14
KEELY
Shit, shit, shit, SHIT. That was all I could think the whole time I marched out of the stadium. Out of all the people, all the stupid mistakes I could have made, it had to be with them? What kind of cruel trick was the universe playing on me? I looked up to the sky, but there was only concrete above me. Concrete on all sides of me, ringing with distant sound that I wasn’t paying any attention to.
“Hey! Hey!” The words finally formed into something I recognized and halted the litany of curse words in my head. I stopped, and turned to the sound of hurried footsteps and jangling.
“You can’t be down here. Do you have a pass?” the security guard asked, his eyes darting around me nervously.
“I’m just leaving,” I said, my voice still shaking. Did I really just kick Ryder Elliott in the dick?
Shit.
“I’m gonna need to see some ID,” he said, still shifting on his feet.
I narrowed my eyes. “Look, dude, I really don’t have time for this, I’m just—”
“I said I’m going to need to see some ID,” he said, pulling out a taser from his hip, aiming it at me with shaking hands.
“Whoa, calm down,” I said, my hands up where he could see them, backing up slowly.
“Stay where you are!”
“You’re kind of freaking me out, dude, sorry if I want to back away.”
His eyes didn’t move from my hands and I could see sweat forming on his forehead. I didn’t know what the hell was going on, but I had a bad feeling I was about to be tasered in an underground tunnel of a college football stadium.
“I was just here to visit my brother. Kingston Rivers, you know him?” I asked, my voice soft and cajoling. “My name’s Keely Rivers and I’ll get my ID out to show you, but you have to promise you’re not going to tase me as soon as I move, okay?”
Sweat dripped down the side of his head and he looked down at my feet, his grip on the taser tightening before he looked back up to my face, eyebrows scrunched together. You could tell he didn’t do this often, or possibly that he had never done this before. Probably just a freshman trying to make some extra money and following his security instructions. As much as I hated the predicament I was in, I stopped to feel a little bad for the kid.
I sighed. “Come on, dude, I don’t have all day. I’m not here to cause any trouble—” pay no attention to how I just kicked your quarterback in the balls “—I just came to see my brother and now I’m leaving. He told me it wouldn’t be a big deal.” At least that part was true.
Finally, the security guard lowered the taser and nodded his head at me. I pulled out my phone, the case doubled as a wallet, and produced my ID for him.
“See? Can I just go now?”
He looked at it closely, turning it over in his hand, and I could hear someone else coming up the tunnel. I didn’t know who it was, but I knew if anyone was coming after me, I didn’t want to deal with them.
“All right,” he finally said, handing my ID back to me. “But don’t let me catch you here again. Only players, staff, and people with passes allowed, understand?”
I held up my hands. “You don’t have to tell me twice. You’ll never see me around here again,” I swore. And I meant it. I had no reason to ever come back to the Colgate stadium after that debacle. If I had any sense left in me, I’d probably be trying to find a way out of Hamilton altogether, but I couldn’t afford to move again, not after the deposits on the new place.
I’d have to tough it out.
The guard gave me a nod and swiped the back of his hand across his forehead, letting out a little sigh.
Once I had the all clear from the security guy, I wasted no time in hustling to my car and speeding off. I didn’t want to wait for Kingston. I didn’t want to hear what he had to say. I’d find someone else to move my furniture or just pay the damn fee. It was worth it to not have to face him after today.
As I drove, I kept replaying the scene over and over in my head, those two taking their helmets off, my whole world narrowing in on that point where I couldn’t look away from them and all the blood drained right out of me. My mouth had gone dry and my panties wet at the same time and I hated my body for the way it reacted, but I couldn’t deny that the memories were good.
Except that knowing who they were kind of put a whole damper on those memories. I’d heard plenty of stories from Kingston about his friends and how they called themselves the three musketeers. I knew how important they were to him and I’d just gone and fucked both of them.
Jesus, I couldn’t believe I’d done something so crazy and reckless, but even as my face warmed with embarrassment, I was thinking about doing it all over again and knowing I wouldn’t even say no now.
What the hell was wrong with me?
I needed to clear my head. I needed to get some fresh air and solitude and stop thinking about the two hotties that rocked my world and left me desperate for more.
Ugh, I wasn’t helping anything thinking of them in those terms. What was wrong with me? I never got all worked up like this. I never obsessed like this. And certainly not about two guys.
Oh God, what was Kingston going to think of me? I knew how guys were. They probably told him the story of their tag-team conquest before they knew who I was. Shit. It wasn’t going to be hard to connect the dots now.
I wondered if my big brother would ever look at me the same again.
But even as I wondered that, I couldn’t help but think I didn’t really care. It had been worth it.
My mind was racing a million miles a second and I knew the only way to slow it down was to give it something else to bitch about.
That was why I liked running. Not because I found it exhilarating or cathartic or any of that other happy bullshit. I liked running because it hurt. Because I felt miserable and my lungs burned and my muscles hurt and I just wanted to collapse and lay there and catch my breath for hours on end.
That was why I liked it. Even though it would probably sound absolutely insane to anyone else. I liked it because the misery of running drowned out anything else that was bothering me. Sometimes it was like slamming your hand in the car door to forget about a splinter, but it always worked. And this was one hell of a splinter.
I saw the signs for the park and made up my mind before I could question the decision. Running wasn’t going to fix my problems or make them go away for good, but it would distract me for a little while and that’s what I needed.
I was already dressed for moving, and I figured my shorts and sneakers were good enough. I needed to move. I needed to just get going. To try and outrun all the confusion and emotions welling up in a huge tidal wave behind me.
So I jogged away from the car, locking it behind me, focusing on the trees and the breeze and the sounds of kids squealing on the playground.
And all through my warm-up, my thoughts kept drifting back to him. Mason, I guess, going by Kingston’s introduction.
Ever since he swooped in as my knight in shining armor at the party, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him. About his comforting smile, his gentle soothing touch, the way he made me feel safe and taken care of despite hardly knowing me at all. Part of me was really excited to know who he was and to have a way to find him again, but then again, he was Kingston’s friend and that made things a lot more complicated.
But it wasn’t just Mason I was thinking about, and that was way more surprising. Because Ryder kept appearing in my fantasies too, as much as I wanted to hate him for not telling me he was the wrong guy, I couldn’t actually blame him. He had no way of knowing I didn’t know what I was doing. And from my memories, I seemed to know exactly what I was doing.
Kicking him had been a knee-jerk reaction — literally — and I almost instantly felt guilty about it, but I didn’t really know the protocol for getting past something like that. I didn’t know if you could get past something like that.
Maybe I fucked everything up before it even had a chance to get started.
Then again, maybe that was for the best.
Like I said, I’d heard my fair share of stories about the three musketeers and their antics. And I knew that Ryder was kind of a manwhore. King had story after story about how Ryder picked up some poor bewildered girl and disposed of her before she knew which way was up.
Not that I thought those girls didn’t love every minute of it, but that wasn’t me. I wasn’t one of those girls. Even if I had acted like it that night at the party. I didn’t want wild and crazy flings that lasted a minute and fizzled out before anything deeper could take root. I was ready to get serious, to settle down, and maybe to start a family. That didn’t really seem like what the partying musketeers were after.
Almost like my thoughts of him conjured him from thin air, I spotted Ryder behind some bushes, acting strange.
I slowed and swallowed thickly, a dry lump forming in my throat.
Well, now’s your chance, Keels, I told myself. If I wanted to know if there was a way to move past what had already happened, now was the time to find out.
I waved at him, making sure to catch his eye.
Ryder’s eyes went wide and he threw his shirt over his head, covering his groin protectively. It was an exaggerated pantomime for my benefit and it totally worked, making me laugh and shake my head.
“I’m sorry,” I said, trying to stop myself from laughing. “I don’t know what came over me. You always seem to catch me by surprise.” Like when I woke up and it was him next to me and not Mason. Or when he took his helmet off and I realized he was my brother’s best friend.
So what was going to happen next? Did he also secretly have an identical twin to surprise me with?
Before I could think of the implications of that, Ryder grinned at me and my heart skipped a little faster. God he was gorgeous. Chiseled and rough in this perfect all-American way that made my knees weak just looking at him.
“It’s okay. I’ve definitely woken up from a drunk night to an unpleasant surprise in the morning.”
My face heated up ten shades of red. “I wouldn’t say you were exactly an unpleasant surprise. Just… a surprise. I don’t handle them well.”
“Noted,” he said, nodding, a twinkle in his eyes that I couldn’t quite place.
“What were you doing back there? And why are your shoes off?”
“I was going to go for a run, but talking to you is better.”
“People usually run with shoes on.”
“Not bears.”
Suddenly, I was overcome. I couldn’t resist it. “Let me make it up to you. Come over to my place for a drink.”
His smile grew wider and I swear I could feel my arousal gathering and dampening my panties.
“I’d love that,” he said, my stomach leaping into my throat.
“Great,” I squeaked. What the hell had I just gotten myself into?