Page 48 of Penalty Shots

Marissa

She's not with you?

I sigh, staring at the message, wishing there was some way I could track her location. What good are cell phones if we can’t even find the people we care about? Some day, I hope there’s an app for that.

“What’s wrong?” Rina asks.

“They haven’t heard from her.” I look up and see the second her expression changes.

“That’s not like her,” Rina admits. “She always comes home. Unless she's with you."

“I know,” I say.

She tosses her covers away from her and reaches for her sneakers. “Keelan, we gotta find her. What if she’s hurt?”

I push off the bed, “You don't think?”

“The last place we saw her was at JR’s, right? What if he…”

She doesn’t even have to finish her statement for me to imagine what could’ve happened.

“I’ll kill him,” I grit out, already making my way to the door. I rip it open, Rina on my tail, but I stop as soon as I do. Jenny’sstanding there in yesterday’s makeup and an oversized t-shirt that isn’t mine.

My eyes trail down her body. She’s holding a pair of heels in one hand, the stringy pieces of her costume in the other.

“Hey, I didn’t expect to see you here.” Jenny’s eyes bounce from me to Rina and back to mine.

“Are you okay?” Rina asks from behind me.

Jenny doesn’t answer her. She just looks at me, and I can already hear the words before she even says them.

“Keelan… can we talk?”

Chapter 13

Rina

It's late—or early—depending on how you look at it. Stella woke up again nearly half an hour ago and I heard Keelan shuffle down the hall for his turn at the nighttime feeding.

But it's been impossible to shut my eyes since then.

I grab my phone off its place on the charger and open my email. Might as well get some work done while I'm up.

I type out my proposal for Keelan's image rehab. It includes all the things he fought me on, but it's what he'll need to do if he wants to get back in the team owner's good graces.

What he doesn't know is that he's at risk of losing the captaincy if he doesn't do something drastic. His actions haven't been taken lightly.

I shoot him the email requesting his digital signature and not even a minute later, there's a knock on my bedroom door.

I sit up, pulling the covers over my body. "Yes?"

He opens the door. "You're supposed to be asleep." He crosses his arms and leans on the door frame—not wearing a shirt.

"We have a deadline, Landry. You might not be worried about your job, but mine is hanging on the line, and I've worked too hard to give it all up now. You have, too."

He's quiet. The moonlight streaming through the slits in my blinds bask over him in a beautiful glow.

"What?" I ask when he stays quiet.

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