Page 53 of Dream Girl Drama

Burgess hummed, studied him beneath drawn brows. “That’s sort of why I brought you here, man. Specifics are about to become really important, really fast. There’s a team meeting tonight and everyone is going to be there. Top to bottom. The GM, coaching staff. The owner.”

Sig stopped in the act of rubbing at his gritty eyes. “I wasn’t notified about a team meeting.”

“You will be. I got the heads-up first, because the topic of discussion will be my retirement and how the team will be reorganizing. I have the option of forgoing the meeting.”

“Are you going to skip it?”

“Fuck no. I’m insulted they even suggested it.” Burgess took an outraged pull of his smoothie, which was green and probably contained so many supplements that it no longer tasted like anything resembling food. “My point is that specifics are going to be important because you’re going to be named captain.”

Sig’s back teeth glued themselves together, a combination of anticipation and nerves stiffening his joints. “They haven’t even reupped my contract and they’re naming me captain?”

“Maybe they want to gauge your dedication first. Talk vision.” Sig nodded firmly. “If that’s the case, you’ve got nothing to worry about. You’re dedicated. Resourceful. A born leader. If I could pick my own team and had everyone in the league to choose from, I’d still pick you to replace me as captain.”

“Jesus, you could have warned me this was going to be emotional,” Sig said, crossing both arms over a chest that was feeling far too vulnerable this morning. “I would have brought a box of Kleenex.”

“Shut it.” Burgess sniffed, shifted in his seat. “I don’t want to ask you about this, but I’ve ignored it for a long time. Now I need to know if it’s going to become an issue. I’ve been in the league for fourteen years and things have changed. There is interest in our personal lives that didn’t exist before. Or at least the public didn’t have so much access to it. Now they do. Are you following me?” Burgess picked up his smoothie cup and set it back down. “What’s the story with you and Chloe? Just get it out in the open so we can figure out how to keep it from biting you in the ass.”

Sig hated the shame that enflamed his skin.

Shame had no place around him and Chloe, butespeciallyher.

What they had felt like a miracle to him. No one else would see it like that, though. Maybe not even Burgess—and despite the fact that his captain already suspected that Sig’s relationship with Chloe was romantic, he had a hard time relaying the details. Burgess never made a goddamn move out of step. He was noble to a fault. Meanwhile, here was Sig, the potential new captain of the Bearcats, torturing himself with constant visits to his future stepsister. Touching, feeling, holding her any way he could.

“The story between me and Chloe?” Sig cleared his throat, only fleetingly looking Burgess in the eye. “Our parents are getting married in two months. There can’t really be a story, can there?”

“Sig. I have eyes. So does everyone else. There is something there.”

“We don’t...” Sig let out a quick exhale. “There’s nothing sexual going on. We just like to be...aroundeach other. A lot. Christ, I can’t believe we’re having this conversation.”

“Having the hard conversation now could save you having it with someone else in the future.”

Sig stabbed the table with his index finger. “The only thing that’s going to save me is our parents calling off the fucking wedding, all right?”

Burgess didn’t flinch. “And if they don’t?”

“I don’t know,” Sig enunciated.

Before the team captain could respond, a bell tinkled over the door—and in walked Corrigan and Mailer.

“Jesus, not the Rookies,” Burgess muttered.

Sig clocked their arrival with a relieved smirk. Corrigan and Mailer were his teammates, so he loved them in the way one is forced to love their weird cousins, but they were still considered pesky rookies. At this present moment, however, Sig welcomed their timely arrival with open arms. Burgess wouldn’t pry into Sig’s personal life in front of them, which marked an end to the interrogation for which he had no answers. Hallelujah.

“Well, if it isn’t the Orgasm Donors,” Sig greeted them, smirking.

“Well, if it isn’t our father and stepfather having some quality time together,” Mailer said, grabbing a chair from a nearby table, flipping it around and straddling it. “I guess our evite went to spam.”

Corrigan grabbed a chair, too. “Or they got our email addresses wrong. He’s FartDeathstar1 for future reference. I’m Pucksandpussy000.”

“I assume the zeroes are there because you’re getting none of either,” Sig drawled.

“Wrong. It’s because I don’t leave any for anyone else.”

The Orgasm Donors high-fived across the table.

Burgess looked like he was chewing metal bolts. “How did you know we were here?”

“Bearcats Reddit. Everyone knows you come here at the same time every morning, soon as your kid leaves for school.” Corrigan laid a hand on Burgess’s arm. “Sorry, let me slow down. Reddit is a website. Are you familiar with websites?”

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