Page 133 of The Baller

So this morning after I’d opened the best sneakers I’d ever seen in my life, and Lux had demonstrated his skill set, I handed over my gift; a tan, leatherbound notebook wrapped up in brown paper and tied with a red velvet ribbon. Our story so far – from the day we’d met in Brown’s – had taken up the first forty pages.

I’d like to say I kept my shit together, but the second I saw his eyes flood and that first tear drop, mine did too… until we realized we were sitting in bed crying about being in love, and how totally lame we’d look if anyone caught us.

An hour and a plate of pancakes later, here we were.

Lux’s hand squeezed my thigh again, and I looked up to see his chin tipping toward a narrow road on the right. I took in the strangely half cobbled street, the ornate streetlights, and bare trees, and the orange awning…

“Hey, we’re at Asher’s, right?” I spun around again. The couple of times we’d been here before, we’d entered from the other end of the street.

Lux pulled up outside and cut the engine. “We sure are.”

Jake and the guys stopped behind us and jumped out. Lux lowered the window.

“Asher’s expecting you. We’ll wait here.”

Jake nodded, Ethan knocked on the door, and they disappeared inside while Meg and Ava waited. I glanced over at Lux, typing away on his phone and barely paying attention. I used to find their searches so cringy, always so worried with what people would think. Now, I barely noticed.

Asher was waiting inside when we walked in, still the same thick shock of hair and his fist wrapped around the cane. He could have been standing there since we’d left the last time for how little he’d changed, with only a silver eyebrow lifting as he spotted us.

“Lux, my boy! You’ve brought her back,” he greeted, his pale brown eyes sparkling through his otherwise wizened expression.

“I told you I would,” Lux replied as he bent down and hugged him.

“And how’ve you been, Miss Andrews? How is the Bard treating you?”

“Very well,” I grinned. “I got an A for my last essay. The subject was Shakespeare and revenge.”

“I look forward to reading it. You can bring it back next week.”

My brows creased, and my eyes flicked between the two of them. “Next week? What’s next week?”

“You didn’t tell her?” Asher scolded, before looking at me again. “Are you sure you want to stick with this one? My grandson is available, and he’s not quite as forgetful.”

Threading my fingers through Lux’s, I laughed. “I think I’m set, but I’ll let you know if I ever decide otherwise.”

I found myself pulled into his chest, his arms wrapping around me and a hand slapped over my mouth, making me laugh harder.

“Hey! I’m not going anywhere.”

“Doesn’t hurt to have options,” I teased.

“And I didn’t forget, Asher, it was a surprise.”

I stopped moving against him and looked up. “A surprise? What’s happening?”

He stepped back an inch, one big hand resting on my shoulders. “You can totally say no, or if your coursework gets too much, but I wanted to give you the option…”

“The option of what?”

“One of the points on your list is for work experience…”

“Yeah?” My brows knitted while I tried to figure out where this was going, especially as they were both staring at me, until… “Here? Work experience here?”

“I could do with the help,” croaked Asher, like he’d suddenly aged fifty years and realized how frail he was. Lux’s eyes almost rolled out of his head.

“Are you serious? I can come and work here?”

Lux nodded. “If you’d like to. As long as you’re not working on my game days, then you can come and help out whenever suits you,” he winked. “Asher will have plenty to keep you busy.”

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