Page 96 of On Merit Alone
“Coincidence,” I said, looking at her like she’d lost her mind.
“And tall!” she added, getting more excited as her theory landed. “They also said she was tall!”
I couldn’t help but snort. “Iris, please tell me you don’t spend your time looking at fan pages of your little brother. It’s ridiculous.”
She snatched her phone back. “You bet your ass I do when that brother finally has a girlfriend! Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this?”
“Let me guess, too long?”
“Exactly.”
Before us, the game was about to start. The teams were suiting down and getting ready for tip off. I turned my head in the direction of the court.
“Alright,” I said. “Let’s see if she’s happy to see me then.”
Merit was making her way to her position, her hands in her hair as she tightened her ponytail and straightened her headband. I’d said it as a setup, thinking she wouldn’t notice me at all. The girl had the focus of a horse in a race. But even more perfect, she did notice me. Her gaze catching on me suddenly as if she felt somebody watching her.
And what did my sweet girl do? She turned her nose up, her eyes cutting into a suspicious glare before she flipped her hair in a dismissive motion as she retreated to her spot.
I outright laughed. Iris sulked by my side, apparently her theory proved wrong. Of course I knew Mer would have a similar reaction. When she played she liked to be focused, and judging by the wayshe was avoiding me, I must have been throwing her off. I knew she’d probably ignore me here until she got used to seeing me cheering for her. But that had worked out perfectly in my favor.
It wasn’t that I was trying to hide Merit. Just like with my parents, I didn’t care who knew what my intentions were. But for Merit’s sake, I wanted to make sure she was ready for all things before I plunged her into them. And big sister Iris was something that needed preparing for. As she already demonstrated with a goddamn fan page, she was not to be trusted with being cool. She would pounce on Mer the second anything was confirmed.
“Wow, I,” the sister in question grumbled as she crossed her arms over herself. “Didn’t know she hated you so much.”
This just made me laugh more.
The Dynamite weren’t playing a particularly great team, but they weren’t doing particularly well either. The score was closer than it should be and the Denver women were making mistakes that should have been reserved for the beginning of the season when they were still rusty, not near the center of it when they were supposed to be on their game.
Even still, Merit’s game had been picking up in recent matchups, and she was just as on tonight. Scoring the majority of the points on the board and playing most of the time like she always did. I worried about her body with her playing so hard, but I knew that wasn’t a topic to broach lightly with her, and it was not the time to be worrying about that anyway. Right now, they needed her in the game. And they were sort of playing like she was the only person on the court who could make baskets. Constantly passing it to her, their plays orchestrated to get the ball to her always. Which was fine, but it was also a lot of pressure to put on one person.
The tick in her jaw with every missed shot or even the ones she made said as much.
It was nearing the bottom of the second half and Merit was gassing. She’d played ninety percent of the minutes available to herand even though her body was trained to withstand a lot, she was starting to falter.
Which made her mad.
One right after the other, a series of unfortunate mistakes plagued the Mites. Two quick turnovers, a string of missed rebound opportunities, and a bullshit call for “traveling” by the worst ref in the city (seriously, I hated that guy), and Merit had officially popped her lid. Talking back to the ref and sneering as if she wanted to buck at him. Her teammates had to gather her and bring her back into their time out huddle. The one with the tattoos and the one with the Australian accent wrapping their arms around her and pulling her in.
“She’s pretty intense,” I heard Neil say warily as he watched on.
I stared at Mer as she sat in the huddle with a towel flipped over the back of her head and her hands clasped behind her neck while she heaved breath after breath. As the seconds ticked by, her breathing got steadier. There weren’t enough seconds in the timeout for her to catch it completely, but by the time she stood up again, she had a different look in her eyes.
Blinders.
Leaning back in my seat again, I stretched, saying, “Nah, she’s pretty nice when you talk to her. She just really loves basketball.”
“I thought you said you didn’t know her well,” Neil said, giving me a side eye.
“I know her better now,” I said as nonchalantly as I could. I could feel my sister's eyes on me, but I ignored her as I clapped for the players taking the court again.
They were up but not by much and the way this game was going, anything could turn the tide. Merit wasn’t going to let that happen though. Right off the whistle she executed an aggressive drive into the post, dropping the ball into the bucket after fighting to the top. Following that she pressured the opposing ball handler off an inbound pass, stealing the ball for an easy bucket. She tookcontrol, playing physical defense and making shots from the inside, shots from out—basically going off on a roll.
The energy she put off was electrifying and infectious. Knee bouncing, I watched every play with growing anticipation. She was incredible, focused, beautiful. And she was mine.
That magnificent woman out there didn’t think she belonged anywhere. That’s what she told herself. But deep inside, I already knew where she belonged. With me.
Another shot for Merit and the crowd was officially going crazy. Mer was calm though, focused, and I was focused on her.
