Page 11 of Levi

“I do not cheat, Ms. Delilah. I think we all know that I’m just a very lucky guy,” I tell her with a wink.

“You’re incorrigible, Mr. Crosby. I’ll be watching you,” she says, pointing two fingers at her eyes before directing them at me with a glare.

“I’m sure you will. Enjoy the game,” I tell her with a smirk as she walks away, my nana just shaking her head at us.

By the end of the night, I won three out of five bingo games, earning me a death glare from Delilah, but I just blew her a kiss and walked out with Nana, forcing her to walk behind us while we celebrated the entire way home.

Yup, I'm definitely petty.

CHAPTER5

QUINN

The last timeI walked through these doors to the back offices at Legacy Arena, it was to visit my uncle when he first coached here years ago. Walking in as an employee, though? It's surreal, especially because my uncle coached here for fifteen years before going to L.A. Since my parents were doctors at the time, I was here a lot.

Ally and I used to play hide and seek with one of the other coach’s sons, Noah. It was fun. We’d spend hours switching between hide and seek and playing Sardines. If we were really lucky, we could convince everyone to turn off the lights and we played flashlight tag.

But that was usually only when they were stuck watching film.

All of this only lasted until the night we were driving home from a game when I had just turned fifteen. You see, that was the age my parents said we could start dating, and I had been waiting for the day to finally say yes to Noah, who had asked me out twice over the last couple of months.

That night though, I told Ally, and that was my first mistake.

“Tonight was so much fun,” I said to her, thinking about Noah and I hiding away in a supply closet, waiting to see how long it took Ally to find us.

He’d held my hand, and I felt warm and tingly all over. I really liked it. When he asked me out again, I was so excited to say yes. But, of course, that’s when Ally showed up and told us it was time to go home.

It was okay, though. I told him to text me the next day and we would talk.

“It was,” my sister finally said quietly as she scrolled through her phone.

“I think I'm going to tell Noah yes,” I said absentmindedly as I sat with a smile on my face, thinking about the night. He was so cute, and I was so excited.

“Yes to what?” she asked, dropping her phone in her lap, her attention finally on me.

“He asked me out,” I said with a smile.

But the smile I expect to see in return is replaced by something else—anger. And pain.

“That's interesting,” she snapped, “because he kissed me tonight and asked me to be his girlfriend.”

My heart dropped into my stomach. The pure demon in her voice would have been enough to upset me, but the reality that he played me hurt even worse. The tears welled in my eyes, but I turned away, focusing on the lights of the cars passing by as I let one lone tear fall.

The fatal blow came from my sister, who, the second I finished speaking, had already dismissed me and exiled me from her mind. After that, I became a nuisance, someone she wanted to constantly belittle and be better than.

And to think I thought she'd be excited for me.

A knock on my office door snaps me from my daydream, straight into my nightmare.

“Uncle Ronnie wants everyone downstairs to meet in twenty minutes. We’ll have everything planned so we can get there early and hopefully get a jump on any potential frustrations,” Ally says, her voice confident. It's moments like these that I wonder why she settles to be my uncle’s secretary when she's clearly talented at what she wanted to get her degree in, marketing.

“Not a problem. I have everything I need to meet with the individual players I want to, so I think I'm good. Well, except for another cup of coffee. Would you like to go?” I ask, immediately regretting my decision.

“No, I'm okay. I'm going to go finish my coffee and go call Wilson,” she says before disappearing down the hall.

After walking across the street to grab a coffee and a snack, I still end up being ten minutes early for the meeting, beating everyone else to the conference room. They all show up shortly after, including the other coaches, trainers, admin staff, and, of course, my uncle and Ally.

There are obviously a few grumbly people, but overall, everyone still seems excited to be back, and that's the best-case scenario after the quick change.

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