Page 21 of Thunderstruck
Cole:
I’m not going to that wedding.
Freya:
Then you had better make some friends among the Thunder, or you and I will be going to Oregon.
“You could have joined us, you know.”
My head snaps up at the sound of Carissa’s voice right in front of me. It hits the wall behind me, and I groan from the impact. “Have you never learned not to sneak up on people?”
She bites her lip, clearly trying not to laugh. “Well, you’ve been watching me for the last forty-five minutes, so I figured you saw me coming.”
She noticed me? Great. Now I’m not only a grump but a creepy grump. Why do people use that word, anyway? It sounds ridiculous.Grump. It was one of Sage’s favorite tropes in books, though I neverunderstood the appeal of a surly romantic partner. As the team’s resident grump, I’m not the kind of guy anyone would want to date, and I certainly wouldn’t let any of my female friends date someone like me. I’m a walking red flag.
Maybe I should have gotten this waybeforeSage dumped me so she would have stuck around. Then again, Javi’s not necessarily a grump either, so she must only like the grumpy type in books. Not real life. In real life, she likes pro football players. Super Bowl ring owners. Morally questionable guys.
I need to say something, but I have no good reasons for watching Carissa’s stretch lessons. Not reasons she’ll like. I grunt and shake my head. “I wasn’t watching you.” I was watching theguys. And okay, maybe I was watching her some of the time.
Folding her arms, she raises an eyebrow at me. “Why don’t you like me, Cole Evanson?”
Under other circumstances, I might have appreciated her refreshing directness, but too much of my mind is caught up in Freya’s edict and knowing I’ll have to explain to Dad and Gramps why I was late for dinner. I don’t have the bandwidth to deal with a metaphorical princess on top of a real one.
Grunting, I push myself to my feet and sling my bag over my shoulder. “I don’t dislike you.” It’s a lie, and we both know it, so I start walking toward the exit before this conversation gets out of hand. Now that everyone’s leaving, she’ll be fine.
That thought only lasts long enough for me to catch the way French Roast is eyeing Carissa behind me, as well as a few other guys taking their sweet time to head to the parking lot.
I slow until Carissa catches up to me. “Sorry,” I say, if only so we can keep talking until she reaches her car. If I’m with her, the guys are less likely to try to get her one-on-one. “I’m not great at conversation.” That has always been true, but it’s gotten worse since Sage left me.
Carissa laughs, the sound filling the air with sparkles. Metaphorical sparkles, of course, but it’s enough to catch the attention of anyone within earshot. Not that any of these guys weren’t already watching Carissa… “I kind of figured that one out on my own. You’ve pretty much done nothing but threaten me since we met.”
Okay, when she puts it like that, I feel like a jerk. Which I am. But I don’t like being called out on it.
“I didn’t…” I huff and come to a stop at the edge of the parking lot. I don’t know where her car is, or I would head straight for it. “I didn’t threaten you.”
Carissa lifts one delicate eyebrow.
“Iwarnedyou.”
“The word ‘threaten’ literally came out of your mouth when we were at Derek’s house.”
I’m sticking my foot in my mouth, and that’s straight up disgusting. My foot has been in locker rooms for most of my life, and who knows what nasty things grow in those. “Yes,” I admit. “I did say that.” And for some reason I keep this train wreck of a conversation going. “But I didn’t mean it.”
“So why did you say it?”
Running a hand through my hair, I search the parking lot for some sort of escape but come up empty. I need to catch the bus before I miss Gramps’s ribs. If I show up too late, he and Dad will have eaten them all without remorse. “Because I say a lot of things I don’t mean,” I mumble. “Were…” How am I supposed to ask this without the guys hearing me? They’re slowly inching closer, like lions hoping to pick off the easiest prey. I don’t know if that prey is me or Carissa, but I don’t want them coming closer regardless. “How did your stretching thing go?”
Carissa grins and wraps her fingers around the strap of her purse. She’s not wearing the ring she had on the first day she was here, which probably explains why the guys are all drooling over her. “I think the team washoping for something a little more hands-on, but I wore myself out with Bean.”
My mind is going places it shouldn’t, conjuring up some of the scenes that were in Sage’s books. I believe the term she used wasspicy. That does not refer to what Carissa is talking about, so I shouldn’t be thinking it.
I cough. “He wasn’t too rough, was he?” Well that didn’t help steer me in the right direction. “I mean, he was nice to you, right?”
Another glittery laugh from Carissa pulls the team even closer, and I notice Bean among them. Hopefully he’s too far away to hear anything, but based on the way he’s glaring at me, he’s probably thinking he needs to protect Carissa fromme. I don’t blame him.
“Bean was fine,” she says with a shake of her head. “In all fairness, I was really digging into his leg, so he’s not responsible for any of the words that came out of his mouth.”
I swear under my breath, cursing his mouth in the presence of a woman. The hypocrisy of that thought is not lost on me. “If he ever gives you trouble…” I’ll do what? Punch him? That would be agreatway to make some friendships with my teammates. I don’t generally like violence—one of the reasons I play a position with less tackling than others—but I doubt any of the Thunder players would be surprised if I decked one of them one of these days. I’ve gotten angry enough to set some precedents.
