Page 118 of Out of Bounds

"I should let them kick you out." Zariah pinched the bridge of her nose. "I need to prove to my parents that he’s not getting into shit. Which, I understand, he is, I get it."

The waitress threw up her hands. "He put my friend in the hospital!"

Elijah shrugged. "Probably deserved it."

"Shut the fuck up, Elijah." Zariah snapped up a hand to stop him from speaking. "We’re sorryand we’ll tip like people that just stole a lottery ticket."

I knew the waitress. Kassie and I had her plenty of times when we met up for study sessions at one of the back tables. Yet the mood at the party had completely shifted. Everyone was waiting to see where the argument went because if Ruthless got kicked out, we had to change venues.

Fishing her wallet from her purse, Kassie started to say, "I’ll—"

"No." I flashed my card to the waitress. "I’ll pay."

"Ryan, I can pay."

"No, you can’t, actually. Thank you."

The waitress’s concern cleared instantly and she nodded without another word, muttering under her breath on her way to the kitchen.

Kassie took a deep breath. "Thanks, Ryan."

“No worries.”

Elijah tipped back in his chair a few inches and gave the waitress the kind of once-over I recognized too well. "When’s a good time to ask for her number?"

"Never," Zariah answered.

"I should give it fifteen?"

The twins broke into a bickering argument. The hockey player rested with his hands over his stomach while his sister waved her hand in the air, bringing it down every time she wanted to emphasize a point.

The moment Kassie saw the expression on my face, she grinned and tried to hide behind a margarita.

"Why are you smiling at them?"

"It’s the one fight I don’t have to break up." I picked up my beer and held it to clink against Kassie’s drink. That stiff, uncomfortable feeling between us was melting away. Finally. "Are they always like this?" When she nodded, I snorted. "This is why I don’t go to the hockey games."

That got another smile out of her. And I knew I had another way to get an extra one.

Everybody else at the table dug into the pizza and the fighting eased off enough for everybody to eat. Nobody was paying attention to us. They were too busy with the cheese sticks.

"I have a gift," I murmured.

Kassie’s eyes flickered to mine. She hesitated.

“I didn’t pay for it,” I stated upfront. "You’re going to like this one."

"It’s not like I don’t appreciate it—"

"I know I’m not the easiest guy to be around," I told her, my voice low. "I can be an asshole. I demand a hundred percent from everybody. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be team captain. And considering the…circumstances…this has gone better than I expected."

Her eyebrow raised half an inch. “You’re so formal.”

"This isn’t easy for me," I admitted. "But I’m trying."

I slipped the wrapped-up envelope from my jacket pocket and held it out for her. She didn’t move to take it. For a long moment, she bit her lip, until she finally picked it up to start peeling off the paper.

She leaned in, reading the words.

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