She gave me another disgusted look before stepping around me and locking herself in the bathroom.
I wish I could be angry with her. I mean, I was, I was burning with a never-ending rage and if there was a way to talk Carlos into firing her, I’d do it. But the anger was nothingin comparison to the fear I felt. For me, for Olli, for our jobs. There’s no way Boyd was going to overlook whatever message Renee sent, not when he was busy trying to attract new buyers. Olli might get benched again. And I was most definitely getting fired.
And now I had to go back to my seat and tell Olli all that while surrounded by the whole team. So much for our safe, lie-low plan.
A Plane Shit Show
Olli
When I saw Lunez’s agent stop Kodi, I was a little worried. But when Kodi’s face paled, I had to fight the urge to jump out of my seat and run to her. I didn’t like that look, I didn’t like how she grabbed the woman’s hands with desperation, and I didn’t like how when her eyes flashed to mine, there was a shine of tears.
But I had enough sense to remember where we were. And while I trusted my teammates to not make a big deal of it or let word get back to the coach or owners, there were others on the flight who I simply didn’t know.
So I stayed in my seat, hands going white as I clutched the armrests, and watched the conversation play out.
When she finally walked back, she was biting her lip so hard the skin darkened. I stepped out to let her into the row and immediately took her hand when settled in.
“Are you okay?”
“Ugh, I don’t even know,” she groaned, bringing both of her hands up to cover her face, but not letting go of mine. “I fucked up in thestupidestway. It’s not even funny how stupid it is.”
“Why don’t you tell me what happened so I can be the judge of that?”
Kodi let out a heavy sigh and dropped our hands to her lap.
“Renee saw me kiss you on the cheek.”
I waited for more details but when I didn’t respond, Kodi shook my hand wildly.
“Olli, take this seriously.”
“I would if I understood what was happening.” She groaned again, throwing her head back. “I don’t see what the big deal is. A kiss on the cheek is nothing. We can just explain it as a friend thing.”
“No, no, no. You don’t understand. That won’t work withRenee.”
“Is that the woman you were talking to?”
“Yeah. She’s also, like, my archnemesis at this point. Because, jeez, I can’t believeherof all people from college is the one to reenter my life. And of course, it’sherwho saw me do the simplest thing to blow our low-key plan.”
It was like listening to Gallagher speak when he got too into it — I knew it was English, but I didn’t understand a single thing that was said.
“Kodi,” I started but she shook her head and finally explained.
“Right, sorry. So I went to college with Renee and we both ran in the same … social circles. And I maybe, kinda, sorta, went out of my way to hook up with guys she was after because she was always such a judgmental bitch about me sleeping around andbeing from the South and damn near anything she could think of. So … archnemesis. And becauseshe’sthe one who saw me kiss you, she automatically jumped to us sleeping together. And because she hates my guts, she bought the stupid ass plane Wi-Fi to email Coach. Lord knowswhatshe said, but she sounded pretty confident it’d get me fired.”
“I won’t let that happen,” I told her, squeezing her hand.
“That’s sweet, but what if they bench you over this? They’re already doing stupid shit, I wouldn’t be surprised if this pushes them to be stupider. Ugh, Reneewoulddo this when I can’t get a drink.” Kodi slumped into her seat. I watched her for a moment, at a loss at what to do for her. There really wasn’t anything we coulddountil we heard Coach’s reaction.
“Uh, so not to eavesdrop, but I kinda heard all that,” Gallagher piped up from the seat in front of us.
Fuck, I’d assumed everyone was still too caught up talking to pay attention to us.
“Congrats on being in a relationship, I guess.”
“Thanks,” Kodi muttered, kicking at Gallagher’s seat. “Too bad it’s about to become long distance.” Then, as Renee walked by, she added. “Some bitch ruined my chances at love.”
“Love?” the other woman scoffed. “Yeah, right. You just like sleeping with players. Congrats on making it to the major leagues.”
