Page 79 of Love on the Waiver Wire

And if I say it, I’ll be the bad guy.

“You doing okay?” Cooper asks him, clapping him on the back.

Leo nods, dropping to the ground where he lays, his arms outstretched.

“You okay?” a game coach calls, his face worried. I wave him off and shoot him a thumbs up. “He’s fine! Just dramatic!”

Leo scowls at me.

“Man you fucked up. You just have to own it.” I shrug, not feeling sorry for him.

“I just don’t know how to make it better,”

Before I can stop myself, I say, “maybe you can let her make her own choices for once.”

“Don’t even go there, man,” Leo growls, and I’d take him seriously if he was any threat to me at all down there.

“Just think that you have some thinking to do,” is all I say before running off to practice some new routes.

* * *

Isla made it clear that she wasn’t upset at me, but it still makes me upset that I was involved in something that hurt her.

So I’ve made it my mission to cheer her up.

Hey Peaches, check your door in about ten minutes, alright?

Owen I really don’t want to see anyone right now…

It’s not me, I promise. But I’m here whenever you need it.

Ten minutes later, she sends me a photo of her doorway, stuffed to the brim with the most beautiful yellow flowers I could find right now along with a giant bag of peach rings and a Van Gogh teddy bear.

“You didn’t have to do this,” she tells me over the phone. She sounds sad, but I can hear the appreciation in her voice. Which is enough for me.

“But I wanted to.”

* * *

It’s Thursday, and my package finally came.

Despite everything that went down at the showing, Isla sold quite a few paintings.

While some of the guys were forced to buy a few when Leo realized he fucked up, I handed Isla’s friend Mila a check, asking her if she could mark my favorite to be shipped to me. I didn’t have room to lug it home with me then.

She had nodded, curiosity twinkling in her eyes. I could tell she wanted to ask something more, but the girl has restraint.

And I got it today.

The thing is huge, and when I unwrap it, it’s as beautiful as the first time I watched her sit in her living room painting it.

I walk around my apartment to find the perfect place to put it, finally deciding on one of my many blank walls.

I’ve been here for two years now and I still have barely decorated. I haven’t felt the need to until now.

But now I want a home filled with paintings just like this.

No, I want a home filled with a few paintings like this, and stocked full of Isla’s most favorite artists. Not prints. The real thing.

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