Page 222 of Out of Bounds

"Just deal out the cards," I told him, exasperated, and Adam shoved the cards off to Ryan to shuffle. Ryan started immediately while Adam tossed back a beer.

"Okay, I have a question." June put her head in her hands, watching Ryan. "Were youalwayslike this?"

"Nope," Adam answered before Ryan could. "Ryan used to party in high school."

My mouth fell open. "For real?"

Ryan gave a half-grin. "It’s true."

"I can’t picture Party Animal Ryan…" I pointed at Ryan, Adam, and King. "I feel like I already know this. How long have you three known each other?"

"Freshman year, college," King answered automatically.

Adam thumbed towards Ryan. "Third grade. We’ve known each other too long but we can’t get rid of each other, we know too much."

"What the hell were you two like as third graders?" Zariah asked and stopped herself. "Why do I ask questions I don’t want to know the answer to?"

"Oh, you know what." Adam grinned wide. "I’ve got a good Ryan story."

Ryan started passing out the cards. "Don’t."

"It’s a good one."

"I’m willing to bet it’s not."

I leaned forward, interested. "A good Ryan story?"

"Oh, yeah." Adam took another swig of beer. "Ryan. Ryan—dude—this is great. Girls, you’re going to love this. Ryan, this story will get you some mad pussy tonight. Anyone want to take a guess what Ryan wanted to be when he grew up?"

Instantly, the curiosity of the table was caught and Ryan groaned. "You need to drop this story, man."

"I used to use this story as Ryan’s wingman in freshman year." Adam smirked.

Zariah frowned. "Not a football player?"

"Nope." He imitated a buzzer. "Try again."

King shook his head. "I don’t know this one."

"Are we playing a game or not?" Ryan tapped his cards against the table. "Dumbest asshole goes first—Adam—if you’ll take the honors."

"Biggest dick goes first? Don’t mind if I do."

"Wait, hold on." I held up a hand. "I want to hear what it was."

"You’ve hyped it up too much," Zariah agreed.

I honestly couldn’t think of what kind of job would get girls going. The more I thought about it, the more confused I became. If it wasn’t being a football player, what did little Ryan wanted to be when he grew up?

Ryan gave Zariah a long look when she started chanting and beating her fists against the table. He sighed, turning his eyes back to me. I had a feeling whatever it was, he was reluctant for me to hear it most of all.

Which just made me more eager to hear it.

"When I did the project…" Ryan ran a hand through his hair. "Don’t get me wrong, it was easier when I got the football scholarship but before then, my dad wasn’t around a lot. He’s a firefighter, a lot of late nights. So for the project—and Adam, this is the last time I’m telling this story—I wanted to be a dad when I grew up."

Zariah burst into laughter while June cooed from the other side of the table but I gazed up at him, quiet. Ryan wanted to be a dad. That’s why he’d been so upset about the kids’ training camp when he made that kid cry. I blinked at him, stunned, and something soft clicked inside of me.

I completely understood how Ryan used to get laid talking about this.

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