AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Of course, Yani was quick to put some space between us, returning to her task of putting the groceries away as I answered, “For whatever reason, the front office is playing hardball. My agent is handling it though.”
“Y’all gonna be any good this year?”
Since I hadn’t been around to see shit for myself, I was forced to rely on reports from my teammates when I responded, “We should be straight.”
“Well depending on how long Briyana decides to stick around, we may have to catch a game or two.”
Mr. Hayes seemed excited about that until his daughter turned around with a scrunched-up face and asked, “Who said I wanted to go?”
“Come on now, Bri Bri. You used to love going to all the Skyhawks’ games with me.”
“Used to,” she emphasized. “People change.”
Shaking his head, Mr. Hayes brushed off his daughter’s claims while telling me, “Well if she doesn’t wanna go, then I’m sure the misses will.”
“Nah, you knowBriyanais just tryna be hard right now. When the time comes, I’m sure she’ll be there,” I told him, feeling confident about that until I thought about what had happened the last time I saw her. And with that on my mind, I couldn’t help but add, “Or maybe she won’t.”
I could tell Yani knew what I was hinting at by the way she tensed up a little, using her collection of toiletries as a reason to excuse herself when she started to fill her arms with as much as she could carry while announcing, “I’m gonna go take this stuff upstairs.”
“You look like you could use a hand,” I pointed out, getting ready to grab what she hadn’t been able to fit when I stopped to ask, “Mr. Hayes, you mind?”
With a chuckle, he responded, “Your assneverused to ask for permission to go upstairs when y’all were kids, but now you are?”
“It’s been a while,” I explained with a grin that made him grin too as he gave a little nod towards the stairs to send me up. But once I was there, I could tell Briyana wasn’t exactly enthused about her father’s decision, choosing to ignore me as she put her stuff away in the bathroom until I asked, “So you ready to tell me what you’re doing here? I mean, I just assumed you’d gone ahead and settled down with a husband and kids up in Portland when you didn’t come back right after graduation.”
“Eugene,” she corrected. “I was in Eugene.”
“Okay, well what about the rest then?”
“You know that’s never really been my vibe,” she answered with a frown, her response making it easy for me to challenge, “I thought we didn’t know each other anymore?”
To some degree, I understood where she was coming from with that since it wasn’t like we’d been a part of each other’s lives most recently. But regardless of how much time had passed since we last spoke, Yani and I had been through too much together for her to ever feel like a stranger; though it was definitely unfamiliar territory for me to be so damn attracted to the most random shit about her.
Like her nose ring.
It was just a simple gold hoop, but it looked fire against her pretty ass espresso skin; especially when you factored in the red lipstick she had on that should’ve looked out of place with her casual oversized sweatshirt and track shorts but didn’t.
Yani just had it like that now.
Or maybe she’d always had it like that, and I was just now noticing.
Either way, I was completely in tune as she smirked to herself and replied, “You’re right. We don’t. And it should probably stay that way.”
“You know good and damn well you don’t mean that shit.”
“Yes I do,” she argued. “I mean, it’s clear your life has beenperfectlyfine without me.”
Her assumption made me frown because… “Who said my life has been fine without you?”
Don’t get me wrong, I’d definitely been doing my thing sincewe’d… gone our separate ways. But it wasn’t like she’d left me with much of a choice, especially once I saw how well she was doing on the track and how happy she looked to be a part of one of the best programs in the nation that just so happened to also be thousands of miles away from me.
Being honest, even from a distance and even though we weren’t speaking, I was still inspired to go just as hard as she seemed to be going. And all that hard work had paid off in a major way, making it easy for Yani to answer, “Hmm... let’s see. The back-to-back FBS bowl game appearances at LSU definitely said you were doing just fine, along with that Heisman nomination your junior year which like, rarely ever happens for defensive players. And then there was that insane signing bonus that came with you going so early in the first round of the draft,andthe fact that you’ve damn near been an automatic pick for the Pro Bowl year after year. And let’s not even talk about all those lucrative ass endorsement deals…”
The way she’d so effortlessly listed my more recent accomplishments made it hard for me not to grin when I replied, “Well I’m glad to know you’ve still been payin’ attention. To be real, I was doing the same until your ass went ghost on social media.”
Making a move from the bathroom towards her bedroom like she just knew I was going to follow her -she wasn’t wrong-, Yani explained, “I didn’t go ghost. I deleted my accounts and started new, private ones after I graduated because I didn’t want the random shit I was posting to hinder my ability to get a job. You wouldn’t know anything about that life though.”
“Actually, my agent had a whole company go through all of my social media accounts to make sure there wasn’t nothin’ too crazy on ‘em,” I told her, grateful for the service since I was sure somebody with way too much time on their hands would’ve found something to try and get me “canceled” over.
