Page 79 of The Midseason Fakeout

Luna places her head on my shoulder, and I instantly relax. She leans her weight into me, and I reach up to stroke down her spine. My parents had talked about getting me an emotional support dog when I was a kid, but then it turned out that Mom was allergic, so we couldn’t.

This is ridiculous, I chastise myself. I’m not going to go down this line of thinking anymore. When Bailey and I are alone, I’ll ask her.

I’m sure she’ll say she’s staying, and I’m freaking out over nothing. It’s what I do. It’s called abandonment issues. Had them since I was five.

That doesn’t make them any easier to deal with, though.

“You good?” Bailey asks.

I hug Luna in front of me. “Just hanging out with my new girlfriend.”

“Oh, I see how it is.”

I pull away, and I swear the dog smiles at me. Mouth open, panting, this dog and I are on the same wavelength. “She’s not going anywhere, is she, pretty girl?”

As if she can understand what I’m saying, she licks my cheek.

That’s what I thought. I’m right. West is wrong.

Bailey isn’t goinganywhere, and I’m certainly a better person while she’s here. She won’t impact football negatively like I let myself slide into in the past.

I have my head on straight now, and it’s staying that way.

“Hey,” I say to Bailey, nodding at her.

“Yeah?”

“Is that a wet dog in front of you or are you just happy to see me?”

She shakes her head, chuckling. “I’m not sure that makes any sense. Good thing you’re handsome.”

“Here, here,” Cade says, videoing us again. This time, Luna and I pose for his camera, and he walks on by, giving us all a thumbs up.

22

BAILEY

“That was a success!”Coach’s wife exclaims, beaming. The head of the ASPCA is with her, peering down at a clipboard, but she also wears a smile.

All the players and their significant others stand around them. The sun is going down, and the chill in the air makes all the wet spots on my shirt feel even colder.

“That was fun,” one of Aidan’s teammates comments. “We should do that again.”

“We had such a great turnout.” Mrs. Thompson is beside herself with happiness. “We raised over $5,000 for Step-Up today!”

My eyes nearly bug out of my head. I was not expecting that. I bathed a lot of dogs, but I can’t imagine helping that many people. Wow.

“The donations we received were incredible,” the ASPCA lady announces, eyes brimming with tears. “Simply incredible. I want to thank you all.”

Aidan leans over, bumping his shoulders with mine. “It’s because we had an incredible game yesterday.”

I want to laugh at him for how full of himself he is, but in this case, I think he’s right. Everyone came to congratulate the team on how well they did. One family even paid for their dog to see every single player. It was all on a pay-what-you-can basis, and I’d be willing to bet, there were some families who paid a lot more than what a bath is actually worth. That’s not to mention the shots and vet services.

We did a good thing today. Plus, I finally felt like I fit in. People didn’t look at me just because I’m Aidan’s girlfriend or for who my parents are or how much money I have. They genuinely likeme.

“As you know, we asked everyone dropping by who they were here to see,” Coach’s wife states.

With the amount of fun I had today, I forgot that this was part of the competition. The families weren’t assigned a dog bather randomly. They chose the player and girlfriend team to wash their pets. Whoever bathed the most dogs came out on top in this competition.

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