I want this chance. I do. But do I want that more than I want Kayla?
Not even close.
We have momentum. We’re building something. I don’t want to get in the way of that. Is there a chance that even these three weeks could slow that down? And if so, will an entire season have us screeching to a halt, ending before we could really begin?
When I get back upstairs, I try to wipe the worry from my brow. Kayla’s family is talking while her brothers are flipping from baseball game to baseball game. When a Chicago Firebirds game appears, Kayla stops them.
“Hey! That’s my friend’s team!” Kayla says.
“Yeah, Barry’s the owner,” her dad says.
“No, I mean my friend Liesel—she’s a sports analytics manager for the team, and she’s the Fischer brothers’ sister! She’s dating Cooper Kellogg.” Kayla turns to me, grinning. “We should fly up to Chicago and see a game. You’d love them. Coop is hilarious, and Liesel is the best. You in?” she asks.
“We’ll check the calendar,” I say, because I can’t have the conversation I need to have in front of her family.
Her brow shows her confusion, but I just smile at her, hoping it looks real.
“It’s getting late,” her mom says. “We should leave you two alone.”
“About that,” Wes says. “The farm is killing my allergies. Any chance I could crash on your couch?”
Kayla’s eyes fly to mine.
The couch is stillmybed.
“No problem,” I say, already mentally making a bed on the floor in the bedroom.
“Just don’t knock if you have a nightmare,” Kayla says, recovering just as quickly. “You won’t like what you see.”
“Whoa!” Wes says, wrinkling his face. “That was over the line. I never realized how disgusting you were when you’re in love.”
“Because we’ve never seen her in love,” Gray says. “Did you see her toenail polish is chipped? Can you imagine her letting her pedicure chip with Aldridge?”
Every word should be a balm for me, but instead, it’s a bruise.
Kayla gives everyone a hug before she shoos them out. “Enough. I love you all. See you at Tripp and Jane’s tomorrow.”
When she’s pushed them out the door, she turns to me with a tight—but thoroughly amused—smile. “Well, Cap. Do you know where the spare sheets are?”
“Come to think of it, I do.”
“Why are you two being so weird?” Wes asks.
“Maybe weareweird,” Kayla says.
“Gray was right. Love is disgusting on you.”
Wes grabs his duffel bag from the floor and ducks into the bathroom. I turn to Kayla, a hurricane forming in my chest.
“So,” I say. “You mind me sleeping on the floor next to you?”
She quirks an eyebrow. “Cap, if you think I’m letting you wreck your back on the floor while I sprawl in comfort, you’ve forgotten who you married.”
There’s no use fighting. “Okay. But do you snore?”
“Like a whispering angel,” she says.
She disappears into the bedroom, and I follow, heart thudding like I’m skating into overtime.
