Page 86 of Good Vibes Only
“Nothing, nothing,” I demurred.
I wanted to tell Dakota about McKayla and me in private, not in front of the boys, just in case we had some beef that needed to be squashed.
“Nothing? You sure?” Connor said. “Because you walked out of that elevator looking like you just scored the double OT winner in Game 7.”
The boys laughed as we boarded the bus one by one.
I lied to get them off my back. “Just some good news about BarDown, that’s all.”
They bought it. But I didn’t want this thing to drag out. I wanted to let the cat out of the bag ASAP.
I sat next to Dak. With everyone aboard, the bus started rolling, and I made my move.
“Hey, Dak,” I said, tapping him on the shoulder. “Remember when we were talking about McKayla the other day?”
“Yeah. What about her?” he said suspiciously.
“I got a question for you.” I took a deep breath. “Were you serious when you said you wouldn’t be mad if something was going on between us?”
He turned and stared out the window, watching the streets of St. Louis.
“I dunno,” he murmured at last, sounding moody. “Something likewhat?”
“Well, you know we’ve been talking and hanging out—”
I paused. There wasn’t any easy way of saying this—better to just rip the bandage off and get it over with.
“Bro, I’m just gonna come out and say it. I like her. And she likes me. And I want you to know that I asked her to be my girlfriend.”
“What?” His startled eyes widened. “When?”
“This morning. Just a few minutes ago, actually.”
He scoffed. “Wait, didn’t you twojustmeet? Like a few days ago?”
“Pretty much, yeah.” I drew a sharp breath, realizing how crazy this sounded. “But I really dig her, dude. She’s a cool fucking chick. I’m honestly kinda crazy about her, Dak. But I don’t want this to be a problem between us, because I know you two had some history back in the day.”
He stared at me, long and hard, looking like he wanted to take a swing at me.
“Tell me what you’re thinking, brother,” I said.
“I won’t lie.” His jaw worked back and forth as he carefully chose his words. “There’s a part of me that’s pissed. Like I wanna get loud and say you can’t date her, out of respect to our friendship and to the team.”
Fuck.That was bad. If that’s how he felt, I’d either have to break it off with McKayla—which simply wasn’t on the table—or one of us would have to get traded.
Thankfully, he relented. “But there’s another part of me that knows I’m just being a vindictive shithead. Like, ‘if I can’t have her, nobody can,’ kind of thing. Which is super fucking lame and not fair to you. Or to her.”
“Takes a big man to admit that, Dak,” I said. “I respect you for saying that.”
“I need you to know something else.” He hung his head guiltily. “When I called her a gold digger and a tease and all that bullshit, I was just lashing out. I want you to know I don’t really believe that about her.”
“Lashing out? Why?”
“Because I saw you two kissing at your party.”
That was news to me.
“Oh, shit. I’m sorry, Dak.”
