Page 78 of Thunderstruck
I look up, finding her watching me from across the room with her bottom lip between her teeth. For the first time, I realize she’s wearing an oversized navy Thunder t-shirt with our logo—a rugby ball with a lightning bolt in its center—plastered across the front. Her hair, curly as ever, spills over one shoulder, leaving the side of her neck bare. With her cutoff shorts and worn converse, she looks like she belongs here in California. Far more than she did the day she arrived.
The sight of her leaves an ache in my chest, and I turn back to my phone.
Cole:
Nope. If I can’t flirt with you face to face, I’m not giving up my only avenue.
Carissa:
Are we sure it’s better for us to stick to being friends?
No, I’m not sure. But something in my gut tells me to be careful. To take things slow.
With the way Carissa’s looking at me, that’s not going to be easy.
Hollywood Hot Scoop
Shame or Flame? A Relationship under Wraps
Spotted in North Hollywood:Cole Evanson and his latest fling, Thunder trainer Carissa Paxton. While it’s no news that many of Los Angeles’s favorite rugby players frequent Harry’s Bar and Grill, tonight was the first time in months anyone has seen local legend Cole join his teammates out on the town. We all know Cole sightings are rare, but don’t you worry your pretty little heads. We here at Hot Scoop are ready to share all the intel!
Cole and Carissa have been keeping their relationship quiet, to the point where not even Cole’s teammates are aware of it! We spoke to several Thunder players last night, who all claimed they had no idea a romance was brewing under their noses. But anyone who looks at this photo would know that Cole has been captivated.
With Thunder captain Malcom Auxier injured, Cole has taken his place as the leader of the LA rugby team, and it looks like things are on the up and up for Cole as his ex’s wedding looms right around the corner. One has to wonder if Cole is trying to sweeten the pot and get his old flame back in his arms by making himself more desirable. Could Auxier’sinjury have been planned? Is Carissa simply a pawn, or is she climbing a ladder too? We brought in a sports expert to analyze last week’s home game, and what he found might shock you!
Stay tuned for the chilling truth behind Cole’s rise to the top of yet another team, and let us know in the comments if you think the LA Thunder (and the team’s cute new trainer) will be just another notch in the athlete’s bedpost. XO
Chapter Twenty-Two
Carissa
I don’t think it’snormal to get nervous about a female friend coming to hang out, but I’m freaking out. Maybe it’s because I never really had girlfriends after I hit puberty, so this feels like new territory to me. Like my sister, most of my friends in high school and college were guys.Unlikemy sister, none of them were true friends. Once they realized I wasn’t likely to let them out of the friend zone, they slinked away with their tails between their legs, leaving me alone in every sense of the word.
The solitude was nice while I was in PT school so I could focus on getting through all my training, but it did leave some things to be desired.
Like knowing what to do when a girl comes over.
Kasey shows up right when she said she would Saturday afternoon, a bag of junk food in her arms and a tote full of books hanging on her shoulder. Last week, when I was at Derek’s, we talked about our sharedlove of reading, and Kasey asked if we could get together to talk books when she got back from San Francisco so she could have a distraction from Liam being away on his tour. Obviously I said yes—I need all the friends I can get—but now that our hangout is here…
“Hey!” I say, stepping back to let her into my apartment.
Dropping the junk food on the kitchen island, Kasey takes in the space with wide eyes. The kitchen and living room are lumped together in one open space—a lot like Cole’s actual house—everything clean and bright and new. “You can afford all this working for Cole’s team?”
I snort. “Not even a little bit. My brother-in-law is paying for it.” And while I feel incredibly guilty for taking advantage of his generosity, I’d have to get two more part-time jobs to pay for something like this, and I wouldn’t feel safe in anything less. The curse of not leaving home before now, probably.
“Rich people are the best. I pretty much moved in with Liam a week after I met him because his house was so much better than where I was living.”
I raise an eyebrow. “I thought you stayed with him because of paparazzi stuff.”
Her eyes practically sparkle as she grins at me. “That too, but Liam and his house were hard to resist.”
This is my first time interacting with her without Liam’s arms wrapped around her, and the longer I look at her, the more I realize how close in age we are. Plus, before Liam she didn’t live in wealth like the rest of the group, and her shorts and tank top make me feel better about wearing leggings and an oversized t-shirt. She feels…normal.
After a newHot Scooparticle showed up this morning, I’m desperate for normal.
Kasey’s eyebrows pull low. “Did I say something wrong?”
“Dang it,” I mutter, as tears spill out of my eyes. “I promise there’s a reason I’m crying, and it’s not you. I mean, it’s sort of you, but it’snot…”
