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“Nice!” shouted Jayden, who sure enough, now had the ball in play.
“Yo, Arch!” shouted Darrin, clearly disappointed. “Get your head in the game, man!”
Scott ran over and picked up Archer’s bottle, dropping it in his bag for him.
“Sorry,” said Archer, running his forearm over his mouth.
“No problem.” Scott clapped his hands together several times. “All right, all right, all right, let’s do this—aw!” He clutched his hair as Jayden took a shot and made it.
Somehow he’d gotten clear across the court and Archer hadn’t even moved an inch.
“Time, time!” Darrin grabbed the ball and held his hands out together in a ‘T’ shape. He called over the Skins, more than half of which seemed like they wouldn’t be out of place posing for the model photos that decorated those cheap bags of underwear. Archer grabbed his own shirt from the bench to rub the sweat off his brow, his face flushing at how pathetic he must look beside them.
He tried to listen to what Darrin had to say, but his gaze kept flickering to the park bench just twenty feet away from the court. The bench on which Brielle clearly sat, her Scrubbing Cherubs shirt abandoned for an even more revealing spaghetti-strap tank top.
“Hey, Arch? Arch!” said Darrin.
“What? Sorry?” Archer felt dazed.
“You all right, man?”
“Yeah, I…” He rubbed his face with the front of his shirt for the second time in half a minute.
“You didn’t hear a word I said, did you?”
Archer shook his head like a dog after a shower and clapped. “No, I’m in this. Let’s do this!”
Only Archer couldn’t get his head in the game. It wasn’tentirelyhis fault that his team got utterly trounced less than an hour later, but he was confident he wasn’t winning any MVP awards if there were such things for a bit of casual park basketball.
The guys still shook hands with each other—in that casual, swing your arm widely and come in for the hand smack kind of way—and talked shit about next time, but Archer wasn’t even able to focus on that. His arm hung out kind of limply, accepting each smack halfheartedly.
“Rest up next time, bro,” said one of the guys. Archer didn’t even remember which. “Got to get your head in the game.”
“Yeah,” he said. His gaze drifted for the first time in quite a while to the bench. He hadn’t let himself check since he’d first noticed her, but he could almostfeelher eyes boring through the back of his head the rest of the game. Only she wasn’t there anymore.
He laughed to himself. He’d been stressing all game over it when she’d probably left like a minute after he’d noticed her there. Probably just as soon as she’d noticed him on the court. He couldn’t blame her. He’d had half a mind to bolt himself, but he figured it would draw more attention to himself if he did.
He was an idiot for even worrying about it.
“See you next week!” Jayden nodded at Archer as he headed back toward the parking lot, this time cutting through the grass for a more direct route.
“Yeah.” Archer nodded, his damp T-shirt crumpled in his fists.
“Don’t hold out on me, bud!” Jayden called over his shoulder just as he passed the bench Brielle had been sitting on. “I want to know first thing next time if you have a hot date!”
Archer winced and tried to politely smile, but the smile was lost the instant he noticed Brielle wandering toward the bench from the park bathroom—how she stopped and looked from Jayden to Archer and back, clearly having heard Jayden’s pointless jab.
Archer’s blood ran cold and he slumped his shoulders, turning his chair toward the path that would lead him home.
Chapter Seven
Brielle knewshe’d chosen the worst possible time to pee. But how was she supposed to know when a basketball game was going to end? She’d never cared to watch a game before today.
And she’d already held it for so long at that point. She’d figured she could be in and out before the guys went their separate ways.
No such luck.
She saw the group breaking up as she approached and her heart sank. Then again, what did she intend to do? Strike up a conversation with Archer? Why on earth would she even bother? Sure, she could say “hi” and everything, but what was she expecting?
