Page 58 of Comeback
“Greer’s a riot.”
“Clearly.”
She stares at me like she’s waiting for an explanation on why I’m here, but I’m not ready to jump into it yet. When I say what I came here to say, things will be different.
“You’ve made some more progress.” I glance around as I walk farther into the studio. The floors are still dusty, but the lights are working and several cans of paint are stacked against one wall.
“Yeah. It’s coming along.” She stares at me until my skin pricks with unease. Damn. I’d really rather just kiss her again.
“What are you doing here, Archer?” she asks finally.
One side of my mouth pulls up at the sass in her tone, but as I face her and prepare to say the words, my lips fall back into a straight line.
“About last night,” I start and then run a hand along my jaw. Fuck. I should have gone with a text. Looking at her makes this harder. It makes me harder. Dammit. No. Focus, man.
She must sense where I’m going because her body language stiffens.
“It can’t happen again.”
“I see,” she says.
“You’re his sister. I can’t risk making this awkward or worse, doing something that would have you not wanting to be around at all. He’d never forgive me and frankly I’d never forgive myself. He needs you.”
“I’m not a teenage girl who’s going to hold a grudge if things don’t work out,” she says.
“I know. This isn’t about you. That little girl is right. I’m the dummy.”
She finally smiles at that.
“I just…can’t risk it.”
She nods slowly. There’s this small part of me that hoped she’d fight me on it, but she doesn’t, and the realization that this won’t ever happen makes something like disappointment settle like a rock in my gut.
“Thank you for being such a good friend to him.”
“He’s the best friend I’ve ever had.”
“So…friends?”
I huff another short laugh. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
She steps forward. Her red hair is pulled up into a ponytail and the end falls over one shoulder. Sabrina holds out her palm and I slide mine into it. Electricity zips up my arm and tingles through the rest of my body. I hold on longer than I should as herfriend.
“One more thing,” I say, voice sounding like I chewed gravel. “The thing you told me about your mom.”
“I’m sorry I dropped that on you last night.” She scrunches up her face as she takes her hand back.
“No. I’m glad you told me. Really. I’ve been through that. I was younger and things were different, but I get it. I’m the one that should be sorry. I guess I wanted you to be a flake and a scam artist because that would make all this a lot easier.”
A small smile curves her lips.
“It’d sure as hell make it easier to stop thinking about kissing you.”
We stare at each other another beat before I manage to stop lusting after a woman I can’t have.
“Anyway.” I clear my throat. “When you’re ready, I think you should tell Brogan. In all the time we’ve been friends, he’s never let me down. He won’t let you down either. I promise.”
The rest of the week goes by faster than it should, considering all my free time is spent thinking about Sabrina. I guess lucky for me there isn’t a lot of free time. I let practice and workouts leading up to our Sunday game consume me. We get on the team plane Saturday late morning and I fall into my seat next to Brogan.
