Page 55 of Broken Ties (Rixon High 4)

Sofia would have told me if I had. And I’d woken to a text message from Eli checking if I was okay, so I obviously hadn’t done anything to upset him.

God, Eli.

What must he have thought about the state of me last night?

We all piled into my dad’s car, and it wasn’t lost on me that Aaron made sure Sofia was sitting between us.

“All good?” Dad asked and the three of us mumbled a reply. I pressed my head against the cool glass, hoping it would abate some of the agony pulsing inside my skull.

“How’s the shoulder?”

“Sore,” Aaron answered my dad.

“You’re lucky it wasn’t your cuff.”

“Yeah. I’ll be good to play next game.”

“We’ll see. If I think for a second you’re not ready—”

“Coach, come on. I need to be on the field.”

“This isn’t the time or place,” Dad warned.

“Fine.”

I’d never heard Aaron so desperate before. Not like this. He was putting too much pressure on himself. There had been a time I might have tried to talk to him about it, but I didn’t know the rules anymore.

I’d woken up with him as good as holding me, and he clearly wasn’t going to talk about that, so maybe we couldn’t talk about anything important anymore.

Because he doesn’t want you like that.

Heavy silence fell over us, and no one spoke again until we rolled up outside the Bennets’ house.

“Sofe, let’s go,” Aaron said, gently shaking her.

She bolted upright. “W-what?”

“Come on, we’re home.”

“We are?” She let out a big yawn. “Thanks for the ride, Mr. Ford.” Her heavy gaze flicked to mine. “Text you later.”

I nodded, watching as Aaron climbed out.

“Thanks, Coach.”

He didn’t look back. Didn’t so much as look at me.

I closed my eyes, the slam of the door making me flinch. Dad hesitated, exhaling a heavy breath, his disappointment swirling around him.

“Do we need to talk about this?” he asked.

“Come on, Dad, it was one party. That you agreed we could go to by the way.”

“Yeah, Pops because I didn’t think you were going to get wasted.” He caught my eye in the rearview mirror.

“It was one time…”

“Yeah,” he heaved a deep breath. “And I don’t want it to become two or three or four.”

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