Page 25 of Full Court Crush
Amelia ran her fingers along the back of the sofa cushion before rolling a loose strand between her fingers.
“Did you invite Keira as well?” she asked, attempting nonchalance.
“I invitedeveryone, Ames. Don’t worry. Jenna and Hayley are coming too, so you can say hi to them as well.”
“Who said anything about being worried?” Amelia could hear the slight waver in her voice.
“Mm-hmm.”
Coach Grant huffed through the doorway. “Aren’t you and your friends a little old to be hanging around your parents’ living room?” she ribbed Evie. Evie shrugged before responding.
“It’s your fault for having the biggest house and a giant TV.”
“And free snacks always help,” Coach Grant grumbled. “Amelia, while I’ve got you, I was going to ask if you’d had a chance to look at the video from our last game, and—”
“Ah-ah! No shop talk!” Evie interrupted, holding up a hand in her mother’s direction. “Today is about team bonding, not basketball.”
“You’re literally about to watch a basketball game.” Coach Grant rolled her eyes.
“You know what I mean,” Evie said sternly. Her mother looked between Evie and Amelia, then threw her hands up in defeat before leaving the room.
Amelia tried to stay out of Evie’s way as she continued to fuss around the room, organising snacks. She had looked forward to this rare night off from both basketball and work for weeks, but something niggled at her, preventing her from fully relaxing. She’d not had much of a chance to speak to Keira since their game. Since she’d practically run out of the changing room.
That’s not quite true.You’ve been avoiding her.
Now they were potentially spending several hours in the same room. Granted, it was a large room, but it would still get crowded.
“Chairs!” Evie’s exclamation jolted Amelia from her thoughts. “I sent TJ for the camping chairs ages ago.”
“I’ll go find him.” Amelia quickly slipped out before Evie could protest.
She checked in the sitting room and the dining room. Both were pristine, and empty. She walked back into the hallway, past the sideboard with all of Coach Grant’s business awards and basketball trophies displayed. Amelia remembered hearing about all the arguments Michelle and Michael had about whether to display the business awards or not. Michelle had not wanted to blow her own trumpet; Michael demanded she let him be proud of his wife.
She checked the kitchen next. The crisp, intricately designed space was full of clean lines, with a large kitchen island in the middle. A large mixer and rolled-out biscuit dough dominated the island, with flour dusted all over the surface. The oven glowed orange as it pre-heated.
“Need help with something?” Michael asked kindly, looking up from the mixer.
“TJ?”
“In the garage.” Michael pointed his thumb behind him, towards the utility room door, which further led to the garage.
“Thanks.”
Amelia opened the garage door, and TJ immediately jumped out of his camping chair seat.
“Oh, it’s only you.” He exhaled and sat back down.
“Just me,” Amelia said, grabbing a second camping chair and unfolding it. Sitting down next to him, she asked, “Since when has Evie stressed about a basketball social?”
TJ shifted in his seat.
“I dunno. I just know I don’t want to be on the receiving end of it.” He scratched at a stain on the arm of the camping chair, deliberately not looking at her. Amelia waited for further explanation, but the silence dragged on.
She looked around the garage, taking in the wall of storage, carefully labelled tool station, and workbench. Amelia smiled at the old, faded, telescopic children’s basketball hoop in the corner. The hoop itself wouldn’t be much higher than her waist.
“How’d you find assistant coaching the game?” she asked, unable to take the weird silence any longer.
“Oh, it was great,” TJ replied, his eyes lighting up. “In some ways, I’m enjoying coaching more than playing at the moment. It’s a different kind of challenge. Plus, you lot need my help.”