“All of those people surrounding me were fake. None of them cared I just got by on the skin of my teeth keeping my biggest sponsor. It was all, what could I do for them. Hell, I don’t even think the women rubbing up on me really saw me.”
You’re his friend, Kenna. I reminded myself when my stomach wanted to heave up the ice cream and pizza I just ate when he mentioned the women around him.
“I realized I really didn’t want to do it anymore. And the funny thing was when I thought about where I wanted to be the first person I thought about was you.”
The smile on my face slowly crawled up my cheeks. He knew exactly what to say to melt my heart and the friendship thing just became even harder.
“I’m glad you came. You made Norah happy bringing her ice cream. I’ve never seen my parents so starstruck before,” I added with a giggle.
“Your parents are awesome. They remind me a lot of mine.”
“What are your parents like?” I turned on the couch and tucking my feet under me, forgetting the movie.
“They’re awesome. My mom’s extremely supportive. She drove me and my sister to everything we wanted to try. She does the same for my nephew. My dad was always with me. He was my manager when I was first drafted.”
Trip’s face fell when he mentioned his dad and I instinctively reached out and put my hand on his.
“He’s mad at me,” Trip said, his fingers lightly playing over the tips of mine.
“Your dad?” I asked, my voice sounding somewhat breathless to my ears.
Trip nodded. “He kept trying to get me to stop playing around and buckle down. He even made me get another manager because he wanted me to be more professional. My dad used to always tell me how proud of me he was. After the car accident it was the first time he walked out of the room without saying it.”
I squeezed his hand. “He’s proud of you, Trip. He just doesn’t want to see you get hurt or do something to ruin what you’ve worked so hard for.”
Trip gave me a smirk. “Thanks. I know that’s true. It just hurt. That’s one of the reasons I decided it was time to change. I want him to be proud of me again.”
“Well, friending me shows you’re going in the right direction.”
Trip snickered and the sadness lifted from his face. “I think you’re right.”
“Do you want to finish the movie? Or do you want to talk?”
“Let’s watch the movie. I think I did my quota for spilling my heart out for the night.”
Disappointment pushed through me, but I didn’t give it attention. Trip had opened up to me and he was here instead of at some noisy club being worshipped, or worse, in his bed with some random harlot being worshipped. I wasn’t going to be greedy.
“Hey, Raine.”
I looked up just before pressing play. “Yeah?”
“Before you start the movie can you get me some ice?”
I laughed as I slowly got up, groaning as all my muscles complained, and hobbled to the kitchen. Grabbing two ice packs and two waters, I walked back to the couch and tossed them to him.
He winked at me and my stomach fluttered. I returned my attention to the movie and hoped the zombies would distract me from the beautiful man next to me.
Someone cleared their throat and brought me back to the land of the living. My head was propped on something hard yet comfortable and it smelled delicious.
I cracked an eye open to see Renee and Brian staring at me with smiles on their faces. My pillow moved, causing me to sit up quickly. I then realized my pillow had been Trip’s pec.
We must have fallen asleep during the movie. Both of us had ice packs molded to our shoulders and we were blinking sleep away.
“Wasn’t expecting to see you here,” Brian said, not bothering to hide his amusement.
“I brought Kenna a bribe so she wouldn’t be mad at me and hopefully pitch for me at the next tournament.” Trip propped his elbows on his knees and rubbed his palms into his eyes.
“That’s a good start,” Renee said, grinning widely.
