Page 18 of Totally Opposed

“Or it could be amazing.”

“Maybe. But how can I know for sure?”

“You can’t.”

“If we did get together and it went bust, it would affect both teams, not just us. I can’t take that risk. I’ll have to settle for just being his friend. I can do that.”

He nods and smiles, but I don’t think he believes a word I said, but I have to. I need to just be his friend because Harry is right. Getting involved with another player is a bad idea.

Duckie holds up his phone from the couch and points it my way.

“Dude, that intro of you two is still trending,” Duckie says, and Alan blushes a little beside him.

“It’s got people talking, that’s for sure,” Alan replies, and I smile, remembering the feeling of being in his arms as he carried me over the rail and jumped down to the dirt.Nope, stopthinking about it. You just said yourself getting involved with a player is a bad idea. You’re friends. Just friends,I tell myself, but then Alan glances my way, and his eyes sparkle the way they do when he’s really chuffed, and my chest swells. Fuck, I am so totally screwed.

Chapter eight

Alan

We sit around thetable at Ryan’s place, and it’s surprising how easy it is. I thought I would be too nervous to speak and would find myself just sitting here listening to them talking while I stuff my face with this amazing meal he’s made. A small moan escapes my lips on the next mouthful, and Ryan’s eyes land on me.

“So I take it you like it?” he asks, and I nod, chewing through the hot deliciousness. “Well, there is plenty, so you can take some home if you like.”

“Thanks. Your granny taught you to cook, right?” I ask, remembering he said it was her recipe he was following.

“She taught both me and my cousin Teddy, or at least tried to. She looked after us after school, and since she lived only a few houses down from my parents’ place, we all ate dinner with her almost every night until I moved to the US.”

“Do you get home much?”

“Not as much as I would like. Granny is getting old now, though, so I should make a trip soon. She swears she’s flyingover for one of our games, but since we lost Grandad about ten years ago, she hasn’t left the UK since. He always joked that he had to practically carry her onto the plane, she was that scared. I guess without him, it’s not a fear she can face anymore.”

“Aww,” Ian sighs, and Duckie reaches over and squeezes his hand. “Maybe if I carry you onboard you will feel better?” Duckie has terrible air sickness and goes green even just thinking about flying most of the time.

“I think the only way I’d feel better is if I was unconscious, and the airlines won’t let you on if that is the case,” he replies.

Ryan chuckles. “She doesn’t get sick like you, just the general fear of being on a plane for hours and the potential for plummeting to the earth if both engines go out that kind of stops her from actually booking a flight, or agreeing to come when my parents visit.”

“Well, we have plenty of games on the coast this season. Maybe she can come to one of those?” I suggest, but he shakes his head.

“It’s still a nine-plus hour flight.”

Duckie shovels another forkful into his mouth and talks through chews. “Then we should convince the league to do a real-world tour and we can bring the game to her.”

“A second ago, you were saying you need to be unconscious to not feel sick on a plane, and now you’re suggesting flying all over the world?” I ask with a grin.

He shrugs. “Not like I can avoid planes in our job. Besides, on the last few flights last year, I only threw up once.”

“A real world tour is actually a great idea,” Ian says, grabbing his phone out and tapping away. “Banana Ball is trending wildly online. Your videos and the OG’s have been watched millions of times by people all over the globe. It could be a great opportunity, and something never done before. They have worldleagues for cricket, soccer, and so many other sports, why not Banana Ball?”

It isn’t totally out of the realm of possibilities. Though they only just added us to the league, rumors are swirling this year could be the last year for one of us, so I don’t see them taking it global any time soon.

“Maybe,” Ryan says, standing to take his plate to the kitchen. “Does anyone want dessert?”

“I’m good,” I say, finishing off my last bite, and joining him in the kitchen. “Dinner was great, though. Thanks again for inviting me and for helping with Gramps’s groceries.”

“No problem. You’re really lucky he’s so close to you, you know?”

I’ve been thinking the opposite, actually. Both Kelly and I have probably taken for granted how good it is to have him here, the demon cat and grumbly nature the main challenge to seeing the positives, but he’s right. We are lucky. He could be back on the ranch where we would hardly get to see him, or in another country completely and we’d almost never get to. I can’t imagine how hard that would be to be so far away from family. The ranch is only a few hours away by car, so if one of my brothers needs us, we can get there, but for Ryan, he’s pretty much a half-a-day flight away from his family. Fuck that would suck.

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