Page 21 of The False Start (Off the Bench)

Chapter Fourteen

CAL

“ S o, party at my place tonight,” Theo announces when we’ve finished dinner. I stifle a groan, half from the pain throbbing throughout my left side and half out of exasperation.

“A party? Are you sure?” Katie asks.

He laughs and waggles his eyebrows. “I need to show off the new decor at some point, don’t I?”

Lila gives me a once over, and I straighten automatically. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, Theo.”

I frown at her words, but Maggie jumps in before I have the chance to. “Cal needs to rest.”

“I’m fine. My head barely hurts.” Not a complete lie, since the pain is mostly in my shoulder.

Lila’s eyes focus in on me. “I really don’t think you should drink if they were worried about a concussion.”

“I was cleared,” I remind her, her eyes narrowing until I’m left squirming in my seat. “Fine, I won’t drink . . . a lot.”

She crosses her arms with a huff but lets it go. I sigh. Getting properly tipsy would dull the pain better than the ibuprofen I was recommended by the trainer.

Maggie stands, dragging Katie to her feet right behind her. “We’ll go get drinks and meet you in thirty?”

Theo waves them off, and the two of us head over to his condo a few blocks away with Lila.

“How are you feeling, really?” she asks quietly from behind Theo, whistling while he walks like he’s out of a fucking Disney cartoon.

I glance down at her, the preliminary annoyance fading at the concern in her big brown eyes. “I’m really feeling fine. I’ll be sore tomorrow, but no worse than after taking a couple hard hits at practice.”

“What about your head?”

“Secrets don’t make friends,” Theo singsongs back at us, and I chuckle.

“Someone’s just overly concerned for my well-being.”

“I am not.” She pouts, and it’s adorable. “I’m the right amount of concerned. You just seem to be under-concerned.”

I roll my eyes, draping one arm across her shoulders and pulling her body flush with mine. Before I know what I’m doing, I drop a kiss to the top of her head. She looks up at me in surprise and rather than see the horror in her face, I drop my arm and stride forward to catch up to Theo.

“Damn, McClane, Katie did a number on your place.” I take in the front room, completely unrecognizable from the last time I was here.

It resembles my mother’s guesthouse more than my own bachelor pad now.

Splashes of color brighten up the previously monochrome apartment.

Throw pillows dotting the couch and a cushy red chair sits near one window.

Lila smacks my arm. “It really looks great, Theo.”

He grins at her. “Katie did the hard work, I just gave her my credit card.” He turns to me. “She’ll be on you soon, now that you’ve bought a place here.” I shudder. I love Katie like a sister, but that woman will touch my apartment over my dead body.

“You’re lucky she didn’t max it out,” Lila snickers.

“Don’t tell her,” Theo whispers conspiratorially, “but I had the bank put a temporary limit on it.”

We laugh just as the door opens.

“What’s so funny?” Maggie asks, carrying three large paper bags as she follows an equally heavy-laden Katie into the apartment.

“Nothing. Cal just said something funny.”

“Wow, good to see he’s found his sense of humor. I thought it had gone to die with the rest of his personality,” Katie quips, deadpanning.

“Miss Chen, have I personally insulted you somehow?” I offer as graciously as my sarcasm will allow.

“She’s just pissed you interrupted her flirting with the hockey player at the last party,” Lila fills in.

Heat creeps up my neck as everyone but Maggie remembers what a fool I made of myself that night.

“Well, if I promise not to repeat the experience will you forgive me?”

She shrugs, pulling out a tequila bottle. “Ugh fine, it’s not like I could stay mad at you anyway. Now who wants shots?”

I reach to take an offered shot glass when Lila loudly clears her throat. I look up and see her glaring at me and drop my hand.

“I’ll pass tonight,” I tell Katie. She tips it into her own mouth, chasing it with a lime wedge.

I grab a beer from the fridge instead, ignoring Lila’s narrowed eyes, but the lack of verbal admonishment must mean it’s at least an acceptable choice, and slump down on Theo’s new and rather uncomfortable couch.

It doesn’t take long until we’re joined by several other players and friends.

They all laugh, filling their cups as Katie pours out shot after shot.

My head is starting to pound. Lila sways to the music filling the apartment, giggling at something Maggie said, and I can’t be here anymore.

I want nothing more than to be in my own bed, the new documentary on grey whales calling my name, but I grit my teeth, not wanting to cause a scene.

I slip onto the balcony and find it blissfully quiet, the cold air a welcome relief on my sore body. Who needs ice when you have Chicago winter?

Theo still has his patio furniture out, and I sink onto the small couch, grateful Katie chose something practical when it molds to my body. I rest my hands on my thighs, and take in the city below us, spread out and glittering for miles.

I sit like this until my face grows numb, and then I’m too cold to leave. Just as I’m contemplating making an excuse to head home early, the balcony door opens and Lila steps out holding two drinks.

“Hey.” She offers one of the cans to me.

I smile up at her. “Thanks. I’m surprised you’re letting me drink.”

“It’s non-alcoholic.” I grin as she takes the empty seat next to me. It takes nearly every ounce of self-control to keep from leaning into her warmth. “Cheers.” She cracks the top of her seltzer, and I do the same, clinking cans before I take a sip of the drink she brought me.

After several minutes, she breaks the silence.

“It was a great game today. Thanks for the tickets.” Then almost as an afterthought, she adds, “And the jersey.” She blushes, and I’m much less cold now.

“No one’s ever worn a jersey for me, you know.” I can’t keep the smirk out of my voice, and I know she hears it by the way she shifts.

“There were hundreds of people who had your jersey on just today.”

“But only one of them was there for me. The rest are fans of the team. They might be carry-over fans from the Cosmos, but to most I’m just the shiny new player.

Next year they’ll be the first to buy whoever the new big trade is.

The new rookie.” I scoff. Seeing the royalty checks come through from jersey sales is always a cool feeling, until I start to line up the timing.

“Oh,” she says, falling silent, and I mentally kick myself for shutting her down after she not only sought me out but tried to start a conversation.

“Yeah, so thanks for wearing it.” I turn to her smiling.

“Of course, Cal.” Her throat bobs as she swallows. “How’s your head?”

Safer territory. Friend territory. That’s fine.

Her words bring my attention back to the pounding I had nearly dissociated from, and I let out a long breath. “I have a pretty rough headache, honestly. It’s why I came out here in the first place.”

“Oh,” she says again.

“The music’s just a little loud, and I’m not really in the mood to make small talk. But as much as he drives me up a wall, I’d rather Theo not actually hate me, which he might if I ruined another party.” I let out a dry laugh.

“If you want to be alone in the quiet, I can go.” She stands, but I reach up and grab her wrist, halting her movement.

“No, stay. It’s different with you.”

She laughs nervously but sits back down. “If you’re sure.”

I make a low sound of approval in my throat.

“Tell me something that’s not small talk. Tell me something real.”

“Like what?” she asks, another nervous laugh bubbling up through her lips.

I shrug. “Doesn’t matter. My head hurts less listening to you.” That and I want nothing more than to peel her shell back and learn every single thing about Lila Summers. To know what makes her tick, to know what gets her off, to know what she dreams about.

“Why do I feel like you’re making that up?”

I grin at her, a look I’ve perfected over the years with a ninety-nine percent success rate on women. “What’s worse, me making it up or you not doing it because you think I might be making it up and then I’m not and you miss your opportunity to help?”

She groans. “I’ve only had, like three drinks, and I still can’t follow that.”

“Something real,” I prompt.

She looks back across the city, quiet for a moment, and I think she’s ignoring me.

“I secretly hate that my sister is having a baby.”

I’m floored. I hoped she’d answer, hoped she’d give me something real, but this is deep.

The kind of deep you hesitate to tell your therapist just in case she somehow gets you committed.

But hang on, what? I knew she had a sister, but as I try to find the box in my brain for Lila’s family, I don’t remember her being pregnant.

Aren’t most people excited to be aunts? What happened to make her so upset over it?

I want to ask all these questions, but my mouth isn’t working properly.

“It’s not that I don’t want her to have a baby or be a mother.

I think she and Alex will actually be great parents, but I just wanted to be first, you know?

” She pauses for breath before launching into an explanation I desperately want but don’t feel I deserve.

“She’s younger, and she’s always been the golden child.

I did it all first, and I even did some of it better, but none of that matters.

I got the big fancy job in the city and the great new apartment, but she got the husband and the four-bedroom house in the suburbs, and that’s always been the measure.

So, because she did all that first, she wins, and now I’m just the sad, old maid who can’t find a husband and is married to my job because it’s the only thing I’m good at. ”

She takes a shuddering breath, and I have the urge to wrap her in my arms.