Lila and the club, I'm like a cow being milked both ways for every drop of sweat in my body. Lila wants her endorsement deals, and the club wants to fill seats. And both sides need us to do both.

Hence, Evie watching me practice.

I flub a pass and get the stink eye from Coach Billy. Blame my fumbling on my sleepless nights. I have the crumpled sheets, midnight gym sessions, hours spent on game films, and the obligatory dark circles under my eyes as evidence. And it's hell on my doddering old man's body.

When the whistle goes off, I'm more than a little relieved. My feet make a beeline for Evie even before my brain catches up. I don't reach her because I run into the fantastic two: Coach Billy and Larry.

With Coach Billy, what you see is what you get. There's no subterfuge, just straight-up stink eyes and extra laps run. And fines.

Can't forget the fines because that must be where his grandson gets his obsession with the swear jar.

Larry reminds me of the hidden supervillains in my favorite novels. They hold all the power, but they pick and choose the right place and time to eviscerate you.

"After all the troubles and concessions we've made for this little reunion, I'm sure that's the last bad performance we will see." He pushes his glasses up his nose, his arched eyebrows tacking on a question mark at the end.

I nod to where the security guard is herding some sneaky fans out. "And I'm sure the club will keep her end of the deal. I'm not sure you've noticed, but I have someone even more valuable to protect."

Larry and Coach Billy follow my gaze to Evie, who gives us a cute, uncertain wave. The one that says I know you're talking about me, but good things, I hope?

Both men start a nodding contest. "Of course," Larry answers, "we ’ re following through on all your demands."

And look at that. I only needed to ask, thanks to Evie.

When I get to Evie, there's a spark in her eye that has me grinding my teeth. She's chatting with a potential teammate. Dame Green. A rookie. And enjoying it.

Since I reached a verbal agreement with the club, with the main contract to follow, I've been getting to know the guys. Dame has a good head on his shoulders, unlike other rookies who are focused on blowing through money and women.

I should stay away and let them talk.

No way.

"I didn't drive my car," I say to Evie, cutting into their conversation. Now, she's forced away from my 'unofficial teammate' to me. I like her attention on me.

We used an off-site training facility for the session, and since it's just seven minutes from my house, I drove my guilty pleasure. My motorcycle.

With a not-so-friendly nod at Dame, I raise an 'are you coming' eyebrow at Evie to get her moving. Without knowing we're fake, he shouldn't have been so friendly with Evie. Her goodbye smile is a little too warm for my liking, but she follows me out. I will take that.

Evie blinks at the motorcycle. "You finally let her see the sun."

"Yeah."I hand her a helmet.

"What did your sisters name her again?"

"Boone-Tack,"I say with a grin.

Evie's eyes widen, and then she laughs. "They fought over it, didn't they?"

My sisters have a cute-annoying habit of fighting over everything. Everyone in the house learned early to stay out of their way and never take sides during their fights because those two may be fighting each other one minute and be conspiring together to take you down the next.

"They're great names on their own but not together."She flattens her hair and pushes the helmet on.

I reach forward to help her with the strap without thinking. It's muscle memory, something I'm used to doing for her. But now, my fingers brushing over her jaw sends heat through my veins and has her jerking away.

I miss the ease of our old interactions. But I'm looking forward to having her arms around me on the ride.

When we get on the road, Evie stays stiff and unyielding behind me.

I bite back my grin, not wanting her to see it because I understand her fears. On a bend, her hands do a slow, delicious creep around me. It's heaven and hell at the same time.

I'm the most disappointed and frustrated man alive when my own home comes into view.

In front of my gates, Evie takes off her helmet to reveal a sight that takes my breath away. Her hair is all over the place, and her smile is like the sun.

"That was fun!"she declares.

"I promised you—"

" Yeah, yeah . Fun."

I'm putting in the codes to unlock the gates when it suddenly starts pouring rain. Evie glances up as if searching for the person responsible for the sudden downpour. Then she bursts into laughter. It's seeing her like this, water clinging to her lashes, in the yoga pants and sweatshirt she wore for work, that makes me take another tumble.

I want her.

Inside, I get her towels, and we do a quick wipe-down. She's looking around like something's changed about my house.

Her lips are trembling, and her eyes twinkle with a laugh needing a little nudge to spill out.

"You're imagining the show we put on holding pinkies, aren't you?"

"It was the silliest thing ever, don't you think?"she asks between laughs. "And we had a seriously invested audience."

"Yeah,"I say distractedly as I feel the slide of her pinky against mine again. It was perfect. The eyes of our audience, convincing Evie, her repeated refusals, all that build-up leading to that tiny moment.

I want more.

But I need her to stop seeing me as another older brother. I'm not Charlie. I don't want to be Charlie to her.

I move to the kitchen to get the coffee started. And maybe food? It's late, and she came straight from school. She's probably hungry.

"Coffee,"I call to her.

She crosses to the counter at a snail's pace, not meeting my eye. Even when I have my head in the fridge, I can feel the waves of discomfiture coming off her. She's not comfortable around me.

I give up on my empty fridge and move to the windows to watch the rain pour. If we were in Charity, Mom would want us snuggled under the blankets with her, watching TV or reading a book. Or Asa would be reading, and Dad struggling slash pretending to keep up with him.

It would be cozy, family, and beautiful.

I want something like that with Evie, but she's already uncomfortable around me in a house she furnished.

Then, my mind skips to the garden. How would the rain affect my work?

"What are you thinking?"Evie asks.

I notice she doesn't join me at the window. She needs to get out of her wet clothes. And I need her to stop seeing me as a second Charlie to have a chance.

"That this rain might either be a disaster or a step up for my garden."

She blinks at me. " Your garden? What makes it yours?"

I shrug, turning around to face her. "I'm also thinking you need to get out of those wet clothes, but you're uncomfortable."I take out my phone and start a text to Richard. "With me,"I clarify.

I pause to hold her gaze. "I'm sorry I made you uncomfortable. It really wasn't my intention when I--"I bite off the rest. "Richard's on his way."

It's my turn to avoid her gaze as I round the counter and head for the bedrooms. "You'll find clothes in the guest room."

I find new shorts and a sweatshirt in her size. It's the only advantage of club hopping. In Evie’s words, I’m a walking sports store.

Evie 'steals'my shirts regularly. I wonder if she will take this one or if I've ruined that for us too.

With a resigned sigh, I lay out everything she'll need on the bed. I stop at the door, thinking. Then I go back to add toiletries. Walking backward, I take one last look around the room. It's good. The only thing that will make it better is putting on whatever drama she's watching, but I don't want her holed up in here.

I hear Richard's voice as I close the door behind me. And I'm grateful he spends most of his time here. In fact, for getting here so quickly without asking questions, I might officially upgrade him to roommate status.

After a hot shower and some calls, I leave my room to find Richard hadn't come alone. Now, I get why he wasn't at the house waiting for me. So much for upgrading him to an official roommate. Even better, Evie and the woman seem to be getting along.

Richard introduces her as Jenny. Her direct, piercing stare reminds me of Coach Billy. She’s so tiny, I’m afraid to give her a proper handshake. She’s also an agent. I don't ask for the player she's representing, and she doesn't supply the name.

I like her already.

And from the too wide smile Richard is sporting, he likes her too.

We order pasta and grilled chicken for me and a dozen different things for the lucky 'unsporty'people to borrow Evie's words. We all chat about everything and nothing. Jenny and Evie talk and laugh like they've known each other for years.I'mmarveling at Evie's ability to win people over and befriend them quickly. Rob, my family, and even Dame Green, who I'm just getting to know. And myself.

I was all about basketball and being number one when we met at ages eight and sixteen. The next thing I knew, I had this little girl who became one of my important people.

And in the background, like an annoying soundtrack on repeat, my mind is worrying over how to make her stop seeing me as a Charlie stand-in. How can I help her flip that mental switch when it's a role I've willingly played for years?

"Hey." Richard scowls. "Stop that count. We're not on the court."

I lift my fingers from my thigh. From his shiny eyes, I can see he likes Jenny. So, I temper down the urge to tease him back. "Yes, sir.”

"Wild has two things on his brain."Evie side-eyes me with a shy glance. "Basketball and epic fantasy novels. And gardening for now,"she adds.

"And you."Richard points directly at Evie sothere'sno confusion.

Let my lawyers know I'm signing away my house to Richard as of this moment. Evie starts stuttering, and Jenny's knowing eyes bounce between us.

"Evie has only K-drama on her brain,"I say to get the attention off her.

"And what?"Jenny prods. "It can't be just the one thing."

Richard shakes his head.

"Winning people over,"I say. "She should have been a diplomat and made Russia our ally."

Jenny's eyes turn admiring. "That's an outstanding quality to have. But what if you meet people you can't win over?"

A dark shadow crosses Evie's face like one of those book covers with black wings covering the moonlight. She's thinking of her family. I want to find them and retaliate for all the times they hurt her with their careless rejection. Alas, I can only settle for standing up for her verbally. "If that happens, the other party will leave knowing there's something wrong with them."

"Like a defect,"Jenny says, laughing and spilling Dr. Pepper on her shirt. She laughs again.

I give Richard a 'you better do everything to keep her'look. When I face forward, Evie quickly looks away.

We make the rounds talking about our brains and likes and dislikes. Evie is a ball of happy energy. She's in that 'I'm just happy to have good people around'mood. I love it for her.

I drift off.

My eyes are heavy when I wake up again, and it's early morning..

I use the last of my strength to stab the power button on the remote. A glance reveals Jenny and Evie sprawled on one side of the living room.

Richard and I have the other side.

Evie sleeps facing me, just meters away or less—math has never been my strong suit. Her lips are lightly parted, and her cheek is on her fist. I watch her sleep until my eyes start to droop.

Hours later, I wake up, cracking a yawn and stretching. I don't particularly appreciate sleeping on the ground when there's a great bed upstairs. I pause mid-stretch when I catch Evie staring, but she turns it into an exaggerated fake yawn, pretending she wasn't staring at me.

I grin. And I don't hide it.

"What's funny?" She snaps.

"Nothing."

"Then why are you smiling?"

"Because it's a good morning."

"That's not a reason you usually smile."

“Well."I shrug. "I've turned over a new leaf. Consider me a repentant sinner."

She scoffs. "That's not how it works."

"Please, educate me. How is it supposed to work then?"

Evie does an eye roll with her whole body. “Wow."I mutter.

"Wow, what?"she asks, on the defensive and looking for a line to attack.

I want to tell her she doesn't have to protect herself from me. If that's what it will take, I will go down on my knees, begging her to put down her walls for me. But I'm enjoying this side of her, too. "Wow, two degrees, and you don't know repentant."

She springs up like a released spring. "Listen—"

"Can you not bicker when my head hurts?"Richard admonishes with a groan. "Wilder, this is what I hate about your house."

I give a disbelieving scoff. "And that's why you're constantly begging for roommate privileges."

Jenny ends the fight by begging Evie to help her find a bathroom.

◆◆◆

Keeping up with my 'fun' promise, I give Evie a motorcycle ride back home. Her arms around me are a bigger bonus than whatever endorsement deal Lila has cooking.

Before I kill the engine, Evie hops off to get Jackie. Resigned to coming in a distant second to Jackie in her affections, I go to the garden to see what I can salvage. The garden still looks good. I gather my tools and get to work.I can ’ t focus.

How do I get Evie to start seeing me as a romantic interest and not a stand-in for her older brother?

I might need to make one of those anonymous Reddit posts begging for relationship advice. I even have a great headline ready.

Help: I have this slightly younger, good friend who I'm interested in, but she sees me as more of an older brother. How do I make her see me as a potential love interest?

Too long.

How do you go from an 'older brother' relationship to a love interest?

It is shorter, but it lacks emotional punch. I need the kind of post to make people go, 'Aww, I understand how you feel.'

I'm thinking up the best words to use when I lift the rake and feel a slight pain in my ankle. It's already oozing blood, and the sight instantly makes me queasy.

Evie comes running with Jackie in her arms. She needs to let that puppy down a lot more. She turns in a circle. "I feel guilty leaving this to you."

Her eyes land on me, and she frowns. "You look ashy."

"I feel ashy."

"What—"She sees the blood, and she goes white. "Richard is going to kill me."

I dare not look down. "You know the first thing we learned in gardening class?"I manage to squeeze the words out around the queasiness. "Long pants and shirts and gloves—"

"I'm calling 9-1-1."

I'm instantly OK. "Don't be ridiculous."

Her eyebrows lift up. "How much are those ankles again? Twenty million? Or fifty dollars? That I can afford."

I don't get it at first. Then it hits me—my contract. I bend over, laughing.

"If you've ever earned a normal salary, you'll understand my panic,"she says with a pout.

"How much is a normal salary?"I ask, still chuckling.

She seats me down and finds a first aid box. Jackie doesn't consider me good enough to stay with and bounds after her. It's just a small scratch with dots of blood.

Evie returns with the first aid box and a lot of worry on her face. "Maybe you should give up on the gardening. I hate seeing you injured."

The times I've been injured, she was a mess.

Now, watching and feeling her hands on me drives everything else to the background. Her face is skewered into a severe expression like she's about to perform career-deciding surgery on my ankle. Her fingers are gentle and soft on my skin.

I breathe out, trying to hold still.

"Is it painful?"she asks.

"It's just a scratch."

"Then why do you sound like that?"

"Like what?"

"You sound angsty, angry."

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable," I blurt out.

She starts a retreat. I miss her hands on my leg already.

"I'm not uncomfortable,"she says.

If we start arguing about that, we will get nowhere. "If you want me to back off, you only need to say the word."

Crawling backward an inch at a time, she doesn't meet my eye as she nods. "OK."

“ OK?”

Jackie jumps into her lap, and she has to backpedal with her happy puppy. "Okay." she breathes the word.

"But I want whatever you're willing to give me" I power on, eyes on her slow, crawly escape. At my words, she pauses, a shocked sound squeaking out of her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You don't have to love me back—not immediately,"I quickly add. "But I want you to take me, the 'new us'seriously."Her eyes are now as round as saucers and growing.

"Wild—"

"Just...listen, OK?"

She doesn't nod, just stares. Good enough.

A pause. "I'm attracted to you, big time. If you can't return my feelings, I will be devastated but good. I hope,” my joke falls flat. “ I want a real chance—"

“There’s no real in a fake relationship.”

She has a point, but... "Just give me what you gave Rob; that's all I'm asking." For now.

"Ididn't give Rob anything."

The green-headed monster smirks at me, causing me to forget I'm the supplicant. I growl at Evie, "You took him seriously, had a real date, and..."

"And what?"

"Nothing, but you took him seriously. I want the same—"

"One date? Because we only went out once."

“ Once?” Very, very good. I'm wearing pompoms and doing a victory dance.

"Nothing happened with Rob. We went out, saw we were better off as friends, and stayed friends."

It's all the opening I need. "I want that nothing."

"Wild!"

Jackie jumps in her face. I see Evie wince, and now she's backpedaling away from her dog and moaning in pain. I snatch up Jackie and reach for her. "What happened?"

She grimaces. “She hit my jaw and made me bite my tongue."

"Sorry."I go to thumb the corner of her mouth to see the damage, remember I need her comfortable with me, and lower my hand. "Any swelling?"

"A little." She mumbles.

"Let me get ice."

We get ice on it with a cloth, and the tightness slowly leaches from her face. But I keep Jackie strapped to my shoulder just in case. I badly want to press my hand against her cheek, but I can't. "Good?"I ask softly.

"Better," she whispers.

We lock eyes for an eternity. Then, she pulls away from the connection. She removes the ice pack from her tongue and wiggles it around. "Better."

I return the ice pack to the kitchen. There, I hesitate. Should I press for an answer or give her space?

I've never had to second-guess myself around Evie. I'm in unfamiliar territory.

"Why not wait until we're done with the fake engagement?"

Because I know you're going to run immediately after. Like dark clouds before a rain, I can already read the signs. Aloud, I say, "Why wait when we can kill two birds with one stone?"

"Won't it be confusing?"

“So, you're considering it then?"

She retreats, and I could have smacked myself for moving too fast.

Dude, give her space .

But I'm afraid playing it safe might get me nowhere. Still, I don't want to come off as a bully. I think Evie has me folded and buried under some clothes in a box in her head.

My box has a 'do not touch'label. A label that puts me in the older brother category. If she's ever going to see me as a love interest, I need out of that box.

No, I need to destroy the box. But I want her permission to do it.

The heat we generated during our kiss is all I have to go on. Still, I'm taking my chance.

My phone ringing stops me from pressing my advantage. Do I even have one?

"Hello?"

"Carrington."

It's Larry, so I immediately go into defense mode. "Sir?"

"We need you two on a promotional shoot for a magazine spread."

"Me and my girl?"I shoot Evie a look, and she has both hands covering her face. Is the tongue still bothering her?

"Yeah, she's here."I move closer and touch a forefinger to her arm.

At my touch, she flails both arms like Richard attempting anything athletic. Then, she somehow manages to orient herself and runs from me, Jackie and the living room like a pack of wild dogs are on her heels.

"Sorry, sir. Let me get back to you,"I say into the phone.

After the call, I look at Jackie. Even her puppy looks nonplussed.

"That has to be a positive, right?"I ask Jackie. Evie's skittishness around me has to be a good thing, right?

Jackie licks my fingers. I take it as a good sign.

Honestly? I need coaching on this one.

I fire a text to Ro. Sisi's the one you call for technical problem-solving, but Ro is the romantic one—the irony. How Sisi got married before Ro is still an unsolved puzzle.

Wild: I've fallen for her.

A glance toward the bedrooms shows no sign of Evie. With how she ran off, she will probably be a while.

Wild: I told her.

Maybe she's in the gym or something. When I'm about to give up, the dots pop up. She's online and replying.

Ro: Whoa.

Is her response to my first text.

Ro: Y ou couldn't have played it cool?

Is her response to my second text.

Wild: N o. And now she's uncomfortable.

Ro: That's why you lay low.

Wild: What do I do now?

Ro: You've already given her your best pass. Let her make her decision unless you're holding something back?

I let out a sigh big enough to move mountains.

Wild: It sucks.

Ro: Yeah, it's the suckiest thing in the world having your feelings rebuffed.

So, I have two options: retreat or push forward. Everything inside me is pushing for a step forward. There's no discouraging niggle. I've never been more confident of a play in my life.

She's only going to say no, I tell myself.

Then, another thought pops into my head. Am I holding anything back?

When Evie finally returns, I lurch to my feet. She looks subdued, and her eyes tell me I'm about to be turned down. I raise both hands in surrender. "Can we take a walk around your neighborhood?"I inch my hands higher. "No pressure."

She scoffs and leans down to scoop Jackie into her arms. "Saying no pressure, it's exactly what brings the pressure on."

"You really ought to let Jackie use her legs more,"I say.

Evie plants a kiss on Jackie ’ s nose and eyes me over her head. "Jealous?"

"Maybe I am."

Her eyes slam shut, and she shakes her head. "Wild—"

"Just a walk. I want to tell you something."