Page 3 of Branded
But my inside was a mess.
A. Mess.
And when people got a glimpse of that mess, they ran.
Not that I could blame them.
So. Balls. Bad for me.
Moving on…to the Team Competition/Bonding Extravaganza, and the moment I’d found out that the bonding wasn’t supposed to just involve the players, as I’d thought when I’d let former player (and maybe former friend) and my current boss, Oliver, strong-arm me into coming.
Nope.
It involved all the team.
Including the support staff.
Including me.
And if I were allergic to balls of all types, I was allergic to competition even more.
Which was why I was currently sidling toward the bushes, intending to use them as a shield before I got the hell out of there, drove home, and spent the next three hours in a bath reading my thriller and turning into a prune.
“And then”—Lexi declared, pulling out a small flower from amongst a large flat of them, a la Madame Sprout in the good ol’ HP—“you’ll pick your plant, stick it in a pot, and the person with the healthiest flower at the end of the…”
Now.
I darted, intending to slip around, escape out the open side gate?—
“Oof.”
I bounced off something hard and big, someone hard and big and who smelled nice and who I was really trying to avoid because he was hot, no doubt, but he also had balls.
Unfortunately, he was also currently blocking my escape route.
“Kailey.”
His voice rumbled through the air, slid down my nape, vibrated along my spine, hands coming out to steady me.
Conner Smith, defenseman for the Breakers.
My mouth opened, preparing another sharp sentiment, another barb that would keep him from getting too close.
Attack.
Run.
Safe.
My motto.
But then it happened.
It.
The most frustrating it in the world because I understood my triggers and tried to move past them and worked fucking hard at it to be—or at least appear like I was—a functional human being. Yeah, sometimes I wanted to sneak out of events and drown myself in my books (not the bathtub—it hadn’t gotten that bad in years), but I could put on the façade of the quiet, introverted friend.
But sometimes it just happened.
