Page 49 of On Merit Alone

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Ira

“Why didn’t Isaac want to come?” my sister asked as we took our seats. “I’m sure Mom would have watched Liv.”

Neil scoffed as he scooted in after his wife. “That’s not even necessary. Leah would never want to go to a sporting event. He could have come all on his own.”

I shook my head, finally sitting now that I saw those two were settled. “Isaac is a snob. He didn’t come because I told him we were sitting near the court instead of the club box.”

They both snickered. Iris looked at me though. “Why are we sitting down here by the way? Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but you usually don’t like to be spotted.”

I shrugged. “They’ve been playing well lately. I thought it would be fun to be close to the action.”

Lie. I did want to be spotted. Specifically by a certain someone who, for all intents and purposes, had been avoiding me.

I wasn't necessarily surprised that after the close night me and Merit spent together telling secrets and sharing pasts, that she got spooked and hid. She’d gotten spooked over way less.

It did sting a little more though. I knew she only ran because she was scared and after learning so much about her, she was scared for good reason.

But I had promised her things the other night.

Things that she obviously didn’t believe if she was scared to even face me.

But I wasn’t scared, and I could hunt her down. So I would. And I'd do it in just the way I promised her. I’d be there for her. Starting with being there at her games.

Where she could see me.

My sister, who was sitting to my left, looked at me. “It, by chance, doesn’t have anything to do with someone on the team, does it?”

I narrowed a look down at her. “Why would it?”

Her shoulder lifted. “Oh, I don't know. I just heard from Mom and Dad that you’re in love now, so I was wondering if it’s who I think it is.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I’m not in love—” The patter of my heart as I caught a glimpse of the girl with long braids shooting her warmups begged to differ. “—And who the hell do you think it is? I haven’t said a thing to you.”

“And don’t you think that’s a crime, baby brother!

” she exclaimed, exasperated by me already.

A laugh slipped out of me at her dramatics.

She pulled out her phone, tapping away at something while I watched Merit run through her team drills.

Pass, shoot, move. She was so focused. I could watch her all day.

Too bad my vision of her was obstructed by the glowing screen of a phone in my face.

I took it while Iris continued. “This is who you’re in love with… says the internet.”

On the screen there was a webpage with some sort of photo collage.

I almost immediately dismissed it, until I noticed that it was me in a lot of the photos.

And that wasn’t the most shocking part. Also pictured were various photos of Merit.

Her and I cut out separately going up for jump shots but pasted in as if we were back-to-back.

Me leaned over her on the sidelines of that one game.

Me with my head thrown back laughing at something she said.

When had someone even taken that ? What the hell was this? I asked Iris that much.

“It’s a Merit and Ira stan account, duh!” she said, excited. “‘Stan’ is a combination of ‘stalker’ and ‘fan’. There’s a theory going around that you like her. And Mom and Dad said the girl they saw had braids.”

“Coincidence,” I said, looking at her like she’d lost her mind.

“And tall!” she added, getting more excited as her theory landed. “They also said she was tall!”

I couldn’t help but snort. “Iris, please tell me you don’t spend your time looking at fan pages of your little brother. It’s ridiculous.”

She snatched her phone back. “You bet your ass I do when that brother finally has a girlfriend! Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this?”

“Let me guess, too long?”

“Exactly.”

Before us, the game was about to start. The teams were suiting down and getting ready for tip off. I turned my head in the direction of the court.

“Alright,” I said. “Let’s see if she’s happy to see me then.”

Merit was making her way to her position, her hands in her hair as she tightened her ponytail and straightened her headband.

I’d said it as a setup, thinking she wouldn’t notice me at all.

The girl had the focus of a horse in a race.

But even more perfect, she did notice me.

Her gaze catching on me suddenly as if she felt somebody watching her.

And what did my sweet girl do? She turned her nose up, her eyes cutting into a suspicious glare before she flipped her hair in a dismissive motion as she retreated to her spot.

I outright laughed. Iris sulked by my side, apparently her theory proved wrong.

Of course I knew Mer would have a similar reaction.

When she played she liked to be focused, and judging by the way she was avoiding me, I must have been throwing her off.

I knew she’d probably ignore me here until she got used to seeing me cheering for her.

But that had worked out perfectly in my favor.

It wasn’t that I was trying to hide Merit.

Just like with my parents, I didn’t care who knew what my intentions were.

But for Merit’s sake, I wanted to make sure she was ready for all things before I plunged her into them.

And big sister Iris was something that needed preparing for.

As she already demonstrated with a goddamn fan page, she was not to be trusted with being cool.

She would pounce on Mer the second anything was confirmed.

“Wow, I,” the sister in question grumbled as she crossed her arms over herself. “Didn’t know she hated you so much.”

This just made me laugh more.

The Dynamite weren’t playing a particularly great team, but they weren’t doing particularly well either.

The score was closer than it should be and the Denver women were making mistakes that should have been reserved for the beginning of the season when they were still rusty, not near the center of it when they were supposed to be on their game.

Even still, Merit’s game had been picking up in recent matchups, and she was just as on tonight.

Scoring the majority of the points on the board and playing most of the time like she always did.

I worried about her body with her playing so hard, but I knew that wasn’t a topic to broach lightly with her, and it was not the time to be worrying about that anyway.

Right now, they needed her in the game. And they were sort of playing like she was the only person on the court who could make baskets.

Constantly passing it to her, their plays orchestrated to get the ball to her always.

Which was fine, but it was also a lot of pressure to put on one person.

The tick in her jaw with every missed shot or even the ones she made said as much.

It was nearing the bottom of the second half and Merit was gassing. She’d played ninety percent of the minutes available to her and even though her body was trained to withstand a lot, she was starting to falter.

Which made her mad.

One right after the other, a series of unfortunate mistakes plagued the Mites.

Two quick turnovers, a string of missed rebound opportunities, and a bullshit call for “traveling” by the worst ref in the city (seriously, I hated that guy), and Merit had officially popped her lid.

Talking back to the ref and sneering as if she wanted to buck at him.

Her teammates had to gather her and bring her back into their time out huddle.

The one with the tattoos and the one with the Australian accent wrapping their arms around her and pulling her in.

“She’s pretty intense,” I heard Neil say warily as he watched on.

I stared at Mer as she sat in the huddle with a towel flipped over the back of her head and her hands clasped behind her neck while she heaved breath after breath.

As the seconds ticked by, her breathing got steadier.

There weren’t enough seconds in the timeout for her to catch it completely, but by the time she stood up again, she had a different look in her eyes.

Blinders.

Leaning back in my seat again, I stretched, saying, “Nah, she’s pretty nice when you talk to her. She just really loves basketball.”

“I thought you said you didn’t know her well,” Neil said, giving me a side eye.

“I know her better now,” I said as nonchalantly as I could. I could feel my sister's eyes on me, but I ignored her as I clapped for the players taking the court again.

They were up but not by much and the way this game was going, anything could turn the tide.

Merit wasn’t going to let that happen though.

Right off the whistle she executed an aggressive drive into the post, dropping the ball into the bucket after fighting to the top.

Following that she pressured the opposing ball handler off an inbound pass, stealing the ball for an easy bucket.

She took control, playing physical defense and making shots from the inside, shots from out—basically going off on a roll.

The energy she put off was electrifying and infectious. Knee bouncing, I watched every play with growing anticipation. She was incredible, focused, beautiful. And she was mine.

That magnificent woman out there didn’t think she belonged anywhere. That’s what she told herself. But deep inside, I already knew where she belonged. With me.

Another shot for Merit and the crowd was officially going crazy. Mer was calm though, focused, and I was focused on her.

There were only a handful of seconds left and Merit was going up for another shot, when suddenly it was obstructed.

Technical foul, other team. Merit would be able to take a shot.

She wasn’t happy about that though. She was obviously feeling her groove and foul or not, free throw or not, that move had disrupted it.

I could see the growl on her lips as she stepped up to the line.

They needed these two. Otherwise they risked going into overtime in which anything could happen.

And as Merit caught the ball, ready to take her shot she did something I didn’t think she’d do.

She looked over at me frustrated and angry and searching for something.

On instinct, I set my hand out, motioning downward as if I was talking her down. As clearly as I could, I mouthed, “Easy, Six. Take it easy.”

She registered it. I knew she did by the look in her eye before she moved them up to the ceiling and took a breath.

She dribbled. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine super quick bounces and then shot. It went in.

I clapped loud, murmuring, “Atta girl, Mer. Let’s go.”

She looked at me again. I just nodded this time. She had this. She knew it. I was just telling her that I knew it too. That seemed to be enough for her, and nine dribbles later she went up to make her second free throw, pulling her team just ahead for the final seconds of the game .

“Mer?” my sister raised an eyebrow as we rose from our seats. Damn. Looks like she’d heard me after all. I pretended I didn’t hear her, going the “ignore” route instead of the interrogation one.

On our way out, I sent Merit a quick text but was stopped by a reporter on the sidelines as I tried to make my exit.

“Ira, Ira!” someone yelled as they came up on the side of me. “So glad to catch you out like this. Do you have time to answer a few questions about your playoff season?”

I shook my head. “Nah, I’m just here to watch the game, man.”

“Any comments on the game then?” he asked just as eagerly.

Flipping my gaze up behind the reporter, I pointed. “The person you should be talking to is right over there. That girl’s unreal.”

“Unreal, huh?” my sister asked as we made our way away from the floor. Her detective cap was truly on tonight.

I just smiled. “I’ll catch you guys later. I got something I gotta do.”

Someone I had to see.