Page 65 of Ready to Score

The boy groaned and threw his head back. “You already almost killed us with all those bear drills last week. How much harder can we work?”

“Blocking drills until you drop,” she said. “Agility training like you’ve never seen before. The list goes on, dude.”

Alonzo groaned again, this time more dramatically. “You know what? I changed my mind. Maybe you should just stick to teaching us about chiaroscuro instead. You might be too evil to coach football.”

“I’d say I’m just evil enough to coach football, thank you very much.”

21

Leo Vaughn had a giant, annoying-ass head, but damn if he couldn’t fix up a house. Since they’d gotten back together, he and Miri had made it a point to have regular kickbacks at their home. The place was big, three floors and a wraparound porch, in addition to the few acres of land it sat on. Jade had rolled up fashionably late to see people scattered around the yard and spilling out the front door. She was sure that every Black family in Greenbelt had at least one representative from their delegation here.

It took her forever to make her way inside to see Miri. Constantly stopped by people who knew her or her parents, making small talk and giving hugs, fielding questions about the upcoming football season. She was exhausted by the time she made it into the kitchen where Miri was sitting at her kitchen table, engrossed in a loud game of spades. They were playing a classic four-person game. Aja and Miri on one team and Leo’s older sister, Thea, and her husband, Ahmir, on the other.

Leo and Walker—Aja’s boyfriend—were at two barstools watching the game with equal parts fascination and fear. It was a loud one, and even Aja, who was famously the quietest in their friend group, was getting rowdy, throwing a jab at Ahmir when he literally threw some card down on the table.

Jade grabbed a beer from the cooler in the corner and joined theguys at the counter, settling onto an empty stool. “Figures you can’t play spades,” she remarked at Leo. “Now you’re stuck on the sidelines with the white boy.”

Leo sighed in return, barely acknowledging her, but she still got a kick out of his reaction.

“Oh, he can play.” Miri spoke up from where she sat, not even looking at them. “He’s just permanently banned from playing with his sister because they fucking cheat.”

“We do not cheat,” Leo said, defending himself and his sister in that calm way of his.

Ahmir snorted. “They absolutely cheat. Even when they aren’t on the same team.”

Thea shook her head profusely. “We can’t help the special bond we have. It’s intuitive. We can read each other.”

“Special bond, my left ass cheek,” Miri practically growled. “Y’all make dirty little backdoor deals.”

Thea shrugged, her chin hiked in the air. “If that’s how you feel.”

“That’s what I know.” Miri pointed a finger at the other woman. “Which is why I refuse to sit at the card table with the two of you at the same time. I’ll die behind that too.”

The entire group shared a loud laugh, drowned out by the sounds of the party happening around them. Truthfully, Jade couldn’t play spades either. Not that she’d admit it in front of everybody. She didn’t want to risk the scorn or their attempts at trying to teach her.

Relaxing back onto the barstool, she took a few big gulps of the cold beer in her hand. Truthfully, she almost hadn’t shown her face. She still wasn’t convinced that she’d stay much longer. Jade had spent the past few days holed up in her apartment, oscillating between self-pity and righteous indignation. Her last encounter with Lim had left her piteous and pitiful. She’d swallowed her pride and invited theother woman into her home only to find herself collapsed in a heap of tears when Lim had left.

Lim had looked her straight in her face, those dark eyes of hers searing into Jade like daggers, and told her explicitly that Jade didn’t seem like she was at all ready to be in any kind of relationship with her.

And damn if that didn’t seem to be the through line of her entire life right now. Not even two months ago, Jade had her chest puffed out to the world, half confidence, half ego, completely secure in the knowledge that she wasit. Now? Shit. She could barely go ten minutes without almost crumbling under the weight of her current reality.

She recognized that she was being dramatic in some respects. There were people in the world—people within a square mile of her, even—who were suffering much more dangerous realities. Jade had her health, her friends and family, her job, she even made plenty of money. Coach or no coach, Lim or no Lim, her heart would not spontaneously combust in her chest.

But damn if it didn’t feel like it. She had put all her eggs in one basket off the sheer confidence that Landry would recognize her as the best choice for his successor and reward her for it. Then Lim had come into the picture, and she’d made Jade sloppy, impulsive.

No. That wasn’t true. Lim hadn’t done anything, not really. Jade had gotten spooked and started to act accordingly. Even when her so-called confidence was supposed to protect her and keep her steady. All it had taken was a pretty girl with shiny eyes to make her fold like a damn lawn chair. Lim had barely had to do anything but turn that knowing grin her way, and Jade had literally risked her career in an attempt to ease the anxiety and butterflies the sight of it caused in her belly.

She was a mess.

Jade wasn’t sure how long she sat there lamenting, but a ruckuscoming from the table interrupted her navel-gazing. All four players were standing, shoulders tensed, eyes locked on the table in front of them. She had absolutely no clue what was going on. One second, she heard a collective intake of breath, and the next, everyone erupted as Aja slapped cards down on the table.

“Ooooh-weee,” Miri said, doing the gloating for them both. “Look at that. I know you’re mad. I know you are.”

Ahmir rubbed a hand over his bald head, composure kept, but Thea was heated. “Y’all barely won.Barely.”

“A win is a win,” Aja said, grinning.

Miri grabbed Aja up by the neck, squeezing her and planting a wet kiss on her forehead. She was so ecstatic, someone might have thought she’d bet the house on the odds of them winning.

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