Page 96 of Unrivaled

Piper’s reasonableness doesn’t seem to mollify Ellie any, but she subsides into grumpy grumbling to herself instead of complaining out loud.

Piper glances around to make sure no little ears are listening, then leans close with one hand in front of her mouth and loudly whispers, “Don’t mind Ellie. She’s just grumpy about Simon being gone. Not enough Vitamin D, if you know what I mean.”

Ellie gasps, looking at Piper with wide eyes full of betrayal. She slaps Piper’s arm. “Shut up! And it’s not like you’re in any better shape.”

Studying her fingernails, Piper shrugs. “I seem to be holding up better than you.”

With a snort, Ellie shakes her head. “Please. Just this morning you were whining about how much you miss Cal and how you’re looking forward to seeing him on TV so you can at least get a glimpse of him. At least when I’m complaining to you, it’s not about your brother!”

They both glance at me, and I hold up my hands. “I promise I’m not going to complain about missing Gray in front of my dad.”

Their eyes grow wide and they dart glances at my dad, who’s covering his mouth with his hand, obviously to hide his smile at their antics, and keeping his eyes studiously focused on the TV. He points the remote at it and turns up the volume way too loud.

“Hey!” Mom yells from the kitchen, where she’s putting together more snacks. “Too loud!” You’d think we were having a movie night or a Super Bowl party the way she’s making food for everyone. But that’s Mom. If people are over, we must have snacks.

Dad obediently turns the volume back down. A little.

“Sorry, Dad,” I tell him. “We’ll stop. Right?” I glare meaningfully at Piper and Ellie, who nod sheepishly.

“Sorry,” they both mumble. I guess my dad blends into the background so well that they just forgot he was here.

Soon the draft gets underway. At last. Though, much to Ellie’s annoyance, there’s still plenty of talking from the sportscasters between every pick and while the latest choice holds up his jersey with the coaches from his new team.

With each pick, we all get a little more antsy. Gray was predicted to be a first round pick, but so far, his name hasn’t been called. Each time a team takes the podium, I hold my breath. And each time, let it out in disappointment.

Piper grabs my hand at one point, and even Ben seems to sense that something momentous is happening, because he climbs into my lap, watching the TV with his finger in his mouth, not squirming or asking a million questions, which is entirely unlike him.

I give him a squeeze with my free hand and kiss his forehead. He lifts his face to me and wraps his arms around my neck, giving me a smacking kiss on the cheek.

“Love ya, Benny,” I tell him.

“Love you too, Mama,” he says in his sweet little voice.

And then I hear it. His name announced by the man standing at the podium. “Grayson Kilpatrick.”

“Wait! Who picked him?”

“Florida!” Piper screams next to me.

Gray stands and hugs his parents, and the screen shows Melissa with tears in her eyes as she watches her son walk to the front of the room and take his place behind the podium. He gives a quick thank you speech he wrote ahead of time, puts on the hat, holds up a jersey with the team representatives, and poses for pictures while the sportscasters discuss his stats again and how they think he’ll do for Florida.

“Oh my god,” I breathe. “We’re moving to Florida.”

Piper screams next to me, grabbing my arm with both hands. “Oh my god! You’re moving to Florida!”

Laughing, I reach over and hug her, letting Ben wriggle out of my lap now that it’s over.

Then Ellie’s at my side, hugging me with tears in her eyes. “I’m so jealous,” she says, giving me a little shove after moving away. “Regardless of where Simon ends up, I won’t be there with him.”

“Aww, Ellie. It’ll be alright,” Piper says, moving to give her a hug. “I’ll help you plan out how to graduate early. We’ll commiserate together, okay?”

Ellie lets out a spluttering laugh. “Easy for you to say. You’ve been working on graduating early the whole time. I took over a year to decide my major!”

“Yeah, but you got lots of gen eds out of the wayandyou knew all along what you wanted your major to be so you took the right prereqs. It’s not like you’re behind. We just need to speed a few things up. We can do it. I promise.”

Ellie doesn’t quite look convinced by Piper’s positive, can-do attitude, but doesn’t argue more.

“Or you can do like me and finish online or transfer,” I put in. Because I understand the tension between wanting to stay and finish and also wanting to be with your person. This way I get to finishandbe with my person.

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