Page 57 of Let It Be Me
I don’t know what it’s like to have siblings. I have teammates who I consider family. But we’re obligated to get along with each other. It keeps the chemistry of the team peaceful.
“Do you have siblings?” I ask when Kamryn goes over to her sister and Mason takes a seat next to me. I’m still pinching myself that the invisible strings have been able to put me in this legends vicinity.
He nods. “Yeah. Two brothers and a sister. They’re still in college so it’s a bit of an age gap between us. What about you?”
“Just me,” I say. “Which I guess is why Sarah and I get along so well.”
“Gotta say, I did not see you two coming.”
“Why is that?” I ask but don’t take offense to it.
“She’s a lion. She’s loud in a good way, protective, and loyal. She stands up for those she loves. It’s one of the reasons Kam and I asked her to officiate our wedding.”
I turn to Mason. “You did?”
“She didn’t tell you?”
I shake my head. Was she asked before or after we said to hell with fake dating? Maybe with her migraine she forgot. It’s possible so I try not to let it get to me.
Mason and I talk while the girls console Jax. Emily and Adam left as soon as they could. And who knows where the guys went. The girls stand up with Kamryn’s arm around her sister's shoulders. Shielding her in the way I can only assume a big sister would.
Sarah walks over to me and stands between my spread legs. I loop my arm around her waist and look up at her. “Is she okay?”
“I think so,” she tells me as I stand up and we all walk towards the entrance.
We garner a lot of looks. What with Mason being as tall as he is and me fresh off a game. We nod to some people, too impatient to say hi but not too rude to ignore them.
When we’re outside, I pull out my phone to order a car and I see Mason doing the same. Sarah burrows into my body when the wind swoops down between the buildings. Thankfully we don’t have to wait long before the cars are pulling up. The girls do their goodbyes and Mason and I do our man shake before we file into our respective vehicles.
“Is everything okay with Jax?” I ask as the driver pulls into the road.
“I don’t know,” Sarah says. “I think she’s so used to his behavior that she doesn’t know anything else.”
“How long have they been together?”
“About three years.”
“And he treats her like that?”
“He’s her first true boyfriend,” Sarah states. “I think she’s always been a little self-conscious and guarded. But he was weirdly the first guy to say all the right words.”
“Well, you’re my first true girlfriend and you don’t see me acting like him.”
“That’s because Momma would spank you into next year if she found out you acted like him towards any woman.”
I snort. “True.”
When the car pulls up to my complex a few minutes later, I drag a sleepy Sarah out and towards the elevator bank.
“Can I tell you a secret?” I whisper when the elevator whisks us up to my floor.
“Yeah,” she speaks into my chest.
I wrap my arms tighter around her and kiss the top of her head. “I like you a lot.”
She wraps her arms tighter around me. “I like you a lot too, baby.”
The elevator opens on my floor and when we’re inside, I push Sarah to the bedroom as I go to feed the girls a small snack before turning the lights off and closing the door to our room. It’s funny how now I think of my place as our place. Are we going fast? Maybe? But I have no other relationship to compare us to. Which, as I think about it, is a good thing. This relationship is ours and ours alone.
