Page 31 of The Comeback Pact

“The Charger? That’s Aidan’s.”

“Oh.” I take a step back and peer out the front door. There are two other cars in the lot besides mine. A huge truck and a super small electric half car that looks like the truck could bulldoze it over.

“I’m guessing you didn’t get out of the clown car?”

His cheeks turn a shade of red I haven’t seen on him before. He runs his hands through his hair. “Not exactly. Um, the local car dealer noticed I didn’t have a car, and they said they’d give me one to use for the rest of the year. You know, NIL and all that.”

My brows shoot up. “Wow. Like a sponsorship deal? They gave you a truck? That truck?”

He nods quickly. Local businesses are always giving the football players things, and now that they can legally, it’s only gotten better for them. “That’s…amazing, West. Congratulations.”

A smile flickers over his face. He lets out a breath. “I’m pretty stoked about it. I hate always borrowing Aidan’s car, and there’s no way I could afford one on my own.”

I eye him. I guess I don’t really know much about West, other than the campus worships him. On the outside, it seems like he has everything.

I shrug. “My parents bought me mine. I guess I’m lucky.”

“My mom’s car is a piece of shit. You can hear it blocks away, and she has to crawl to the passenger seat to get out of it because the driver’s side is stuck in the locked position.”

“I guess not something you wanted to bring to campus.”

His tight jaw smooths, and he eventually smiles. “Not really.”

He didn’t mention his father, and I’m itching to ask, but I keep to myself. If he didn’t mention him, there’s probably a reason why.

“Alright, well…” West motions toward the wide-open space. I don’t know how he did it, but arranged a deal with the owner that he would open up an hour early so I could come in and practice my tumbling. Luckily, I’ve been feeling super strong because of all the lifting I’ve been doing.

“Right,” I say, looking out over everything. “I’ll do a little warm-up, but I want to work on my twists today.”

He claps his hands in front of him like a coach. “Let’s do it.”

As he follows me out to the trampoline, it feels like my back is on fire. He hasn’t said anything about me walking in wearing his sweatshirt. I told myself I would try to give it back, but I’m getting used to having it. Maybe I don’t want to return it.

I unzip it, letting it fall apart and then pull it down to toss it on the ground next to their biggest trampoline. I lower my sweats, too, until I’m in a sports bra and shorts. Baggy clothing isn’t a good idea when you’re doing twists.

The trampoline depresses after me, and I turn to find West following me out into the middle. I start to jump, and he joins in. His jumps get bigger and bigger, and I giggle when he hits just before me, sending me flying into the air. My arms flail at my sides, butterflies erupting all over.

This guy’s got me feeling like a kid again.

“I wish football had fun exercises like this,” West muses.

There’s something different about him today. He’s a little less reserved.

“I thought you loved running into things?”

“I do,” he says with a mischievous smile. “But this feels like summer.”

“Summer?”

He shrugs. “I was friends with a kid once who had one of these in his backyard, and I used to only go over there in the summer.”

“I had one, too,” I tell him, jumping higher. “I’d stay out on it for hours. My parents were talking about putting me into gymnastics, but then the summer Olympics came on. These girls on TV were doing all these twists and tucks into a pool, and I was hooked. I wanted to dive ever since.”

“It must have been a hard sport to get into. Football is everywhere, but my high school didn’t even have a pool.”

“Mine did, but they didn’t have a dive team, only a swim team. I had to join a club. My parents drove me an hour and a half each way three times a week.”

His brows raise. “That’s commitment.”

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