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I don’t mean a single word. The only girl I want right now is Shannon. Unlike my friends, I’m a one-woman kind of guy. Women are too complicated for me to be a player. I guess I get that from my dad. He was the same way before and after he met my mom.
Preston stops moving his legs and crosses his arms across his chest, smirking. “I was kind of hoping you would help me with Bex. I need you and the guys to make nice with some of her teammates, or better yet, her roommate. She said something to Coach about him having rules. I want to know what she means by that. It seemed like she was referring to his players and that being around us was somehow breaking those rules.”
“Why don’t you stalk her online like any normal person?”
He laughs as if the idea is ridiculous. “I looked last night, couldn’t find her anywhere. I checked Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It’s like she doesn’t exist.”
“Maybe she’s an android,” I joke.
“You’re such a nerd.”
I shrug, unaffected by his words. Everyone calls me a nerd, but I’m the one they turn to when they need help fixing a broken computer, can’t get their phone to work, or need cheat codes for video games.
I shove my hands into my shorts pockets and shrug. “I can take one for the team. I’m sure Tuck, Trent, and Drake will, too. What do you want to know about her?”
He scratches his jaw, thinking over my question. “Find out if she has a boyfriend. Where she hangs out. Who she’s friends with, other than her roommate. Whatever you can get out of her teammates.”
“I don’t think she has a boyfriend. I’ve seen her on campus before but never with any guys. She always hangs out with the same girl.”
“Coach probably doesn’t let her date.”
“Nah, Bex didn’t act like she’d just seen her first naked man. She seemed uncomfortable walking through the locker room, but she wasn’t terrified of all the dicks hanging out. And you heard her… ‘nothing she hasn’t seen before.’”
Preston laughs. “I think that comment was meant for me.”
“Maybe. She doesn’t seem to like you very much. What did you do to get under skin already?”
“Nothing. She’s been like that with me from the second she crashed into me in the locker room.”
Bex literally ran face first into Preston’s wet chest in the locker room after practice. She was on her way to her dad’s office at the back of the room. Apparently, she didn’t realize the players would be in there. That must have been a rude and awkward awakening for her.
“Yeah,” I say. “But she’s meeting your mom. She loosened up a lot after you offered to take her with you on Saturday. You forgot to mention the games last all day.” I snicker. “Wait until she finds out she’s spending the entire day with your mom… and my dad.”
Our parents still coach a youth basketball team together. Of course, Aunt Charlotte is the head coach, and my dad is the assistant. She’s the most dominant woman I have ever met.
Sometimes I wonder how my dad could befriend a woman for more than half his life and never think of her in a sexual way. One time I asked him about it, and he said, “I never thought of Charlie as a girl.” I laughed and he added, “When you grow up the way we did, you look at life differently. We needed each other to get by, and that made it hard for me to see her as anything other than my friend.”
Preston grabs a paper cup from the holder on the wall next to the water cooler. “You should come, too. It’s going to be a long day. Bex will need someone to talk to when I’m busy helping out with the kids.”
He drinks the contents of the cup and fills it again before I pour one for myself.
“Depends on how drunk I get on Friday night after the game,” I say to annoy him.
Too eager to pass judgment, he frowns at my stupid remark. “Dude, we just talked about this. For a smart guy, sometimes you’re so dense. Stay in and play video games with me instead. Your dad’s new game is pretty sick.”
“Oh, I know. Right? I was playing Mage Wars last night drunk off my ass. The graphics were insane and even better with a good buzz going.”
I sit down at a leg machine and remove the towel hanging from my pocket to wipe down the equipment.
“We should play later,” Preston says.
I flash a joker-like grin. “Think you can keep up with me?”
He throws his hand out at me and laughs. “Please. More like… can you keep up with me? Seriously, though, you should stay in with me after the game, kill off a few levels with me, and come to the games on Saturday. If you’re there, Bex might lower her guard more. She probably thinks it’s a date or some shit.”
