Page 92 of Whistle

Her blond hair swung a little with the shake of her head. “You’re welcome to use my bathroom anytime, Bodhi. I don’t mind.”

Rush made a rude sound.

Landry spun on him. “Jason Rush, what the hell is wrong with you? The coffee Dad made this morning is better than your attitude right now.”

“It’s not that bad.” Emmett defended.

“Not even you will drink it,” she fired back.

“Why aren’t there any blankets on the couch?” Rush wanted to know.

“What?” Landry replied.

Rush pointed across the room to the couch, which I definitely had not slept on. “There are no blankets. No pillows,” he told her.

While they were busy staring at the couch like a pair of detectives, I stole a glance at Emmett. He avoided my stare.

Ouch.

“I cleaned them up,” he told them. “You know I don’t like clutter.”

Landry snorted. “You’d have to have stuff to have clutter.”

This house was pretty empty. I’d never really thought about it until then.

Emmett folded his arms over his chest and glared. “If you got something to say, Rush, just say it. I got a practice to run.”

Rush glanced at me. “You slept on the couch?”

Oh, now he wants to look at me. I could feel Emmett’s eyes, his silent panic that someone could realize we might be involved. He’s embarrassed of me. Maybe he didn’t mean what he said after all.

Hurt and defiance rose to choke me. I had to swallow three times before I could get enough air to speak. “Where the hell else would I sleep?” I snapped.

A sheepish, embarrassed look washed over his face, and the bottom fell out of my stomach. Didn’t take much to convince him his precious coach wouldn’t want me.

Palming the back of his neck, he glanced at the ground. “Sorry. I thought…”

“You thought what?” Landry pressed.

He shook his head.

“Jason,” she warned.

Rush sighed and gestured between Emmett and me.

Landry gasped. “You thought they… they… ohmigod.” Realization dawned over her face, chased by pure shock. “Why would you think that? Dad is…” She paused. “He isn’t gay.”

What? I jolted, eyes going wide and looking at Emmett.

In an unexpected turn of events, he was back to not looking at me. I thought about marching across the room and blowing that damnable whistle around his neck. Bet he’d look at me then.

But then so would everyone else because my bare ass would be hanging out.

“Not that there’s anything wrong with being gay,” Landry said, suddenly at my side. I hadn’t even seen her move. “I didn’t mean it that way.”

She reached out to lightly touch my arm, and I flinched away. I gazed around anxiously, trying to find my jeans from last night. They were nowhere to be found. I considered leaving with no pants. It wasn’t fully light outside, and this shirt was long. I’d done worse.

They think he’s straight. He straight up denied me after calling me beautiful.

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