Page 44 of Game On

Sloan chuckles lightly. “I’ll think about that when I’m worried about finding the one,” he mimics, making fun of me. “But that won’t be for a while.”

“To each their own.”

Sloan pulls into the sandwich shop, and we get out. He walks in nonchalantly like he’s not worried he’ll get caught skipping. It’s no wonder. There’s a huge RHS Warriors sign in the front window. I follow him in, and he takes a booth in the corner. An elderly lady comes over and gives us menus.

“Get whatever you want,” Sloan says. “It’s on me.”

“I can pay for my own meal,” I tell him even though he owes me one for that stunt they pulled before the baseball game.

“Obviously, but I figured you might be like me. Just because I can afford to pay for everyone’s meal doesn’t mean I want to all the time.”

His words bite through me. He’s right. When I was at Broadwell, everyone had at least some money. Hello, it was private school. But, the ones with the most were always throwing it around and everyone else expected them to, too. “Thank you,” I tell him, accepting his gesture.

There’s a shift in the air around us, but I don’t comment on it. I just settle on what I want for lunch and then wait for the waitress to come back over again. We order, and then Sloan sits back. “I thought you played a good game today.”

“Would have won,” I said. “If your boy didn’t play dirty.”

He smirks. “We don’t know that.”

“We would know if he didn’t play dirty.”

Sloan just stares at me. When the lady comes back with our drinks, he takes a huge gulp, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. My phone vibrates so I pull it out. It’s a text from Alec.Where are you?

Getting some lunch downtown.

“Who’s that?” Sloan asks, trying to peer over my screen.

I angle it back. “None of your business.”

He smirks. “Tell Alec I say hi.”

I don’t respond. Alec texts,Are you with Sloan? There’s something I have to tell you.

Yes, and only because he basically kidnapped me.

Fuck.

“It’s so rude to be out to eat with one guy and texting another, don’t you think?” He reaches over and yanks the phone out of my hand before I can respond.

“Hey!”

“Chill. I’m not going to look at it. I’m just going to set it right here. You can get it back after we eat.”

I sit back with a huff. “Like you actually want to eat lunch with me. You’re just trying to piss Alec off for some reason.”

Sloan leans forward, his expression changed. “That’s where you’re wrong. Don’t pretend you know what’s going on here because you have no idea.”

He slips out of his booth and slides into mine. I move over to accommodate him or I’m pretty sure he would have just sat on me. My heart careens in my chest. It’s been like this since I first met them. I can hardly be in their presence without panting. Though, it’s a lot easier to be in Lake’s presence. He’s pretty, but he’s a straight up asshole with no redeeming qualities.

Sloan, though? In a way, I feel bad for him. We have similar ‘growing up in the public eye’ upbringings. Though, he always had the Ballers, and I never had a group like that. “What was it like growing up with all those friends?”

Sloan turns to look at me. “Allthose friends? If you mean just the five of us, then it was great.” He leans back, his arm moving around my shoulder. It feels nice there. Comfortable.

“Come on, Ivy,” I say. “Tell me something real.”

His face lights up. “You want to hear something real?”

I nod.

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