Page 49 of What Are the Chances
As Riley edged through the door, she tugged at the hem of her black dress, which was far too short for a public club in my opinion. I’m not sure who she was wearing it for. Not Tanner Holbeck, clearly.
She said she wasn’t seeing anyone. I believed her. But maybe he didn’t. Maybe he was holding a candle for her or something. I couldn’t blame him. Three years later, and I clearly still was.
“Who are you texting?” I asked Ryan.
I feared for his phone. He was seductively sneering at it, his tongue poking through his parted lips.
“Parker. I’m going to bail soon and head to the party she’s at.” He picked up his vodka, taking a long sip. “Wanna come and wingman me? She’s with a friend, not Riley this time.”
It was a hard pass. Not only because I didn’t want it getting back to Riley that I’d been hitting on Parker’s friend, but because I didn’t want to hit on anybody else. Period.
I just wanted the girl who didn’t want me.
“I’m good here.”
I took a long pull of the drink Tripp had poured me. It was fucking strong and stung going down.
Levi nudged me. “Where were you just now?”
“Nowhere.”
I didn’t like lying to my best friend, but I wasn’t in the mood for one of his knowing lectures. My inner thoughts were already chatty enough. I didn’t need Levi’s opinion too.
“Your breakaway goal was epic tonight,” Tripp said, grinning.
“Did you see the bagging Tanner Holbeck got from his coach for it?” Ryan snickered.
At that point I hadn’t been paying Tanner much attention, but I sure would be at our next game against Allentown, which was three weeks away. On their turf this time though.
Levi reached for the vodka. “The dude was on your ass all game.”
Earlier I hadn’t understood why. Now I had a better idea. If something was happening or had happened with him and Riley, he likely knew about my history with her. He was territorial. I got it. But spoiler alert, so was I.
I shrugged it off. “His mistake. We got the win.”
“Can’t believe the guy didn’t declare,” Ryan whistled.
At the time of the draft I hadn’t known a whole lot about Tanner Holbeck. We were both in our freshman year, so had only come up against each other a couple of times by that point. Though once he built a name for himself, I’d wondered the same thing myself. Even now he could pick a club if he showed interest. Like Levi he had a natural type of talent that didn’t come from practice. Some guys were just born to be a step above the rest.
Tripp centred four shot glasses on the table. As he poured them, Ryan whipped out his phone. The guy had been snapping content all night for his next TikTok.
A raucous laugh came from the rest of the guys when Hilly, a freshman on the team, grumbled before downing the rest of his drink. Levi gestured to the chaos with a nod.
“What’s that about?” he asked Morrison.
“Lost a bet with Maxwell about picking up the hot blonde at the bar.”
Tripp and Ryan craned their heads towards the bar, eyeing the blonde, while Levi and I lost interest. Man, this was proof that Riley was already ruining me.
I willingly accepted the shot Tripp slid my way. He was adamant about making tonight big and it wasn’t worth arguing with him.
“Are you seeing Riley Dover?” Morrison asked me, dragging his fingers through his dark hair.
The question threw me. “What?”
Like me, Morrison had a partialness towards ink. Though both of his arms were entirely covered, as well as his torso and part of his right calf. It helped that the guy was creative as hell. He was majoring in design and had somehow worked tattoo art into his curriculum. He’d designed each of the tattoos on his body, as well as my most recent ones.
The team had agreed that if we went back-to-back this year he could design a championship tattoo that we’d all get. Ryan was even willing to lose his clean-cut look for the sake of team spirit.
