“Here ya are, folks,” the cab driver said as he stopped in front of the hotel, crushing my dreams.
“Let’s go,” Kodi grumbled, pushing me towards my door. I mumbled but got out of the car, holding out my hand for her as she crawled over the seat to get out on my side. As her hand settled in mine, I got that same warmth again and was compelled to hold on to it.
So I did.
I wrapped my fingers around her palm and held her hand. It was stupid that this small act warmed my heart so much. But I liked the way it felt, liked how she didn’t pull away, but leaned into it as she hopped out of the car. And I especially liked how her fingers wrapped around my hand and stayed there as we went into the lobby, swinging our arms around like kids skipping down the road.
It might be that she was still a little tipsy or tired from a long day of travel, but I thought of it as a muscle memory. She might notrememberme, but the memories were still there. Holding my hand made her think of moments back when she was a kid, strolling down the street with a friend on their way back home from the bus stop.
And I held on to that hope, even as her hand slipped from mine to hit the elevator button.
A Change of View
Kodi
“Ican’t believe you stuffed all those cheese sticks in your bag.” Rosa threw her head back and laughed at me.
“It’s not that funny.” I looped my arm around hers to pull her out of the way of an oncoming reporter running to the conference room, where a couple of players were taking pregame interviews. For better or worse, Kean wasn’t one of them. And neither was Jimenez, which meant we could hang out before the game.
“But think about it from Kean’s point of view. His coworkers are constantly trying to play wingman and after he leaves you alone with them for two minutes, you take the food he bought and run out the door. He must’ve been so confused.”
“I didn’t run out the door,” I argue. “Besides, me leaving meant he could go. So I’m sure he was relieved.”
Though thinking back, he didn’t exactly seem at ease on the cab ride. It felt like he was … doing his best to make things not awkward. And he did a decent job. I couldn’t help but smile at the memory of him taking my hand to help me out and letting me swing our hands around like a kid. It was a silly impulse, something I wouldn’t have done if I was completely sober. But he’d gone along with it and that made me happy.
“What’re you smiling about?”
“Nothing,” I said, probably too quickly to be convincing.
“Uh-huh, I bet you went back to his room, didn’t you?” she teased and I gasped dramatically.
“I would never!” Though when I had trouble getting to sleep last night, I did jam one out to thoughts of his hands on me. I mean, how could I not? I knew what his hand felt like in mine, the warmth, the callouses, the size difference. I had to dosomethingwith all those details.
And honestly, it wasn’t the first time I’d thought of him during self care. So … shrug?
“Yeah, I don’t believe you one bit,” she said, popping the T at the end. I rolled my eyes and rested my head on her shoulder as we stepped onto the field, a good hour before the players would be out.
“Do you know anything about this hookup play the boys have going on?”
“Oh, Carmen is a little bitch when it comes to that shit. He said if there was a chance to make Kean look good in front of you, go for it. But he didn’t expandat all. No, 'we think they’d make a cute couple' or 'we caught vibes' or Kean said something, nothing,” Rosa huffed, dropping my arm so we could shuffle into our seats.
“Seriously? Do you think it’s some kind of bro code thing?”
“I wouldn’t say it’s a bro code thing. Like, he’d have told me if we were trying to help Brooker out. But he won’t sayshit that involves Carter or Kean. So like, he only tells me what’s necessary or what folks wouldn’t mind sharing. He’s very respectable like that and I love him and blah blah blah. But sometimes I wish he’d dish, ya know?”
“Mm-hmm.” I wonder what Kean would be like in that sort of situation. I couldn’t picture him being a gossip, but the idea of him spilling the beans on what everyone was saying in the locker room was fun to imagine. I bet he’d be so exasperated with everybody and complain about Brooker nonstop.
“My guess is Kean said something about liking you to get them off his back and they decided to launch a mission to get y’all together.”
“It doesn’t seem very coordinated, though.”
“Well, they’re boys. How much coordination do you expect from them?”
“Imma tell Jimenez you said that,” I said and she elbowed my side. I opened my mouth to give her more shit, but a couple of the guys started to come out and my attention split.
“First-string doesn’t come out this early,” Rosa said and when I turned back to her, she had an all-knowing smirk on.
“I just wanted to get a picture of Kean for socials.”
