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“Yeah, I’m fine. I just didn’t see the root.”
“That’s because you’re too busy talking,” I said teasing him. “It’s a hike, not a chat-a-thon.”
“Chill out, Nero,” Cage said defending his man.
I could respect that. Because I did, I let it go. But, the two of them did a fair bit less talking after that.
I didn’t actually mind their endless chatting. The only thing that got to me was that I didn’t have Kendall here to do the same. Thinking of him again, I pulled out my phone to see if he had texted.
“Checking for a message from Kendall?” Cage asked teasingly.
“Chill out, Cage,” I told him.
Not finding one, I stuffed my phone back in my pocket. After a moment of silence, Cage spoke again. This time with more empathy.
“He’ll text. I saw the way he was looking at you after the game. He’s into you, too.”
“I said chill out, Cage!”
Despite my reaction, I appreciated what he said. Every time Kendall took an extended time to reply, I wondered if things between us were over. He had already told me to go to hell once. Should I expect him to do it again?
I had to figure out the thing he had against football players. He was helping me deal with my shit. As a football player, maybe there was something I could do to help him.
Not returning to Dr. Sonya’s labor camp with my siblings, I headed home and waited for Cage to deliver Quin. Driving back, Quin and I talked about Kendall. He suggested that we invite him to our next game night. It wasn’t a bad idea. But I felt like I needed alone time with him before we did.
‘When are we doing our next session?’ I texted him when he didn’t reply to what I thought was a funny meme.
‘If you want, we can talk over lunch tomorrow.’
‘What about over dinner at Commons?’ I asked referring to the cafeteria connected to the popular study space. It was a little more intimate.
After our rapid-fire exchange, Kendall didn’t respond for an hour. When he did, he wrote, ‘Sure. What time?’
I couldn’t have been happier. Seeing him was all I thought about for the rest of the night.
Going extra hard in practice to burn off my excess energy, I was exhausted by the time dinner rolled around. I could barely lift my arms.
“What’s up with you?” Kendall asked me after looking me up and down.
“Hard practice.”
“Oh. So, what have you been up to?”
I wanted to say that he would have known if he had replied to my text, but I didn’t.
“I took Quin home on Saturday. He and Cage wanted to show me the house they’re buying together.”
“They’re buying a house? How is it?”
“It’s the nicest house I’ve ever been in.”
“Really? Wow.”
“I could show you at some point. The realtor said they could move in in a week.”
“Oh. Yeah,” Kendall said unenthusiastically.
“Okay. I gotta know. What is it that you have against football players?”
