Page 49 of Stick It
“Sure, but those assholes—” He points with his thumb over his shoulder in the vague direction of the away team’s locker room. “—had it out foryou. They were going after you hard out there.” He studies me, those astute eyes seeing more than I want him to. More than I’m ready for. “Pretty clear you and your old team don’t get along.”
I shrug, avoiding his gaze. “It’s old news.”
“Didn’t look like it.”
My eyes snap to his, and I swallow. “Lucas is…he has no power over me anymore.”
I’m not sure whether I’m saying those words for Jax or myself, but there’s something empowering about saying that out loud. I’m no longer in Lucas’s orbit, beneath his thumb, at his college, or on his team.
He can say what he wants, but the truth is…I’m free of him.
Jax’s penetrating stare holds me captive. I could swear he understands more than what I’m saying. Can dig deeper than anyone has cared to look before.
There’s something so bold and strangely comforting about it. About the fact that hecaresto look deeper, even if I don’tunderstand why. However, it also makes me feel naked, exposed in a way that has me shuffling my feet.
“The team’s heading out to drown their sorrows. You going?”
“Ha, no.” I shake my head. “I’d rather paint my nails pink and watch theBarbiemovie on repeat than suffer Kyle’s shitty mood after tonight’s game.”
“Not a girly girl?” he teases. “Huh, I’d never have known.”
I laugh. We both know that, with my nails bitten to the quick, my love of Converse and sweats, and hair that is either scraped back from my face or hanging limply around my face after a shower because I’m too lazy to dry it, I’m the furthest thing from a girly girl.
Jax grins, the action changing his entire face. It leaves me momentarily stunned. He’s like a dark prince, all stoic, radiating silent danger, but when he smiles like that…wow.It catches on the faint scar on his cheek, and I have the sudden urge to trace it with my finger. To feel the sliced edge beneath my tongue.
Wait,what?
Where the hell did that come from?
Jax is hot, but he’s myteammate.
More than that, he’s myroommate.
I’ve been burned once by crossing that line with someone on the same team as me.
I’m not dumb enough to make the same mistake twice.
Not when the first time is still cornering me in hallways and threatening to take the only thing I have left.
“I’ll walk you home.”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” I stammer. God, I can feel the heat in my cheeks.Get it together, Dylan!“Go out with the team. I’m perfectly capable of walking myself home.”
He smirks, and God, why do I get the sense that he can seehow flustered he’s making me? If the ground could just swallow me up now, that would be great, thanks.
“I’m actually heading back to the house, too.”
“Drowning your sorrows in a bottle of beer not your thing?” I tease.
The corner of his lip lifts slightly. “Not in a crowded bar where every Tom, Dick, and Harry wants their photo taken with us.”
“You mean every Tomilina, Dictoria, and Henrietta,” I retort with a smirk.
“Ha.”
I bend to retrieve my bag from where it fell, but he beats me to it, slinging it onto his back. A folded-up piece of paper flutters out of the netting at the side. Frowning, I reach for it, unsure what it is as I open it.
You were fucking fearless out there. Unstoppable.
