Page 45 of On Merit Alone
I did the right thing.
So why did this sudden aching feeling in the center of my chest feel so wrong?
Chapter Fourteen
Ira
Fate worked in funny ways.
It was fate that brought me to my sister’s basketball practices as a kid and allowed me a first glimpse at the game I would one day fall in love with. It was fate that brought me back to Denver in a career that could have literally sent me hundreds of miles away from my family. And I knew that after having Merit look at me like she was hurt but trying her best to hide it, it could only be fate that brought me into the locker room at the exact time as the one motherfucker who I knew was behind all this.
“Hey, what’d you say to Merit in the tunnel the other day?”
“Uh,” he paused, looking at me, then shook his head. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business, man.”
“Did you say she was an ice queen, Scottie?” I asked.
I could tell by one look at his face that he had, though he just scoffed. “Still not your business, Cap.”
If the condescending way he said it wasn’t enough to annoy me, another reminder of how Merit and I were similar finished the job. We both shared a nickname through our positions on our teams, yet she seemed to think we were different somehow. She didn’t say it inso many words, but I knew she was thinking it as she left the gym. I knew she thought some stupid interview of her snipping back at a reporter who was notorious for punching first would change how I saw her.
Well, newsflash, it didn’t. It honestly made me respect her more. Not that insulting people was good per se, but it took guts not to lay down and take condescending questioning for what it was. Just because we were athletes didn’t mean we were punching bags.
And just because this dumbass said it wasn’t my business didn’t mean I wasn’t going to make it mine.
“When she’s my friend and you’re insulting her, it’s damn well my business,” I said.
This piqued his interest. “Y’all are friends?”
“Yeah,” I said slowly.
“You’re not dating or something, right?” he asked, turning toward me.
I felt my eyes draw down low before my brain could stop the movement. I also couldn’t help the frown that touched my face as I answered even more slowly, “No. Why?”
Looking immediately uncomfortable, he brought his hand to his neck. Out of nowhere came Marcus Hayworth, who latched onto Scottie’s shoulders and shook them animatedly as he grinned his ass off. “Because he’s got a big ass crush on her, that’s why!”
“Yo, shut up!” Scottie said immediately, shoving Marcus off and looking horrified.
I blinked rapidly. I literally just stood there blinking, unable to externalize the sudden prickling, bubbling, crackling feeling of anger and irritation and possessiveness that came over me at the sound of those words. The thought of Scottie’s hands on Merit anywhere near the places mine had been today made me near feral. Before I could get a hold of my words, they came rushing out in a disbelieving, almost threatening snort.
“Well, you can fucking forget about that.”Yeah, over my dead body.
“Why?” Scottie asked right away, his chest puffing up, voice lowering. Like he was about tochallengeme for her or something. “Do you like her?”
I scoffed, “No, dipshit, she’s just too smart and has too much respect for herself to go out with someone who makes her feel bad.”
“I didn’t?—”
“You did, asshole,” I said. “And that little nickname you have for her, it fucking stops today.Now. I don’t want to hear that shit again.”
The blinking was contagious because now everyone was blinking at me like I was some kind of wild exotic animal that they’d never seen before.
“Am I stuttering or what?” I asked, clearly irritated. On cue, grunts of agreement rose from the men around me.
“Alright then,” I said by way of parting. They knew where they could find me. On the court. I didn’t give one shit if they thought I was acting strange.
Fine.Whatever. They could grumble if they wanted to, just as long as they didn’t say shit about Merit again.
