But he didn’t explain what I was instead.
That mattered more.
A shout from across the arena interrupted whatever that was becoming.
“Reed!”
Coach.
Saved him.
Or saved me.
Depending on how you looked at it.
Mason stepped back slightly. “I’ll see you.”
Not a question.
Like always.
Then he walked away.
And I stood there longer than I should’ve.
Because something about that conversation didn’t feel like an ending.
It felt like the start of something neither of us had agreed to yet.
And worse—
I wasn’t sure I wanted it to stop.
Fourteen
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
MASON
I told myself I wasn’t going to think about it.
That lasted about six minutes.
Coach was talking about film review on the court, pacing in front of us with that same tired intensity he always had when something was coming up that actually mattered.
Scouts. Pressure. Noise.
The usual.
I was listening.
Sort of.
But my brain kept drifting back to one thing I didn’t like that I remembered too clearly:
Caleb.
Standing too close.
