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“She left you two alone again?” His outrageous expression made me tense.
“Yeah, Fallon. She has to work. It’s not like I have a job to help. I shouldn’t have spent the night at your house.”
“You’re almost nineteen. You shouldn’t have to get a job. That’s not your responsibility. Neither is taking care of your sister.”
I push away from him, but he grabs onto my wrist and keeps me close. I lick my dry lips angrily. “Maybe in a perfect world, but it’s not.”
“What about your dad?” His thumb strokes my skin as if to calm me.
“He’s dead. And my mom got pregnant with Valerie with some random guy from one night. We have no idea who he is.”
He sighs. “I wasn’t insulting your mom. You’re still so young to have to worry about all that. You should be able to focus on water polo.”
“I wish I could, Fallon. But that’s not how my life works. She won’t admit it, but I know she uprooted her life to move us for this college. A job randomly falling into her lap that’s close to a school offering me full tuition? It didn’t come with dorms or meals. I’m not dumb, we couldn’t have afforded to send just mehere,” I say. The emotion of everything my mom has done causes my throat to ache and my voice to waver.
His eyes are intense as he absorbs my words, his jaw tightening. “How can I help you?”
“What?” I ask, my breath swooping out of me as my face heats and my heart pounds in my chest.
Fallon sits up straighter. “How can I help? Do you need a babysitter for your sister? I can pay for one.”
My eyebrows knit together and I slowly shake my head. “It’s not like that. We have a system that works. It just forces my mom to work long nights. I have to be here.”
His face falls, understanding what I’m getting at. “Sage. You do deserve some nights to yourself. I’m not saying nights to spend with me, but for yourself. You only get to be a freshman in college once.”
“I don’t care about being in college and all that stuff. I care about my sister, my mom, getting into the Olympics and… you,” I say, admitting the last part feebly.
Fallon moves closer. “Okay, then we’ll get you there. I want you to stop worrying about your sister and your mom. If you have somewhere to be because of water polo, then we’ll handle it. Your time is no longer an obstacle.”
“Why?”
He looks confused. “Why what?”
“Why are you offering to help me like this? You don’t owe me anything.” I swallow the emotion gathering in my throat. It’s dangerous to hope. To hope that he means every day, that this isn’t just a ploy to keep sleeping with me, that I’ll have some freedom from worrying about Val so much.
Fallon stares at me, his eyes clouding like a thunderstorm before he lets go of me and stands. He runs a hand through his hair, his breathing picking up as he swipes his bottom lip with his tongue.
“I don’t understand. What do you think is happening between us?”
My heart thuds in my chest. I sit up and kneel on my mattress, facing him. My mouth dries, my tongue heavy as I blink at him, unable to say anything.
A humorless laugh escapes from him. “Do you think I would risk my career?Yourcareer? On what… a quick fuck?”
“I-I don’t know. I don’t know what you want,” I mutter.
“I want you.”
My chin falls into my collarbone as I look away from him and I shrug. “You had me. You got me. I don’t know.”
He sighs, gesturing between us. “You, all of you. I’ve never really dated, never randomly hooked up much either. So tell me, Sage, what it means when everything says I shouldn’t be with you, but I can’t stay away.”
My eyes water and I’m quick to wipe my cheek. “It’s hard for me to rely on anyone else. And it is hard to believe you really want me. I haven’t thought about where this would go.”
Fallon moves closer, cupping my face and forcing me to look up. “I’m in your bedroom, staring at posters older than your sister and you think I don’t want you.”
A broken smile stretches across my face. “Maybe it strokes your ego, knowing how obsessed I am with you.”
His eyebrows raised. “And you don’t think I’m obsessed with you? I moved across the country and accepted a coaching position to get to know you.”
