Page 16 of Away Game

“Who’s sick?” Oz asked, breaking into our conversation.

“No one,” Ford answered, eyes shifting toward Fin.

Did he not want Fin to hear? He was an asshole, sure, but I didn’t think he was heartless enough to want someone’s mom to die.

Both Oz and Fin shrugged as if they didn’t care and went back to talking. Mostly it was Oz telling Fin about his sister, Danica.

“Who’s got a sister?” Ridley questioned out of the blue. I wasn’t sure about him. He seemed nice enough, and at practice, he did his job. Most of the time outside of the field, Ridley was staring at nothing with a vacant look on his face. Maybe he was on drugs. If that was the case, he wouldn’t last long.

Oz indicated it was him by lifting his index finger but said nothing.

“I’ve got three sisters, and they drive me crazy. They’ve been hitting up my phone day and night since I got here and killing my game. I swear they are doing it on purpose.” Even though he seemed annoyed, you could tell by the way his face lit up that Ridley loved them.

“All younger?” Oz asked, tapping the fingers of one hand on the table.

“All younger. I thought they’d be happy I was gone and trying to have boys over all the time, but they seem to spend all their time trying to mess up my game,” Ridley growled, making us all lean back in our seats away from him. With his size and the way his dark eyes looked black, he was slightly terrifying.

Fin slapped the table and laughed. “You better not tell Dani if you like a girl. I can totally see her doing that to fuck with you.”

“Fucking hell, she would. It’s not like she hasn’t thwarted my attempts to get laid before.” His phone, sitting on the table between us, lit up with a message from his sister, and he groaned. “How can she know I’m talking about her when we’re hundreds of miles away?”

“You’re screwed, man.” Fin smirked at him.

Tiffany, our waitress, came to our table with our drinks and a couple of plates of mozzarella sticks and nachos.

“That’s not our order,” Ridley mumbled as he stared at the food like he hadn’t eaten in days.

“It’s on the house. We’re busy, and I didn’t want my boys to get too hungry while you waited on your food.” She dipped low as she set small plates down in front of each of us.

All the guys, with the exception of Fin, had their eyes glued to her rack and followed her breasts as she moved around the table. I wanted to laugh at them, but one look in Fin’s direction had my gut plummeting. His dark eyes had a fire in them as he watched me from down the table.

“Thanks.” Oz flashed her a smile I’d seen at least a dozen times in the last week. It was the one he used when he wanted something. What he wanted besides food, I didn’t know, but I had a pretty good guess. It immediately dropped, and he started to make a pile of food on his plate.

“Dude, leave some for the rest of us.” Fin slapped Oz’s hand away and slid the remaining sticks of one plate over to him.

“Leave some for the rest of us, pigs.” Ford snatched up a chip piled with melted cheese, shredded beef, and sour cream and threw it in his mouth. He smiled as he chewed. “This shit is the bomb. If you don’t want to hit that,” Ford tilted his head toward Tiffany, “I’ll do her.”

Ridley and Fin scrunched their noses up at Ford. “For free food? Are you that desperate?”

“She flirts with every customer.” I looked at him with wide eyes trying to convey she might also sleep with a vast majority of the men she served. It wouldn’t surprise me.

Popping another chip in his mouth, he looked around the table. “So? I don’t see what the big deal is.”

“Whatever, you do you, man.” Oz laughed. “You can have her.”

“Since it’s your first time out with us, what’s your story?” Ridley asked, and everyone fixed their eyes on me except Fin. He was looking off in the distance at the line of TVs on the back wall.

“What do you want to know?” Did they ask me to come with them to put me on the hot seat?

“No offense, but why are you our RA?” Ridley slugged half his glass of water in one go as he waited for my answer.

There was no sense in lying, and they’d eventually figure it out if they hadn’t. “I’m here on a scholarship. It covers everything but my living expenses. When I came up here to visit, I talked to Coach Kyle and explained my situation.”

“And what’s that?” Ford butted in.

“My mother can’t afford to pay for me to live here. I didn’t think I’d have time to work during the season and asked him if he had any ideas on how I could afford to come to school here since he wanted me to play for the Blackhawks. He asked around and made it so I could be the RA.”

Would they see what Coach Kyle did for me as preferential treatment? If they had a problem with me being the RA, they could fuck off. I did what I needed to for myself and my family, and that was all that mattered.

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