Page 69 of A Scoring Chance

“I hear both of you. And I’m trying, but you need to understand that this is all new to me. It will take some time for me to find a balance that works for me.”

“We understand, don’t we, Big D?”

“Yeah, Coach.” Darius flashes Cooper a huge smile before leaning his head against the window and closing his eyes.

He must be exhausted after playing the long game and everything that happened today. We should be back at our place in another five minutes, but I’m not about to keep him awake. If he’s even sleeping. Now that I know about his eavesdropping tendencies, I’m not too sure.

When he doesn’t move for a few moments, I turn my attention back to Cooper. “Big D?”

“The boys on the team have been coming up with nicknames for each other, and Darius is Big D.”

Why the hell would the boys know anything about his D? They use open showers to clean up after games, but I always thought the idea of a dick-measuring contest in sports locker rooms was some sort of myth. Just like girls can’t go to the bathroom alone. We can; we just don’t want to. There’s a big difference.

He has learned by now that my mind almost immediately goes into the gutter whenever possible. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Beauty. Darius is one of the tallest boys on the team, hence theBig, and Darius is a lot harder to say than you think when you’re tired and out of breath.”

Now that he’s explained it, it makes sense, but now I have more questions. “What do they call you?”

“Coop or Cap.”

So Coop makes sense because almost everyone calls him that, but Cap? The wheels in my brain turn, trying to think of what it might mean, but I ask instead.

“What does Cap mean?”

“Captain. Beau and I have been team captains for the last few seasons.”

So that’s what the big C I noticed on his jersey on the first day of practice meant. “Those just seem so generic.”

“It doesn’t have to be some special name that no one else uses. Just think of it as a nickname. Mine is Coop because Beau has called me that his whole life. When our teammates heard him say it, they started doing the same thing.”

“That makes sense, but now I’m going to need to think of something extra cheesy to call you because I hate being the same as everyone else.”

“Beauty, you will never be like everyone else, even if you try.”

God damn it. How the hell does he do that? It’s like he knows exactly what to say to disarm my defenses. I may as well stop trying to protect my heart from him altogether and accept the inevitable. No, I can’t do that. Not yet, at least. Cooper will get sick of me and the hoops he has to jump through for us to spend time together. Just like the few men I tried to date in the past, not that he’s anything like them. Cooper has this entire part of his life I don’t understand, being a professional athlete. He’s in the limelight, whether he likes it or not, whereas I prefer to blend into the background.

Everything has been fine for the most part. No reporters are showing up at the house or accosting me in the street, like Cooper explained might happen. The only difference is the occasional silence when I walk into a store in town or drunks asking me for tickets when I work the bar at The Pit Stop, but this is likely the calm before the storm. The moment they have a hint of something brewing between us, whether it’s positive or negative, they’re going to be chomping at the bit. That’s future Ramona’s problem. I promised Cooper I’d see where things go between us, and I can’t do that if I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“What is she doing here?” I sit up straighter, leaning forward as I notice a very familiar car in my driveway.

“I have a feeling Alise knows how much you need this date, and in her typical fashion, she made sure you couldn’t get out of it.” Cooper smiles, pulling his truck to a stop behind hers. “See what she wants. I’ll help Darius out of the truck.”

I hesitate for a second before nodding my head. There isn’t much that can happen to Darius getting out of the truck, and I trust Cooper to take care of him.

I don’t even have a chance to pull my shoes off before Alise is standing in front of me, her special edition Kim KardashianBeats secured over her ears. She already knows I’m going to lay into her for not listening, and there will definitely be screaming involved. She came prepared. “Before you start, I got your text message. I just ignored it.”

“And I let her!” Auntie Peggy shouts, more than likely from her spot on the couch.

“You’re going on your date tonight.” Not Ma, too. I should’ve known these three would ignore me. They orchestrated Cooper taking me out for my birthday and who knows what else over the years, but this is too much. Darius comes first, and they all know this. Why are they pushing the subject?

“No, I’m not.” I cross my arms over my chest, daring one of them to say something.

Do I want to go on a date with Cooper? Of course, I do. Darius was right when he said I’d been talking about it all week, trying to get some information out of Alise about what we were doing. Cooper wouldn’t tell me anything other than it would be cold and we had to go to Portland to do it, just enough information to stop me from freaking out completely. But I still wanted to know. I don’t know if my heart can take another lavishly planned perfect date with him.

“I’m your mother, young lady. What I say goes.”

“That stopped being true when I turned eighteen, Ma. Besides, you can’t make me go out if I don’t want to.”

“Okay. Then I’m leaving.” Ma grabs her cane and slowly makes her way toward the door. She isn’t wearing her house clothes, aka sweatpants and a sweatshirt, meaning there’s a very strong possibility that she plans on following through with this threat.

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