Page 92 of Courtside

Some of the ache in his chest eased. “I tried to be good at it. Checking in with all the guys, coordinating rides, finding a tutor if someone was struggling. It was just my thing.” David tightened his jaw. “Anyway. One night we were all going out to a house party after a big win. We didn’t have to practice the next day, so we decided to cut loose. I’d had a big game, so I drank more than I normally did. At some point I lost my phone, and spent the night dancing before going home with a girl. I didn’t track down my phone until noon the next day. One of the freshmen, Johnny, had called me. He’d called and called and messaged. I guess he was drunk and trying to get a ride back to campus.” He closed his eyes for a moment before continuing. “When he couldn’t find me, he decided to drive himself. He drove his car head-on into another vehicle, killing the older couple in the other vehicle on impact.”

Sage looked at him, horrified. “David, I’m so sorry.”

“It took a while to track him down. We looked everywhere. Finally his mom called our coach after being contacted by the hospital. He didn’t make it through the night.”

“Oh my god,” Sage breathed, the heartbreak on her face a shadow of the pain he’d felt in the weeks after Johnny’s death.

David leaned back, resting his weight on his hands. “So I never drink much, just in case. And I’m…I’m weird about knowing where people are.” He shook his head. “Ask my friends. They all text me when they get home after we’ve all been out together. I know it’s crazy. Ex-girlfriends called me controlling and paranoid. Maybe they were right.” He looked Sage directly in the eye. “But it’s a part of me that I don’t know how to turn off.”

Sage blinked, watching him like she was seeing him for the first time. Reaching out one of her slender hands, she traced the large white letters on his shirt.Hershirt, he corrected himself.

“I didn’t know,” Sage said softly. “I turned my phone off and then was with Maggie, and I…I wouldn’t have left you in the dark if I’d known, David. I hope you know that.”

He shifted his weight, freeing one of his hands so he could grab hers, threading their fingers together. “I know, Lefty,” he sighed. “Are you alright?”

Her mouth curved into a small smile. “Yeah. I was thrown off by some things my mom said after the game and I just needed a little bit of time to get my head straightened out.”

“And now?”

“Now what?”

David looked down at their intertwined hands. “How are you feeling about…this?”

Her dark brows arched. “About holding hands in the middle of the gym floor?”

Always with the goddamn jokes,he thought, even as his lips twitched up into a smile. “About being with me.”

“I’m not always going to answer, David.”

It took him a moment to catch up with the abrupt turn of the conversation. “Oh. Right.” A little bit of that nervousness flared up in his throat.

“Hey.” Her fingers gripped at his chin, commanding him to look her directly in the eye.As if he’d ever look away from her.“I want this with you. I don’t know about you, but the person I am when we’re watching game tape in your apartment or making breakfast at mine is more me than I’ve felt in a long time. And I want more with you. All of it, maybe.” A flush of pink spread across her cheeks. “But I’m an independent person. Sometimes I need to be alone.”

David swallowed. He would work on letting go. On trusting. He’d do all of that and so much more for her. “Okay, Lefty.” He pressed his mouth to the soft palm of her hand. He kissed her skin, slowly, indulgently, like he had nothing to do but be exactly where he was.

“Can we go get some food?” Sage asked as her fingers curled into the short hair of his beard, scratching over his cheek and jaw.

“Yeah.” Neither of them moved. “You’ve got to get up first, though.”

Sage made a quiet growl of protest. “But you’re very comfy.”

“Comfy and hungry, Sage. Get up.” He slapped a hand against her ass.

“David Hughes,” Sage said, rearing back with an expression of mock horror. “Did you just spank a woman in your place of work?”

David rolled his eyes. “Why are you like this?”

“Because you get all flustered and seeing you sputtering makes me happy.” Sage climbed off of his lap, pushing herself up to standing before extending a hand down to help him up.

Somehow he managed not to groan as he stood up. “That’s not very nice,” he muttered, brushing off the back of his sweats. “Come on,” he said, starting to walk toward the door. “I want to feed my girlfriend.”

“Wait!” Sage called out. When he turned, there was a delighted smirk on her face. “Some asshole threw my ball all the way over there.”

She pointed to where her ball sat in the far corner of the gym.

David let out a resigned sigh, realizing that this was life with Sage Fogerty. A life where the only thing that could possibly interfere with eating was basketball, the thing that brought them together in the first place.

He shifted his weight. “Race you,” he taunted, breaking out into a sprint, blowing right past Sage just in time to hear her shouted “Fuck!”

---