Page 81 of Courtside

She jumped up from where she was slumped over the front of her shopping cart in front of the tortilla chips.

David Hughes, looking like a bear emerging from hibernation with his unkempt hair and deep purple circles under his heavy-lidded eyes, pushed his cart toward her.

“Hi,” she said, offering him a hesitant smile.

“You didn’t respond to my texts,” he said, his voice grating from his chest like rusted metal dragged across gravel.

Sage winced. “Sorry, I just needed to regroup after…” She trailed off, unable to put words to the colossal shit show that had been her run in with Evan. It was even harder to explain what had happened after.

Sage wasn’t a big sharer. Never had been outside of her relationship with her sister. But she’d sat there wrapped up like a koala bear in David’s strong arms and spilled out all of the things she’d kept hidden.

His eyes searched hers. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “Better now.”

David mirrored her nod, and she glanced down to see his hands gripping the handle of the shopping cart. He cleared his throat. “I wish you’d called,” he said, his voice quiet. “I wish you’d asked me for help.”

If it had been anyone else, Sage would have brushed them off. But this wasn’t just anyone. This was David, who was kind and good, who kept showing up selflessly. Who she was going to try to do something new and terrifying with after the season.

“I don’t talk about Evan,” she admitted, forcing herself to maintain eye contact, to look directly into his deep brown eyes. She could try to give him a little bit more of herself. “My sister’s the only one who knows what actually happened between us. Seeing him again,” she swallowed against the emotion that burned her throat. “I never thought I’d see him again. And like I said, it was like suddenly I was the same kid who idolized him all over again, even though I know I’m not that girl anymore. I’ve worked really fucking hard to outgrow that experience, David. I don’t just let people into my life or let them tell me what to do. So to have you see me like that…it was humiliating.” Her voice had quieted to a whisper. “I never wanted you to see that part of me.”

David watched her for a moment with an anguished expression on his face. Then he slowly pushed his cart forward, coming up beside her.

“And David?”

“Hm?”

She steeled herself with a breath. “You should know that Evan kissed me. When we were in the car.”

David’s expression was carefully blank. She watched his Adam’s Apple bob as he swallowed. “How did you feel about him kissing you?”

“I hated it,” she said, the truth of her words hitting her like a blow to the chest. “I fucking hated it, but I didn’t stop right away, and I don’t want you to think —”

David stepped up to her, one of his big hands coming up to cradle her jaw. “Hey,” he said, his voice a whisper. “I believe you, Lefty. And in case you need the reminder, no one shouldeverdo that without your permission. No one.”

She nodded, unable to find the words.

David’s thumb swept across her cheek before he released his hold on her. “Can I shop with you?”

She stared at him for a full breath before finding her voice. “Sure,” she replied.

David smiled at her. “Right then,” he said, looking over into her basket. “What else do you need?”

Sage looked between him and her cart. “Eggs?”

“Come on. Let’s go get you some eggs.”

For a moment neither of them spoke, the only sound between them the whine and click of the carts as they reached the end of the aisle.

“You know you don’t have to have it all together with me, right?”

Sage stopped. She looked at him,reallylooked at him, and saw nothing there but trust and care and all of the things she’d never let herself need from another person.

This man had held her through the most painful moment in her recent life, a moment when her past had dropped suddenly into the middle of her world without warning. He’d held her and offered nothing but compassion. Not only that, but he still looked at her like she was someone worthy of knowing. Even after seeing her broken, he looked at her like she was whole.

She still wasn’t entirely sure how she’d come to have David Hughes in her life, but found that it was suddenly hard to imagine day to day life without him.

There was the kissing, sure. She’d spent too many nights in bed thinking about the kissing that was waiting for her at the end of the season. But what about this? About the friendship he gave her so easily and the moments when he seemed to know just what she needed?

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