Page 4 of On His Team

Mara’s finger swings to me. “Single.”

Then Mila. “Single.”

Then herself, both thumbs. “Single.”

Then it drops and lands on the top of Rowan’s head. “Single.”

He looks up. “Why am I involved?”

Her brows meet. “You’re single.”

“Okay.”

I say, “Welcome to the resistance.”

He raises his water bottle about two inches off his knee and sets it back down.

I laugh, and Mara throws her hand out at him. “See?”

I’m confused. “He said one word.”

Mara says, “That’s more enthusiasm than I’ve gotten from anyone in this house all night.”

“Because we have practice tomorrow,” Benson says.

Mara turns around very slowly. “No, you don’t.”

My brother nods. “Yes.”

Mara can’t believe it. “It’s New Year’s Day.”

“Coach is aware.”

I ask, “What time?”

“Seven,” Rowan answers.

Mara stares down at him. “Seven in the morning?”

“That’s usually when seven is,” Blue says, and Melly smacks his shoulder without looking at him.

I’m already laughing before Mara gets her mouth open.

“This is disgusting,” she says. “We should be partying.”

I take the bottle from her and take another sip. When I lift the bottle, I catch Benson shaking his head at me.

Mara puts her head on my shoulder, and I put my hand in her hair, and she sighs at the ceiling.

I wait to feel cheated, but it doesn’t come.

I know what a party at Hawthorne is like. People would be out on the porch in coats, the door propped open so the whole downstairs is freezing. There would be a line for the upstairs bathroom and somebody crying in it. There would be at least a group of people here that none of us know.

Instead, the front door is shut, and the room is warm from the eleven of us, and the whole house smells like pizza. Mara shows me a picture of Ivory at a frat party, her bottom lip stuck out.

And I’m into it.

But I’ll keep to myself because Mara is currently grieving.