Page 22 of Courtside

“You guys know each other?”

Both men looked at Sage, whose eyes darted back and forth between them.

It was Gus who answered her question. “We were in school together. He was a year ahead, but his roommate Chuck was on the swim team with me, so we hung out a lot.” A curious look crossed his face. “Do you know each other?”

David opened his mouth, but Sage spoke first. “I’m the team manager for men’s basketball for my master’s program.”

“Badass,” Gus said, the word directed toward Sage like an affectionate nickname as his hand came down to rest on her back.

David watched with a small amount of satisfaction as she rolled her eyes, even as her cheeks gained a bit of that pink flush.

“Right,” Gus turned back to him, all the while maintaining his hold on Sage, who had redirected her attention to her drink. “It was really good to see you, Hughes.”

It was an obvious dismissal, and David couldn’t figure out whether or not he wanted to stay or get as far away from them as possible.

“Good to see you too, Gus.”

He turned, walking in the opposite direction without any clear sense of where he was going.

When he bumped into Chuck, who was sitting on his phone in an empty booth, David squeezed in beside him with a groan.

“What’re you stressed about now?” Chuck asked, not even looking up from his phone.

Goddamned friends who knew him too well.

“Remember the girl from the bar?” David asked, knowing better than to try to lie to him.

Chuck looked up at that. “The blonde?”

David nodded. “She’s my team manager.”

“What?” Chuck blinked bright blue eyes at him, his reddish brows lowering like he was puzzling through a math problem. “How?”

“She’s a grad student at Southeastern. Doing the Master’s in sports management.”

“Oh shit,” Chuck shook his head. “But you guys didn’t…”

“No!” David almost shouted the response. “But we were planning on it. There’s no doubt that the plan was to… You know. Take her home.”

Chuck scooted closer. “Have you worked with her yet?”

Nodding as he scratched his cheek, David tried to figure out how to describe how things had been between himself and Sage so far.

He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting from the younger woman when they came face to face in his office, but she’d defied every assumption.

There was a youthful innocence to the way her round cheeks flushed bright pink, but then there was a steadiness and certainty about her that he could only dream of possessing. She handled herself around the team, easily slipping into humor while maintaining a toughness that made it very clear that she wouldn’t tolerate being messed with.

And the way she’d addressed what hadalmosthappened between them head on?

I want you to treat me however you want.

She was a force, and not a single day had passed without him thinking about her.

“We’ve worked together a few times,” he said to Chuck. “She’s professional. Basically said that we could be friendly and adults about it.”

“Good on her.” Chuck seemed impressed. “So why are you freaking out right now?”

“She’s here.” He didn’t try to hide the frown on his face. “With Gus Brown.”

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