Page 75 of Drawn to You

As soon as I sit down on the bus, my teammate Aaron flops into the seat next to me.

“Check this out. Amara drew all over herself with markers.” He holds up his phone and I see a photo of his young daughter wearing just a diaper, blue, red and purple marker scribbles covering her all over. Even her face has both cheeks and her chin covered.

“Oh, shit.” I laugh at the image and Aaron grins, as amused as I am.

“Elena said it took her forty minutes to scrub all of it off.”

“Damn. You’re gonna owe her a nice date night after this trip.”

He looks at the photo of his daughter again, his expression soft. “She’s a trip, man.”

Monica gets on the bus and scans faces, looking for me. I slump down in my seat, hoping to avoid her.

No such luck. She finds me and heads my way, giving Aaron an apologetic look. “Hey, can I steal that seat from you?”

“Don’t move,” I tell him in a low tone.

Monica gives me an aggravated look. “Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

She huffs out a sigh and walks toward the back of the bus. Aaron looks over at me, a brow arched in amusement. “Guess the new girl’s not working out so well?”

“It’s fucking ridiculous. I’m going to talk to Coach about it. She ruins my vibe.”

Aaron scoffs. “Surely you can figure it out.”

I shake my head. “There’s bad blood between her and Josie. She got a promotion that should’ve gone to Josie. For some reason, she hates Josie, and she’s trying to get her claws into me.”

Aaron lowers his brows, looking serious. “How can anyone hate Josie?”

“Beats me. Might be that Monica’s just immature. She’s only twenty-three.”

My phone buzzes with an incoming text and I take it out of my pocket.

Josie: Good morning! How’s it going with the hellbeast?

Dane: Sucks. And I miss you.

Josie: I miss you too.

Dane: You should fly here for the game tonight and stay with me after.

Josie: I wish I could, but I’m going to look at three office spaces today with the realtor and this evening I’m havingdrinks with a client of mine from JG that I’m trying to get to follow me to my business.

Dane: It’s not an attractive male client, is it?

Josie: No one compares to you.

Dane: That’s what I like to hear. What about tomorrow? Can you fly to Nashville for my game?

Josie: If I can get a late afternoon flight.

Dane: You’ve got my credit card to pay for it. I don’t care how much it costs, just get there.

Josie: Okay. I can’t wait to see you.

Dane. Same here, babe. I’ll work on getting Monica a separate room.

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