Luc
Seeing Kassie last night had put Luc in a fog all morning. He was slow in practice, got yelled at by Coach, who assumed he was hungover, which lead to his being forced to do laps. But taking the punishment for his faux hangover was better than admitting in front of Kaden that he was really just feeling the aftereffects of seeing Kassie O’Conner. She was on his mind all night, keeping him awake.
Now back in his townhouse, all Luc wanted to do was take a nap. Lying down on the couch with the television on for background noise, his brain relaxed. Unfortunately, it drifted right back to Kassie, and the way she had moved at the club the other night. He only hoped that she knew what she was doing and wasn’t as drunk as she was letting on, because he enjoyed all of it. Every bump and grind, every contact her body had with his.
He didn’t want to be attracted to her. She was Kaden’s sister. The guys didn’t mess with a friend’s or a teammate’s sister. Everybody knew that. It was an unspoken rule, and something he obeyed all these years.
Until Kassie O’Conner.
She had sass and spunk, yet was total class. Her body was tight in every place that it counted, and he loved watching her move. Last night, the way her shirt was tied, her midriff was showing. All he wanted to do was reach out and slide his hand around her bare waist. He knew he’d made her nervous just by standing close to her. And if he read that correctly, it meant she was as affected as he was. Just one problem: she was still his friend and teammate’s little sister.
Luc awakened to the music ringtone on his phone. His exhausted body must’ve finally given in to sleep. He didn’t make a conscious effort to move until long after the ringing stopped.
There was no voicemail, but he did have a text message from Sam.
Sam: Dinner at our house tonight? Be here at four.
Dinner at the Morris house sounded better than what he had planned, which was to either raid the fridge or order some Thai food. Even though Thai food was delicious, it was boring to eat alone. Dinner with the Morris clan, it was!
Luc arrived promptly at four. He knew the routine: Trina was very pregnant right now, so when he came over for dinner, he kept Willow occupied while Sam got dinner ready and Trina put her feet up and relaxed. She never asked for this treatment; Sam just did it out of love.
He heard Willow running to the front door, giggling. Sam opened it for her and she lunged into Luc’s arms.
“Uncle Luc!” Willow squealed with delight.
“Hey kiddo! Is it party time?”
“Uncle Luc, it’s not a party, silly,” the little blonde girl said with a giggle.
“It’s always a party when Uncle Luc is around,” Trina said before she peeked out from around the corner. Her welcoming smile lit up the room. “Hey Rock-Star. Glad you could come over.”
“As always, thanks for the invite.” Luc did his best to hug a very pregnant Trina while Willow clung to him.
Luc fist bumped Sam with little Willow still hanging off him. “Yo, bro. Need any help in the kitchen?”
“Nope. I got it covered.”
“Awesome, because I think surfer Willow and I have some Legos to build!” Luc hurried into the living room with the little girl giggling like crazy.
“Uncle Luc!” Willow said through her laughter. “We’re not playing Legos today!”
“No Legos?” He put the little girl on the ground and waited to see what they’d be doing today. He never thought he would like little kids until he hung out with her. “What are we going to do, then?”
Willow ran to her toy chest and pulled out a shoebox, holding it as high as she could in the air. In a strained voice, due to the heaviness of the box, she exclaimed, “Cars!”
“Uncle Luc’s favorite thing,” Trina said from the couch. She was reclined back with her feet up and a book in her hand.
“Heck yeah! What kind of cars, kiddo?”
“Fast cars!”
“Like I said, right up Uncle Luc’s alley,” Trina commented. “You’ll need the race track in the corner beside the toy box.”
Just as Trina said, he found a red-and-blue plastic race track in the corner. It appeared too big for little Willow to carry, so he grabbed it. “Where does the race track go?”
“On the floor, silly Uncle Luc,” Willow said. She flopped down on the carpet with the shoebox of cars.
He sat down next to her with the track. The little girl showed him how to put two cars at the top of the winding track and hit the button that raised the checkered flag that began the race down the track. She giggled and squealed with each and every race.
Willow only let him race the white cars, knowing he drove a white sports car. Once she ran out of white cars, she decided to let him race blue ones, but only blue ones. This girl was a trip, and he loved every second with her.
During dinner, Willow was quiet as she separated the food on her plate into colors, then some other combination that Luc couldn’t figure out, before she finally started to eat.
“Sam, since you’ve been practicing with the team, how’ve you been feeling?” Luc asked.
“Pretty great. No symptoms. I saw the doctor after practice this morning, and he said everything looks good. He gave me the okay to play. Then I met with Coach Walker, and long story short, I’m cleared to play!”
“Bro, that’s fantastic!”
“Yeah, I know that he’s thrilled, but I’ll be keeping a close eye on him,” Trina added.
“And she’ll be holding her breath every time I take a hit. Right, babe?” Sam asked with a sly grin.
Luc didn’t voice it, but that would be a concern of his, too.
Once dinner was over, Trina took Willow into the living room to watch a movie and get settled down before bedtime. Sam brought out a couple of beers to the table.
“I hear you were bothering Kassie the other night at Kaden’s,” Sam said, with a disapproving look.
“Not bothering, just talking.” Luc took a sip of the cold beer.
“And at the club?”
“How did you— Oh. JJ.” Figures.
“Yeah. JJ likes to talk, but I told him to keep it to himself if he has any hopes of playing with the big dawgs. K-man won’t take very kindly to his spreading that kind of stuff around. I think it’s safe to say it stopped with me.”
“JJ is a good kid, but probably best not to piss K-man off, just in case.”
“I thought you were going to let this go, for your own good.” Sam revisited his first thought. “She’s Kaden’s sister.”
“I told you, I am.”
“Yet you were at Mario’s with your hands all over her? You’re not very smart, dude.”
“My hands weren’t all over her.” Maybe they were, but Sam didn’t need to know that. “I saw she was there, and she was drinking a little too much. So, I kept an eye on her as a favor to Kaden. When I saw some guys getting a little too friendly, I acted. Then I made sure she got home safely. Is that a crime?”
“No.” The unchanged look on Sam’s face wasn’t very convincing.
“See, there’s no problem.” Luc sat back in his chair, relaxed and pleased with himself.
Sam shook his head slowly. “Not buying it. You forget how well I know you, Marcella. You’ve taken more of an interest in her than you do in anything. I hope you realize this can’t go anywhere.”
Luc sighed. “I’m just hanging out and having fun. I won’t do anything stupid.” He wanted to add, “I promise,” but even he knew better than to make a promise he couldn’t keep.
“And I don’t believe you one bit. What’s your real angle here?”
“No angle. I like her. She’s fun, she has spunk. She’s not out looking for status; she’s happy being herself.”
“What exactly is going on in that brain of yours?”
“The usual.” Luc flashed a smirk.
Sam groaned. “That’s what I’m worried about.”
“You worry too much, Morris.”
“What are we worrying about?” Trina wobbled into the dining room.
“Luc’s new love interest.”
“Oh?” Trina cocked an eyebrow at Luc. “What’s wrong with her?”
“Absolutely nothing,” Luc said, his chest puffed out.
“She must be special, because you are beaming, Mr. Rock-Star,” Trina said with a laugh.
Sam let out a loud laugh. “Too bad she doesn’t know about it yet!”
“Aw, are you in love from afar?” Trina stood next to Luc and put her arm around him. “That’s so cute.”
“Babe, you shouldn’t encourage him,” Sam joked.
“If you want any help with this girl, you just let me know, Luc,” Trina offered.
“Nope. He doesn’t need any help with this one. He just needs to keep looking.” Sam shot him an annoyed look.
Trina saw it all. “Well, I don’t know what that look is all about, but I’m sensing some tension. So, I’ll leave you two to it. But my offer still stands.” She gave Luc a friendly slap on the back before going to the kitchen.
“I’ll give you a holler if I need you, Tri,” Luc said with a smirk.
“Dude, you need to back off this one. It’s not worth the trouble it’s going to cause. You like your job, don’t you?” When Sam set his empty beer bottle down on the table, it made a loud clunk.
“Very much. First of all, I think you’re wrong. And second, I’m not doing anything yet, just admiring from afar. She’s pretty set on the code shit, and she doesn’t date athletes.”
“So, you’re going to let this go?” Sam’s eyes were hopeful.
Luc hated to crap on his friend’s high expectations, but he did, and with a smirk. “I never said that.”