Page 48 of Free Fall

“We brought a ringer to the fucking party and didn’t even know it,” Cade says grudgingly.

“I guess I am pretty good.” My face lights up with fake enthusiasm. “Who knew sports were my thing? Maybe I should play football.”

The guys all stare at me, wide eyed. “Bad idea, Shortie,” Cade says. “You’re too…petite.”

I scoff at him. “You didn’t hear about the girl a few towns over who helped the all-boys basketball team win state?”

Lex smirks. “Quintessa Dale? Who didn’t hear about that? It was all over the fucking news.”

“Not gonna lie, I’d tap that,” Cade says.

The guy next to me laughs. “Are you kidding me, the whole team is probably already tapping that.”

I narrow my gaze at him, and he lifts his hands in surrender. I have no idea who the girl’s dating, or if she’s dating at all, but just because she’s on the team with a bunch of guys doesn’t mean she’s fucking all of them. How misogynistic.

Though if she were, more power to her.

“Keep it up,” Lex says. “Briar won’t want to be your partner and you’re shit without her.”

Their teammate playfully gets down on his hands and knees and steeples his hands in front of him. “Forgive me?”

“Get your ass off the floor,” Reid says, voice strained.

The guy gets to his feet, chuckling. Cade downs the last cup, and then Reid sits one out so Lex can join in. I try to tell them I’ll bow out of this one, but they insist I keep playing. I’m a little worse this game because I feel Reid’s eyes on me the entire time. He doesn’t let up. It makes me nervous with the way he watches without words. I want to know what he’s thinking. Why he flirted with me in the car, why he punched Lex in the school classroom that day. All these things should be obvious, but I want them to be spelled out for me. He’s a hard read. Especially since he has a girlfriend, and as much as I hate Sasha, I’m not going beyond those boundaries.

While we continue to play, Sasha comes over with Chelle and a few other friends in tow. “Are you ready for your birthday present?” she asks. She’s standing in front of him in a rose gold silk bathrobe. I lift my eyebrows at her over the brim of my cup as I take another drink. Something tells me I’m going to need a lot of alcohol to get through this night.

Reid’s gaze rakes up and down her. “What are you doing?” he growls under his breath.

She smiles wide then spins to address everyone on the deck. “Attention, everyone. In case you didn’t know it, it’s our quarterback’s birthday today!”

The crowd that’s outside starts cheering, and a few people begin to gather around. It’s my turn to shoot, but I can’t tear my eyes off of what’s going on.

“Are you ready, baby?” she asks. “Here’s your birthday present. Boys,” she says, nodding to two guys. The two guys, linebackers on the team, I think, take the ends of the bench Reid is sitting on and turn it toward her.

He’s scowling. I can tell he hates this. His face is growing red, crimson splotches creeping up his neck, escalating even moreso as Chelle starts playing a song from her phone. The first few beats of the music play and on a bass drop, Sasha drops her robe.

My mouth drops to the fucking deck. She’s dressed in a thong and a skimpy, sequined bra top with SHH colors. She walks toward him with what’s supposed to be a sexy walk in her high heels. She dances up close to him, practically shoving her tits into his face before she saunters off, climbs up on the nearby pool table and drops her ass practically to the ground like there’s a stripper pole in front of her.

Guys cat call her. I see a few girls roll their eyes, but her little bitch crew is smiling and clapping to the music. They probably all choreographed this. Even though my eyes wander there, they go right back to Reid. He’s glaring at Sasha like I’ve never seen him do before. He’s fuming, and every time a guy calls out something, I see his hands clench to fists.

Eventually, he gets up and walks away, completely averting his eyes from the scene before him. Sasha’s mouth drops as she undulates on top of the pool table. She stands up. “Reid?!”

He walks inside the house. Lex appears next to me and lowers his voice even though no one is paying attention to us. “This isn’t going to be pretty.”

Sasha jumps down from the pool table and almost turns an ankle on her super high high heels. Chelle struggles with the phone, trying to turn the sexy music off. Cade and Lex take off after them, so of course I follow. It seems like everyone else does too. “Reid Parker!” Sasha snaps. “Stop!”

Reid turns suddenly, and she runs right into him.

She sputters at the angry glint in his eye. “What are you doing? I’m giving you your birthday present. That was rude,” she says, finally realizing there’s a crowd of people around them now.

“A strip tease?” he seethes. He steps away from her. “That wasn’t for me. That was for you because you just love being the center of attention. You love having every guy in here want to fuck you. Well, congratulations, they can fuck you because I won’t anymore.”

Her head snaps back like he’s punched her. A few of the onlookers gasp, but everyone is straight up gawking at what’s going on. “You don’t mean that.”

He shakes his head. “I should’ve done this a long time ago. You’re selfish, self-centered, and you think I don’t know you fucked that guy at that party right after Brady died last year. I know. I’ve known this entire time.”

“Oh, shit,” someone says.

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