Page 46 of Crush
Chapter 16
Shea
I hurried back from the bar as fast as I could without spilling Brynn's glass of wine.
That took forever!
In my head, I could already hear all the idiotic things my teammates were saying to Brynn. All the bawdy jokes, the questions about whether we were 'banging' or not, the crude pickup lines from the single guys.
God only knows what terrible shit those guys could say to an innocent girl like Brynn.
I found her standing with Paige, and sure enough, she looked shell-shocked. I passed her the glass of wine.
“Here you go, Brynn. Sorry it took so long. You should've seen the line to the bar.”
“T-thank you,” she said, her eyes nervously darting from side to side to avoid mine. She immediately took a long sip of the Merlot.
“Okay, tell me who said it,” I grumbled.
“What?” Brynn stammered.
“One of my teammates said something stupid to you, didn't they?”
“No—actually—I was talking with Ella.”
“Ella?” I asked with a gasp. Sweet and honest Ella said something rude to Brynn? I never would've expected that in a million years. “What did Ella say?”
“She, uh.” Brynn's gaze dropped to her feet. “She just told me about theBrawler King and Queenaward. I—I had no idea that you and Chloe had such a great streak going. It's so sad that it's coming to an end.”
I laughed. “That's it? Oh, Brynn, trust me, it's not a big deal. Honestly, I'm glad someoneelseis going to win it this year. There's so many great couples here. Lance and Paige. Radar and Ella. Ilya and Natalya. Someone else deserves to wear the crown and do the dance for once.”
“There's a crown? And a dance?” Brynn asked, and she took another heavy gulp of her wine.
“Yeah, and I know what you're thinking: that this whole thing sounds really corny in this high-school-prom kind of way, right?”
She bobbed her head. “Yeah … sure does …”
“But it's for a good cause, because the Brawlers owner, Jim James, makes a ten thousand donation to the winner's charity of choice. Last year, Chloe wanted to pick the charity, and she—”
I stopped talking when I saw Brynn tilt her glass back and let the rest of her wine rain down her throat.
“Oh. Wow. I guess you need another,” I said, my eyes instinctively going in the direction of the mile-long bar line.
“I'll wait in line this time,” Brynn said as she and Paige rushed off together.
I watched Brynn and Paige scurry off, wondering,what the hell was that about?
Ilya, Brooksy, and Stoner materialized at my side. They clapped me on the shoulders and shook me around.
“Boo~oomer,” Brooksy said with a whistle. “You said she was attractive but you never told us that she's abeaut. Wow. So when are you going to make your move? Tonight, right?”
“Would you guys cut it out with that?” I groaned. “I'm not making any moves. It's not like that.”
No matter how much I wished it could be.
“Yeah, sure. You should see the way you look at each other,” Ilya said. The goalie clasped his hands together, batted his eyelids, and gave me these obnoxious doe-eyes. “Oh, Shea!”
I gave him a shove.
