Page 114 of The Wrong Quarterback

“I’m not going to need one,” I yelled to him, but he’d already left.

I sighed as Casey banged on the door again, and I plated the chicken, arranging her favorite caesar salad on the plate. Usually she would be in the kitchen with me, and I missed her. I needed to figure out a way to fix this soon.

I brought our plates down the stairs, and she didn’t soften at all, refusing to eat even a single bite.

As I walked back up the stairs, I was thinking I was going to have to work really hard to make sure Jace didn’t need to get that lawyer.

Losing Casey’s heart wasn’t an option.

“What are you doing?” she growled at me later when I came down for bed.

“Going to bed,” I replied calmly.

“You’ve got to be shitting me. You arenotsleeping with me,” she snapped. Her eyes were red, and her hair was a mess. And as usual, she was the most beautiful fucking girl I’d ever seen.

“Can you honestly say you’re going to sleep well without me?” I asked, sliding into the bed. She tried to get out, and I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her against me.

She only kicked me twice before she gave up and laid there quietly.

That was a good sign, right?

Except a few seconds later she started crying. I pulled her into my chest and stroked her hair.

“I can’t believe you did this,” she whispered. I squeezed her closer.

“I can’t believe you didn’t know I would.”

She sniffled again.

“I told you that we’re endgame, Casey. I’m going to help you remember that.”

“You can’t keep me down here forever,” she answered.

And I didn’t say anything after that…because I was pretty sure she wouldn’t like my answer.

I held her close to me all night.

“Tell me a story about Ben,” I murmured as I held her in bed the next night. I was hoping that this question would lower her defenses a little. This was something we’d done the past weeks, tell stories about the two people we’d lost.

She was still mad at me, but at least she’d eaten tonight.

So that was progress, right?

I’d made sure to get all of her schoolwork by telling her professors that she was sick, so she’d be able to keep up on her assignments while we were in this…stage.

She’d tried to hit me with one of her textbooks when I’d given it to her, but it was so cute that I’d laughed.

Which had then made her refuse to talk to me.

“Well, he definitely wouldn’t have approved of this,” she snarled, sounding more like a cuddly kitten than the terrifying monster I was pretty sure she was going for.

“Noted. Now tell me another story,” I said, softly stroking her hair.

She huffed, but her body relaxed against mine. “He was a star, like you,” she said softly. “He was offered a spot on Tennessee’s basketball team, and he was so ready to shine. Ben was the first person in our small town to get an athletic scholarship like that, and everyone was so proud.”

“They weren’t proud of you with your piano skills?” I asked.

She hesitated. “Not like they were with Ben,” she finally said. “That’s why I came to Tennessee, though. He didn’t get to come here, and once I knew my dreams of playing at Julliard weren’t going to happen, then at least I could live a little part of his dream.”

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