Page 261 of Steeling Her
“Would you say that to Haley?” Chris teases, connecting the dots.
TJ springs up his middle finger in response.
“Thought so,” Chris teases again. “You mind if I train here?” Chris pats me to switch with him. I spot for him as he lifts.
“Sure.” It’s taken some time for Chris to get used to me, but we’re getting there. It’s always the three of us and the three girls. We’re an unlikely trio but it works.
“Speaking of sisters,” Perez begins and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the idiot’s voice, “was that your sister in that suit the other day, Chris?” Perez smirks at Chris, who won’t bite but I most certainly will.
Hasn’t he learned his lesson?
“Don’t go there, Perez.” Chris grunts as he lifts and drops the bar with ease, not letting Perez distract him from the workout. I, however, am about to take the bar from Chris and swing it at Perez’s face if he says another word about Carter.
“What?” he teases for a reaction. “I’m just saying, you’re sister is hot, man—”
“You’re not her type,” he says in a cutting tone which is very unlike Chris. I know Perez is itching for a fight. He’s a smug asshole that thinks he’s entitled to every girl he sees.
“Still, a guy can try. She workout? She was in here for the interview for the new physical therapist position, right? Where does she work? Maybe I’ll pay her visit, my inner thigh is very painful these—”
I see red and go for him. I grab him by his shirt and clench it in both of my hands. I slam him against the wall, knocking the wind out of him and hitting the back of his head, making him a little dazed by the move. A rush of teammates join us to tear him away from me, but I’m too much in the zone. “Have some fucking manners talking about women, you fucking asshole!” I roar at him only for his eyes to widen.
The beast has arrived.
The side of me that I hate but have come to accept.
“Run your goddamn mouth, Perez, I fucking dare you!” I growl. “If I ever hear her name come out of your mouth or if you speak about her like that, I will send you through the fucking wall, you got that?” The pain I’ve pushed down for so many years has come out to play today. “I said, you got that!” I yell, making him flinch in my hands and under my heated stare.
I’m pretty sure he can see the flames in my eyes.
“Nick, take it easy!” Chris manages to pull me off of him eventually but I nearly swing for him again. TJ catches my fist before it manages to hurt anyone. “Walk it off, Nick.” Chris pushes me to the other side of the room. “And you”—he points at Perez—“don’t talk about my sister like that or you won’t just be dealing with him.” He nods in my direction as I feel my heart race. My chest rises and falls out of pure anger. Chris is the opposite of me right now. He’s calm while I’m . . . not.
It’s like Averman all over again.
“Fucking dickhead,” Perez mutters while maintaining eye contact with me. I launch myself at him once more only to be blocked by Chris and TJ. They put their body weight on me as they push me against the wall.
“Get out of here!” Chris points for him to leave. Perez is stubborn and stays where he is, not listening to a word anyone is saying.
“You fucking go near her, I’m coming after you Perez,” I bark but TJ places a hand over my mouth to shut me up.
“Whatever, she’s not even worth it,” he says and I feel Chris release his weight off me, like something ticked in his mind.
“Not worth it?” he asks out loud, his words laced with disbelief. “The only fucking person who isn’t worth it is you, kid.” As Chris gets closer to Perez, his eyes widen in fear because it’s Chris; he is one of the nicest guys on the team. He hardly fights with anyone because he’s having so much fun. “Keep talking and you’ll wind yourself in the hospital bed shitting out of a tube due to the coma I’ll put you in.
“Never speak about my sister like you deserve to have her, because you don’t. She’s not an object that you can throw to the side when you’re done. She’s my sister, my younger sister, who would slap the goddamn manners back into you. Say one more thing about her and you’ll be dealing with a different version of me, Perez.”
We all pause to see if he’s brave enough to push Chris. Nobody has ever seen this side of him before. “I thought so. If you ever speak about a woman being ‘not worth it’ because they’ve rejected you, you can think again. I never want to hear you speaking about any girl like that. It’s fucking disgusting, and when you have your own daughter, you’ll soon realize the way you speak about a woman is highly demeaning and derogatory. This goes for some of you too! Fix your attitudes and your mouths, now!” Chris cracked too. We all were not expecting it, hence the complete silence.
The silence was later interrupted by the coaching staff arriving back from their meeting. They burst through the door, not knowing what’s going on, and once they see us all together in a crowd, they slowly walk over to us.
“What the hell is going on?” Kevin, the coach for the running back players, exclaims. “TJ, get off him!” He waves his clipboard for TJ to remove himself off of me. “Well?” he asks once more but nobody speaks a single word. Instead, my eyes wander back to Perez. I watch him as he watches me. With my most threatening stare, I notice he’s on edge too. He’s outnumbered by the most respected players in the game.
“Nothing, I’m going to do field work,” he huffs and leaves with the entire staff staring at his retreating frame.
He’s young, stupid, and gets on my nerves.
“Alright, alright! Everyone, get back to work! Come on, we have an important game coming up this weekend!” The head coach claps to get people moving again. He read the tension in the room quite easily and diffused it.
To say I wanted to ram my body into Perez on purpose throughout the training session on the field is the biggest understatement of the century, but the wise words of Chris Steel to “let it go” told me to back off. He would warn me to not bother with it all. Holding grudges only adds to the weight on your shoulders. You have to move on so you can move upwards in life.
