Page 71 of Out of Bounds

He could get in trouble.

I took a deep breath. "It sounds an awful lot like…you’re bartering my boyfriend up for a meat market."

"What?" The closest guy wavered. "It’s football."

"I forgot - are we racing towards the end zone here?"

One of the other guys tried to push through. "You haven’t even seen the amount we’re discussing."

"And I haven’t seen you with a suit that doesn’t hang off your wrists," I snapped. "Find a pair of scissors, tailor that shit so you don’t look like a three-year-old at a funeral. Eat. Shit."

The smiles melted off their faces. With short looks between them, they finally left the class.

Ugh. I could’ve handled that better.

"I thought you were going to unleash the beast, Kass," Zariah whispered.

I sighed. "Maybe I do have a temper. Maybe the design department isn’t that far off."

"That was tame for you though."

"But it’s not good enough." I put my head in my hands. "I don’t like how they talk about Ryan. It’s ridiculous. They don’t see how hard he works.”

28

Ryan

Double Texting

The next football game was an away game. Arizona. It was a good game, nobody could say it wasn’t. Forty-three to twenty-seven, we clocked a forty-six-yard field goal that cinched the second quarter, and the team energy was good. Coach Lawson didn’t swear at anybody in the tunnel.

But Kassie wasn’t there.

With her class schedule, she couldn’t make any of the away games. It was weird. Not having her around. I didn’t like it.

Strapped into my seat on the plane, I stared down at my phone, trying not to let the questions gnaw away at me.

RYAN:ARE YOU STILL AWAKE

We’d been texting most of the day, but in the time it took for the team to pile into the charter plane, the clock ticked towardseleven at night, and Kassie went dark. She was asleep. The thing was, when she said good night, I didn’t think it’d be for the rest of the night.

RYAN:DID YOU GO TO SLEEP

If she woke up for a glass of water and saw two messages, she’d respond then. Putting the phone down, I gazed around at the rest of the plane, at the lines of football players, snoring together.

Except for the empty seat, three rows behind me.

Adam.

Mulling it over, I released the seat belt and stood up, walking with sore muscles up the aisle.

At the front of the charter place was an area where the coaches and I had met up, in an open meeting with chairs and a table, where Adam currently sat with his back facing me, hunched over a laptop.

This should be good.

Adam didn’t notice me until I took the seat next to him.

"Shit." He jumped a couple of inches and froze, his fingers over the keyboard. An uneasy grin crossed his face. "Captain. Hey. I was just—uh—yeah, I’ve got nothing. I was making a new playlist for King’s physio appointments."

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