Page 64 of Love on the Waiver Wire

A couple minutes later, with our drinks in hand, we head for a corner, watching as people file in.

“What is this room even used for?” Heidi asks, looking around.

“I think it’s just for like, famous people.”

“We’re famous?” Amara gasps.

I take a sip of my drink, smiling. “My brother’s annoying ass has to have some perks, right?” The second I say it I feel guilty. “Well, he has a lot of perks,” I nod, correcting myself.

Leo does a lot for me. I never want anyone to think I’m ungrateful, no matter how annoyed I may be with him.

Cooper and Emmett shimmy their way through the crowd, coming to a stop in front of us once again. Clinking their beer bottles, they both turn to me.

“Haven’t seen you in a long time,” Cooper says.

“I’ve been busy,” I reply.

Cooper is the one teammate my brother doesn’t have an issue with talking to me. We’ve been like siblings since the day we met, constantly bickering. He’s a good dude, and one of my favorite people one the team.

“How did you end up Barbie?” I ask Emmett as I take in his outfit.

He doesn’t say anything at first, looking at Cooper as if asking permission to talk to me. I hate that he feels that way. “You can talk to me, Emmett. You’re fine.”

His lips thin but with an elbow from Cooper, he speaks. “Lost last week,” he says with a shrug.

“Fantasy football?” I feign shock, not wanting them to know that of course I know.

“Yeah. It’s been awful this year. I mean, Owen is always on top. Always. So that’s no shock. But your brother found some weird dude off the streets.”

“Off the streets?” I pretend to be shocked.

Emmett nods. “Yeah. Just straight off the street. No one knows him. Leo says he works for the team but I don’t think a single one of us believes him.”

Cooper shakes his head as if to agree.

“That’s wild,” I say as Mila pinches me in the butt. I can feel her laughing behind me at my performance.

“Yeah. But oh well. Owen got to pick the punishment this week and he said I had to be the Barbie to his Ken.”

I’m momentarily sad that I wasn’t the Barbie to Owen’s ken, but I shake it off quickly.

“That’s wild,” I say. “Where are the others, anyways?” when Cooper’s eyes shoot to mine, I add, “I wanted to say hi to my brother.”

“They’ll be in in a minute. I think they were talking to friends out in the other room.”

The six of us stand huddled in the corner, the boys asking my three if they liked the game.

“It was so fun!” Heidi smiles from ear to ear, somehow having more energy than she did earlier.

About ten minutes later, Emmett is tapped on the shoulder from behind, and when he moves out of the way, I choke.

My brother stands in front of me in a nude morph suit cut at the neck. The only thing keeping his bits from being clear as day is the brown scrappy fabric around his waist. The suit looks like he rolled in dirt for an hour before coming in here.

But it’s the bald cap that makes me lose my mind. My brother—known for his beautiful hair—is bald, with only a few strands of scraggly dark hair hanging limply from it. He has red lining his eyes, and his face, as everything else, looks dirty.

“What the hell?” I ask, looking him over. At the same time, I reach behind me, grabbing Heidi’s sweatshirt from her hands. Bringing it in front of me, I hug it to my chest, knowing that if he’s not too distracted, he’ll have a fit about what I’m wearing.

“I’m sexy Smeagol,” Leo says, looking down at himself.

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