“You can leave.”
“I didn’t say I disliked the show.”
Rider looked at me over the top of the trash pile in his arms. “Vivi likes hockey, right?”
The question was careful without being pitying, which was why Rider was still alive.
“She likes the order of it,” I said, grabbing another rag and wiping down a sticky spot on the island that had resisted every known cleaning method. “Lines. Numbers. The clock. Penalties make sense to her because there’s a rule and a consequence. She likes stats more than the yelling, so if the house gets loud, she might put on her headphones and go quiet. That doesn’t mean she hates you. It means her brain is done letting the world be so loud.”
Briggs nodded with a solemnity that made him look almost mature, which was disturbing. “No grabbing the headphones.”
“Touch her headphones and I’ll remove your hands.”
“Understood.”
“No forcing hugs.”
Briggs looked personally offended. “I am a consent-based hugger.”
“You’re a full-contact emotional event,” Ryan said.
“Which is why I announce myself with warmth.”
“Announce yourself with distance,” I said.
Briggs pressed a hand to his chest. “I can be gentle, Captain.”
I looked at him long enough for the joke to leave his face.
His voice softened. “I can be gentle.”
That was the thing about my team. They were loud, obnoxious, and disgusting in the way twenty-something men sharing a house could be disgusting. Most of them had eaten food off surfaces that should have required a tetanus shot.
But they were mine, and when I said something mattered, they heard me.
Even Briggs. Especially Briggs, sometimes.
The doorbell rang at exactly two thirty because my mother lived her life on time even when she was exhausted enough to fall asleep standing up. My entire body locked before I could stop it.
Cade noticed. “You good?”
I tossed the rag into the sink. “I’m fine.”
Ryan laughed beneath his breath.
I glared at him. “You want drills too?”
“I’m not on the team anymore.”
“I’ll make you watch.”
“Get the fuckin’ door,muchacho. You act like we don’t know what family means.”
The doorbell rang again, followed immediately by a fist pounding against the front door.
Skylar.
I exhaled and went to answer it.
