Page 6 of The Break Out

“I’m so proud of you, Spence, your biggest tour so far is done. How do you feel?” I don’t have to feign my excitement, despite the drama happening behind the scenes I am genuinely excited for her.

“Everything,” she breathes, “overwhelmed and in a way glad it’s over. I’m ready to relax for a bit.” She leans back into Jared’s hold.

“And I’m excited to have you around for the entire season.” Jared nuzzles into Spencer’s neck and part of me feels like I’m intruding during an intimate moment with them.

“Me too,” Spencer nods. “You excited to spend some time in Denver?” she asks me.

I nod. I can only hope that the drama will be minimal in our lives so I can enjoy my relaxation time as much as Spencer is going to.

I’ve officially beena resident of Denver for one whole week. Moving is always its own special brand of chaos, but lucky for me I have a brother who I love to put to work, and his girlfriend has two other boyfriends who got roped into helping me by default.

Of course, there was a lot of yelling. A little bit of crying. Okay, all the yelling was between Brent and me because that’s our love language to each other. And the crying was Chandler because she’s pregnant and cries over everything.

The reason this time? She’s so glad I’m going to be living close to them when their baby is born.

Once everything was moved into my new studio apartment, I take it all in. My newest chapter.

“You’d think Spencer Sparks would pay you enough to get something bigger than this,” Brent teases.

“You’d think as team captain you’d learn not to be such an uptight douchenozzle, but here you are.”

He swings his arm around my neck, yanking me into his side roughly. My face is forced into his chest, and I start pushing against him as hard as I can to let me go.

“Get off me, you tree.”

“Come on, shorty, you can do better than that.”

I jam my knee against the back of his, causing his leg to buckle and he lets go just as Chandler comes back inside and chuckles, catching the tail end of our scuffle.

“You two are going to be so happy to live so close, aren’t you?” She beams with a teasing tone.

“Not a chance. Chan, I will hang out with you whenever you want. Brent, get fucked.” I jam my elbow into his side causing him to grunt.

She just shakes her head at us. “I’m going to make sure Vince and Matt haven’t killed each other returning the moving van.”

“For the record,” I say to my brother, “I could afford something bigger, but I don’t need to prove I have a big dick by living in some mansion.”

Brent scoffs, “Me either, which is why I don’t have a mansion.”

I roll my eyes. “Whatever you say. Thanks for helping I guess.”

“You’re welcome. Are you coming to the game tomorrow?”

I nod, “You think your girlfriend and my boss would let me get out of that?”

“See you there, shorty.”

With everyone gone, the silence of my new apartment threatens to consume me. I don’t like the quiet, it makes me think. When I think then the negative memories come roaringback. I prefer the side of me everyone sees. The happy-go-lucky Brynn.

Instead of stewing in silence, I turn on music and dance around while I unpack, refusing to acknowledge any of the fear for this new chapter of my life.

5

I’m even more pissed off that I’m here than I was the day I got traded to this fucking team.

When my contract was up last season and I was a free agent I was hoping to get picked up somewhere else. Ideally back in L.A., though I knew the chances of that happening were close to zero.

The only thing I didn’t want was for Denver to offer me a contract. I told my agent, but when it came through I couldn’t say no.

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