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Coach was going to give me a shot. A fair and legitimate shot to prove myself. But then Monroe got taken out and Coach had no choice but to play me. Maybe it shouldn’t have mattered, but it did.
It mattered to me.
“Yeah, man,” Bryan added, “you need to shake off that bad mood you’re wearing and see it for what it is. Your time to shine.”
I grunted some inaudible reply. They didn’t get it. To them it was the difference between playing and not playing. But for me, it was more than that. It was about being good enough to play when the team’s star quarterback was injured, but not being good enough any other time.
It rubbed me all kinds of wrong. But it was done. Monroe was out for the season with a broken arm, and I was the new quarterback for the Rixon Raiders. Like my friends said, it was my time to shine. But there was something bittersweet about the whole thing.
“Okay, let’s do this,” Aaron said, strolling over to us. “What are we going on first?”
“The Ferris Wheel,” Poppy suggested.
“Sounds good to me.” He gave her a shy smile.
Jesus, he had it bad.
My eyes flicked to Lily and I was hardly surprised to find her chewing on her bottom lip, her fingers gently tugging the ends of her braid. She was nervous, and I couldn’t blame her.
I’d been an asshole today, barely talking to her and then ignoring her earlier after the game. But my head was a fucking mess. I was the quarterback now. The team was mine. Coach was going to look to me for leadership. He was going to trust me with certain things.
Things that didn’t include lusting after his daughter.
Fuck my life.
“Kaiden, man, you in?” Bryan asked.
“I guess.”
We all headed for the booth to buy tickets and then they joined the line. But Lily hesitated, staring up at the ride with big eyes. I moved closer to her, unable to fight the pull I felt whenever she was near.
“This has nothing on the virtual simulator,” I said, trying to break the ice that had frozen between us.
“I rode it once… before with my dad. I remember feeling like I was on top of the world. It doesn’t look so high now, but I’m still not sure.”
“I’ll ride with you.”
“You will?” She peeked over at me. “Because earlier I kind of got the impression you wanted nothing to do with me.”
“It’s been a day.” I let out a long, steady breath.
“Okay,” she whispered, and I hated the uncertainty in her voice.
The uncertaintyI’dput there.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. I’ll ride with you, Kaiden.”
Fighting a smile, we joined the line with our friends. Bryan was begging Peyton to ride with him.
“The only right way to ride the Ferris Wheel is boy girl,” he said. “Everyone knows that.”
“I’ll ride with Aaron,” Poppy said a little too eagerly.
“Ashleigh?” Gav asked, and she shrugged.
“Sure.”
