Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 140742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
The game starts and I tune out the crowd, focus on my teammates, and work on getting the ball away from my opponents and into the basket. At the half, our coaches and trainers check in with me and give me the option to sit out, but I laugh.
“Uh-uh. Cassi’s getting her triple-double tonight,” I say, winking at my coach.
“Or maybe you are,” Aaliyah quips.
“Somebody on this team is,” I say with confidence, even though unless I turn into a superhero out there, I know it won’t be me.
Livie laughs and pats my back. “She’s back.”
“We’ve been up fifteen all game, but you know they like to come out strong in the second half so we can’t take our foot off the gas,” Coach Ogu says.
“Stay on Buck,” I tell Cassie and look at Livie. “Keep applying pressure on Gianna. She chokes at the corner.”
“I’ll try to keep Elaine away from you,” Aaliyah says.
“We got this.” I finish the rest of my water and we all stand up, huddle, and disperse.
“Yo, did you see your boyfriend’s post?” Cassie asks me as she changes her sneakers.
“You follow Finn?” I ask, laughing, and take the phone she’s handing me. I frown when I click it. “There’s nothing here.”
She takes the phone back and frowns at the screen. “Weird. He must have deleted it.”
“What was it?”
“Just you.”
“Okay…” I say, and when she doesn’t expand on that, I go back to what I was doing.
I walk by my family on my way back to our bench and freeze when I see Finn, Damian, Lachlan, and Will sitting there. They’ve all rearranged seats, so Finn is courtside, sitting where Lyla was before, and she’s in the row behind with her husband. Theo’s still sitting courtside between Damian and Finn—who’s wearing my jersey. His eyes light up with mischief when he sees the shock on my face. Now I can say I fully understand how he feels when he sees me wearing his jersey.
Somehow, despite being acutely aware of his presence, I manage to have an amazing rest of the game. When we finish, I shower quickly and change before walking back out.
68
FINN
A FEW MONTHS LATER (MARCH)
The atmosphere at our home games is always electric, but it’s intense now that we’re in the finals. Not many thought we would be, since we’re a brand new team. But with the players, the coaching staff, and the solid ownership, the Owls have a shot at winning the Cup. I sit down and start stretching next to Damian.
“Have you seen Josie?” I ask.
Dame snorts a laugh. “I can’t believe she lets you call her that.”
I ignore him. “Lach told her to stay in the box since Lyla’s coming later with Theo, but Joss told him she was going to sit in the stands.”
“I heard.”
I look at him mid-stretch. “You knew?”
“Maybe,” he says, rotating his hip and sinking into the stretch as he laughs. “I don’t know why it matters whether she sits up there or down here.”
“Was she able to get a seat for Tamara?” I ask.
Even though Josslyn loves Tamara, she’s still uncomfortable with having a security detail.
“I’m sure she did. She knows you’d be distracted if you saw her there without security,” Dame says.
Some of the anxiety building in my chest loosens. He makes a good point. Josslyn is aware of my paranoia and understands how important it is to be in the zone during a game.
“I just saw Joss,” Hammie says as he skates up to us.
The look on his face makes my eyes narrow. I stop stretching. “Where is she and why do you look like that?”
“Luke and Ella are there, and she brought like half the basketball team. Women and men,” he says and laughs at the look on my face. “They mic’d up Tiago and some other guy.”
“Lovely,” I mutter and stand up.
With the amount of times Tiago and the other guys on the team have talked about coming to an Owls game, I should’ve known they’d be here. Both Fairview teams are deep into March Madness, but they have a couple of days of rest before they go off to play their next games. Not being able to support each other at games is my only gripe about us both being athletes and our schedules coinciding.
I start skating to the other side of the ice and notice them right away. Ham wasn’t kidding. They take up the entire section. As I skate, I nearly trip, and do a double and then a triple-take when I see Josslyn. It’s not her that makes me falter though. It’s the person sitting beside her that makes me nearly keel over. I skate up to them and she smiles brightly as she stands in front of me. The man next to her stands as well.
“Surprised?” he asks, smiling like this is a normal occurrence.