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“Saw he got his ring,” Rookie says. “How’s he doing?”
The door opens again, and we all look up. Clay walks in, his hand on the back of a woman.
“What the…?” Brooke says under her breath.
He’s gorgeous in jeans and a camel zip-up sweater shoved up to his elbows, standing a foot and a half above the woman at his side.
She’s pretty. Not like the Kodashians’ try-hard kind but naturally, her hair falling in soft waves and her face freckled. They exchange a few words, and she looks at us, biting her lip.
She throws her arms around him. Disbelief rises up inside me, chased with white-hot jealousy.
Nowhere in the “break” did the idea of him cozying up with some other woman enter my mind.
Maybe it should have.
The woman leaves and Clay comes over to the booth, his gaze circling the crew. One by one, they size him up. Except Jay, who doesn’t move.
“Hey, man,” Miles says, breaking the quiet.
“Long time,” Clay says, but his eyes land on me.
Apparently.
* * *
CLAY
When I heard about Coach, I jumped on the first commercial flight I could get out of LAX, Kat and Daniel insisting they’d be fine finishing their trip in LA without me. After I landed, I saw a missed call from Nova.
Probably about Coach.
Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised she tried to let me know, but I am.
I haven’t seen Nova in weeks.
Now, she’s sitting between Miles and Atlas with her hair piled on her head, her face and arms tanned from the sun. Her T-shirt sleeves are shoved up over her shoulders. The Kodiaks logo on the front of her shirt taunts me.
For a moment, I’m stunned by the sharp feeling of regret in my gut, along with another emotion I can’t look at too hard because it might bring me to my knees.
After so long without feeling, I’m finally feeling something.
“Ah, you probably want to sit—” Miles starts to get up so I can sit next to Nova, but her hand clamps on his arm. “Right.” He looks between us.
“You heard about Coach?” This is from Atlas.
I shove down the irritation at Nova and Miles and focus on my former teammate. “Yeah.”
“How was he?” Miles asks, pulling me back to the present, and the guys lean in.
“Eyes open,” I respond.
“He say anything to you?” This is Atlas.
“Not really.”
“How you been? Helluva tan,” Rookie says.
“Sitting around doing nothing will get you that,” Miles adds.
