Page 54 of Catch Me

I shake my head at him. “You know, one day she’s going to realize you’re lying to her.”

He turns and pulls my hands around his hips until we’re flush together. “Don’t you think she already knows? It’s just easier for her to pretend we’re not at Cade’s parents’ camp sleeping in the same bed together.”

I tilt my head to the side. I’m guessing he’s right. She did tell me she never wanted to walk in on us, and that probably means she doesn’t want to have any possible moments thrown in her face either.

“I mean, your mom was once young too…”

I slap him on the shoulder. “Okay, that’s enough of that talk.” He leans forward and nibbles on my neck until I playfully push him away.

When Jules gets there, we dance all night while the guys play drinking games and get tipsy. Neither Sasha nor Oscar show up, which is a good thing because a drunk Reid will speak his mind even more than a sober Reid. Around midnight, he puts his arm around me while I’m on the dance floor. We dance two songs together before he pulls me up the stairs to the off-limits area to all party guests except us. “I’ve been watching you dance all night,” he says.

“No, you haven’t,” I tease. “You’ve been playing beer pong.”

“Okay, I’ve been playing beer pongandwatching you dance all night. I can do two things at once, you know.”

We move into the room farthest down the hall. I turn and stop in my tracks, my eyes bugging out at what I see on the bed. Reid closes and locks the door behind us, and when he turns, he almost plows into me. I’m staring at the bed, shaking my head and trying not to laugh.

“What the…?”

“Oh my God,” I say.

Cade’s put rose petals on the bed. I know it’s Cade because in the middle of the soft brown comforter, there’s a handwritten note that says,Have fun, kids. Wash the sheets in the morning.

“That motherfucker,” Reid says, laughing. It starts out as a small laugh, but it grows from there like a snowball moving downhill. Before I know it, Reid’s doubled over laughing. Something I haven’t seen him do in a long time.

I help him over to the bed, make him sit, and then sit in his lap. He wraps his arms around me. “I’m glad we’re here together.”

“I’m glad you’re smiling like that,” I say. These past few weeks have been stressful. To see him having fun means so much to me. But, there’s still the problem of what we heard in the supply closet. It affected him. I know it did. “After we overheard Coach and Oscar, I thought you were going to be miserable all night.”

A shadow passes over Reid’s face. He looks away immediately, making my stomach churn. His arms grow stiff, and it’s like he’s turned cold, too.

So, I’m definitely not imagining things. “What is it, Reid? Do you know what Oscar meant by that?”

Reid sighs. “Yes.”

“Well, care to share?”

Reid sets me on the bed next to him and moves away. “Not really because you’re going to be mad.”

My mind goes everywhere and nowhere all at once. It keeps trying to come up with a reason for why I would be mad about what he’s going to say, but it keeps coming up with nothing. What could I be mad about? He’s got everything going for him right now.

Reid clamps his hands together in front of him and his leg starts jumping up and down. The carefree guy who had a little too much to drink tonight is long gone. “What is it, Reid?”

His jaw hardens. “The note from my doctor? I faked it.” His smile is evil, cocky, and laced with guilt all at the same time.

“Reid,” I gasp.

He pushes himself off the bed and starts to pace. “You want to know why I faked it? I can’t stand not having football. I feel one-hundred percent fine, and that doctor kept dicking me around for no reason. ‘Next time, champ,’” he says, imitating the doctor’s voice. “’We don’t want you to get hurt, do we?’ Christ, I was going crazy, Briar. Fucking crazy. I’m fine. Look what I just did out there. I played the best game I ever have. Tell me I’m not ready to play.”

He continues to pace, simmering in his own anger. When he’s done getting his secret off his chest, I stand. My arms are shaking I’m so angry, and his fury over the situation is only making me madder. “What if you’d gotten hit? What then, huh? What if you hit your head? You had a fucking concussion!”

“That’s right!” he shouts back. “Ihada fucking concussion. I don’t have one anymore.”

“So you say.”

“So what?” he growls. “I know my body. I don’t care what that doctor has to say, it’s past time I came back. Fucking Drego out on the field taking my place, trying to steal my rewards.” He shakes his head. “I couldn’t let it go on any longer.”

I take a deep breath. “But what if you were hurt? Would any of that matter?” I ask, my voice tiny even to my own ears. I’m not mad at Reid, not really. I get it, but the fear of losing him is popping into my head again.

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