Page 60 of Go Deep (A Bad Boy Sports Romance)
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Cassidy
The day after our pitch, we were back to our usual swing on the Slade pendulum. I made it to practice and he wasn’t talking to me again. It seemed like every time we had even a touch of closeness, Slade would avoid me afterward. He was nothing if not consistent.
I went through our routines with the other cheerleaders, and when they took a break to watch the football players practice, I stood there acting a little resentful. We were going all out with our practice as we had to look our best for the SECs, so there wasn’t much downtime at all. It was in those moments that we got the reminder that it was best for us not to distract from the real reason we were all there—football.
During one of the few breaks we had, Miranda came by, looking really nervous.
“Hey,” I said cautiously. “What’s wrong?”
“Not much. Everything okay with you?”
“Slade’s acting strange with me again. I have no idea what I said or did.”
Miranda shrugged. “Slade is just being himself. The usual… hey, I’ve got something to tell you, and I don’t want you to get mad.”
That was never a good way to start a conversation. I gave her a cautious look. “You’re scaring me, but okay. Tell me everything.”
She took a breath and then blurted out, “I’ve been talking to Shawn.”
I took a second, but then smiled, remembering how well they had hit it off over Thanksgiving. Then I put two and two together. “So you’re talking, or are you like,talking?”
She was already blushing so I took that to mean they’d been getting to know each other, probably romantically.
She nodded. “Yes…we’ve been talking and texting a lot…we actually had a few really long talks while you were hiding out from everyone over the weekend after the blow-out.”
Shawn and Miranda? Hmmm. I liked it already, knowing that Shawn was a really sweet guy, and Miranda had found someone who shared some of her same interests. The people we knew who weren’t doing the same major would treat her like some kind of freak, and that was before she opened her mouth. Once she started talking about local legends, they’d get that look in their eyes, like at any time they could break out the torches and pitchforks.
“That’s great, hun! Shawn may be pissed at me right now, but he’s a great guy.”
“Thanks. I’m so relieved to hear you say that…um, so, there’s more.”
“Oh?”
“We’ve been talking about getting together when he’s back here for Christmas break. And by that I mean maybe going out for a couple of dates. I just wanted to talk to you about it first before I told him yes.”
I smiled. This was so sweet, probably the best thing I’d heard all day. It was so flattering that she needed my blessing to go on a date with Shawn. “Miranda, love. You don’t need my permission. I’m thrilled you two are hitting it off. Just promise me you won’t hurt him, and if he ever talks to me again I’ll tell him the same for you.”
She grabbed me and wrapped her arms around me. “Gosh. Thanks hun! I’ll tell him.” After a second, she pulled away and ran over to her bag. Her phone came out in a hurry. Wow, she was really excited about this.
The team captain called us all to end the game, and we were back to it. After practice, as the boys were coming off the field, I tried to catch up with Slade. It was the perfect opportunity. I could corner him in person instead of having to wait for him to answer his phone.
“Slade,” I called to him.
He nodded at me. “What’s up, Cassidy?”
“You got a minute?”
“Not really,” he said, just before a handful of groupies swarmed him and pulled him away with the guys toward the locker room. “I’ll call you, okay?”
“Sure,” I said to no one in particular as he left.
“Hey, are you coming to the party?” Miranda asked.
“They’re partying tonight?”
“You know what it’s like this week. They’ll be going wild on a booze binge until Thursday night, then chill all day Friday until the SEC game is done. You should come.”
