Page 10 of Falling for the Forward

CHAPTER FOUR

Carter

“Horseshit!”

I stir and sit up, blinking to focus in the darkened interior of the plane. My teammate Leo, who woke me up, is carrying on about losing a hand of poker. I glare across the aisle at him.

“What’s got your panties in a bunch?” he asks.

“You woke me up.”

He shrugs. “We’re landing soon anyway.”

I pick up my phone and look at the screen. It’s 4:36 a.m. With a deep exhale, I lean my head back against my seat rest, hoping I can go back to sleep. I’m not ready to start another long day yet.

Our team plane got grounded a week ago for repairs, so we’re sharing planes with other teams and flying commercial to get where we need to go. You’d think it would be quieter on team planes, but commercial jets don’t have tables and chairs for guys to play poker and bitch about losing as loudly as they want. It’s supposedly an upside that we can fly out anytime on private planes, but I’m not a fan of waiting until 1:00 a.m. forthe Chicago team’s plane to arrive in Tampa so we can take it to Vancouver.

“Shit,” Bash says from the seat beside me. “My phone’s almost dead. You got a charger I can borrow?”

Sebastian Stone is my closest friend on the team. Actually, he’s my closest friend, period. Me, him and Leo are the first offensive line of our team.

“You need it right this second?” I ask, my eyes still closed.

“Yeah, my phone’s almost dead.”

Who needs their phone at this hour, anyway? If I argue, Bash will bicker with me until I end up giving it to him, so might as well save myself the trouble. I pick up my backpack and unzip it, sorting through stuff in search of my extra charger.

“Did you sleep much?” he asks.

“Not enough. I haven’t had a decent night of sleep since Saturday night.”

“Yeah, I couldn’t get back to sleep after that fire alarm at the hotel Monday night, either. What was your problem on Sunday night and Tuesday night?”

“Tuesday night was last night, and we went from the game to the airport to this plane, where I couldn’t sleep because you snore so loud. Sunday night, Hallie had a nightmare so she got in bed with me. I thought she’d go back to sleep, but she wanted to talk.”

“About what?”

It takes me a second to remember everything. “How they get the lead inside pencils, whether zombies are real, why we can’t breathe on the moon and what’s on the inside of boobs.”

Bash laughs. “I fucking love that kid, man. Did you guys ever go back to sleep?”

“Eventually. But I woke up again when she kicked me in the back.”

“I keep telling you to get those girls a pet. Hallie could snuggle up with the pet when she has a nightmare and you can sleep through the night.”

“And I keep telling you that Charlotte is allergic to dogs and cats, just like Rachel.”

“So get them something else. Like an iguana.”

I pass him the charger. “You think Hallie can snuggle an iguana? That would probably just give her more nightmares.”

“Okay, so what about a pig?”

“A pig?” I furrow my brow.

“Yeah, like one of those teacup pigs. They’re tiny and cute as hell.”

“I don’t want a fucking pig in my house.”

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