Page 50 of Power Play

“I like Sydney Malloy,” Tess said, so seriously.

“Me too,” Kit said.

“Me three,” I said.

“Whatever, man,” Cohen said and turned and walked away.

I would defend my brother until the day I died, but I also couldn’t have my teammate walking around with a chip on his shoulder. I got up, chased after him until I caught him. Wrapped my arms around him and crashed both of us into Harrison so all three of us went splashing into the pool.

“What the hell, man?” Cohen asked, brushing his hair out of his face.

Grinning, I splashed him. He splashed me back.

Harrison splashed both of us.

The kids cannonballed in and soon it was an all-out water fight.

Kit and Tess sat on the chair, watching. Not smiling. Eating chips off each other’s plates. They were like a foreign language I didn’t understand. But I kind of wanted to.

“Hey,” Staski said, coming up behind me and sweeping my legs out from under me. I went down and came up sputtering. “I think you like the nanny,” he said, quietly. “I think the nanny likes you too.”

“The nanny does not like me,” I said, wiping a hand across my face.

“The nanny looks at you like maybe she would like to see what the fuss is about.”

I looked over at her and she looked away so fast she made it obvious she’d been watching me.

13

Kit

“I’m taking an Uber,” I said, for the millionth time. The sun was setting. Tess had a sunburn across her nose, and I was ready to go home. I’d earned my five grand. Though, truthfully, I’d had a good time.

Tess was good company. The hockey players were excellent eye candy. And the strawberry shortcake was the stuff memories were made of.

And Liam had been Liam. Part happy puppy, part devastating sex symbol. He was flirty and fun and too appealing for my own good.

“You’re not taking an Uber,” Liam said. “It’s ridiculous. We’re leaving now too. I’ll give you a ride.”

We stood outside Harrison’s house where, behind us, the party was kicking into another gear. There was dancing going on in there. Once upon a time I loved dancing.

I imagined going back in there and dancing with Liam. The way his arms would come around my shoulders. Our hips wouldbrush, first accidentally, and then on purpose, the way they did in Nashville all those years ago. When everything had been…perfect. For a moment.

“No,” I said and stepped past him, heading down the sloped driveway to where the Uber had dropped me off. What was with these guys and the mile long driveways straight uphill?

“Yeah, Kit!” Tess said. “Come with us.”

Liam and I turned to look at the girl, wrapped in a towel. Hair sticking up all over the place. The sunburn across her nose. Her eyes were drooping behind her glasses. She looked pooped.

“For the kid, Kit,” Liam said with that crooked shit-eating grin on his face. “Let me give you a ride so she can fall asleep in the back seat of the car the way she wants.”

I growled in my throat. “You fight dirty,” I said to Liam, stomping up past him towards his ridiculous truck parked beside the rest of the ridiculous cars in the parking pad in front of the house.

I put my arm around Tess’s shoulders and listened to Liam whistle and toss his keys in the air like everything was just going that guy’s way.

But that’s how he lived his life. Under a cloud of absolute good fortune. Me and my dad were probably the only bad luck the guy ever had.

Except, I remembered then about his mom dying. That solemn press conference with his brother asking for privacy. Wyatt sitting there with dry, hard eyes and Liam looking like he’d been put through the ringer.

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