Page 61 of Just Friends
I took in a big breath, braced my core, and sank until I hit full depth.
At the bottom of my squat, the weight seemed insurmountable. For a terrifying second, I was convinced I lacked the strength to stand back up. Panicked thoughts raced through my mind—did I have to dump the bar? Did I need to shout to my spotters to bail me out?
But then all I had to do was remember what anidiotI was when I kissed Piper.
Ever since that day, nothing’s been the same around the condo. Sure, we see still each other all the time as we go throughout our days. I say hi to her, Itryto get her to talk to me … but she doesn’t seem interested. We don’t talk about anything anymore besides surface-level bullshit. The air between us is charged now—andnotthe good kind of charge that convinced me it was a great idea to kiss her in the first place. No, instead it’s aterriblecharge, cringe-inducing and awkward and lame. Hell, she can barely look me in the eye anymore.
And it’s all because I fuckedeverythingup with that damn kiss.
With a blood boiling rage, I let out a loud roar and pushed my feet through the floor, powering my way out of the box. I stood erect, victorious, the sweet jangling of iron like music to my ears.I slammed the bar back onto the rack pins, making the walls and floor of the gym tremble.
The boys gathered around me to congratulate me with ass pats and fist bumps.
Niko, one of my spotters, pursed his lips. “Not bad, Big Rig. How much weight that was?”
The muscles in my posterior chain were ablaze, my thighs trembled, and my brain was flooded with a tidal wave of endorphins. Lifting is the best kind of drug.
“Six ninety-five,” I said, panting for air.
“How much that is in kilograms?” Niko asked.
“Sorry, bud, can’t help you with that one,” I muttered. I toweled at the sweat that dripped down my face. “I’m a hockey player, not a mathematician.”
“To quickly convert pounds to kilos, you divide by two and take off ten percent,” Jack Hathaway instructed. Hath, the team’s resident math wiz, was back in Dallas after his month-long honeymoon up north. “So that’s about, oh, three hundred and fifteen kilograms.”
“Math guy Hath!”someone chirped.
“Jack Mathaway!”someone else added.
Impressed, Reavo whistled.“Damn, Riggs, you’re beastin’ lately. Was that a PR?”
PR: personal record. My previous PR on the squat was six hundred and eighty-five pounds.
“Sure was,” I said, angrily sliding a pair of two-and-a-half pounders onto the bar to get me to an even seven hundred.
“Whoa, slow down, brother,” Dane said. “We don’t need you injuring yourself ego-lifting a few days before the season begins.”
“Trust me,” I muttered, “there’s no ego involved in this atall.”
The boys fell quiet, a sense of unease in the air. And anytime the mood became uncomfortable, you could always count on a certain joker to cut the tension.
“Call me crazy, Big Rig,” Parisi began with a smirk, “but I can’t help but notice you’ve been a little cranky lately, and I’ve been wondering—”
“Not in the mood, Frenchy,” I said.
“—ifyour attitude might havesomethingto do with that newfound soulmate of yours?”
Parisi watched our live-stream when it aired. So did a few of the other guys on the team. By now, the guys who hadn’t watched the stream when it aired had caught the highlights some joker uploaded to YouTube. The boys have tried to get me to crack about what happened off-camera, buying into (orpretendingto buy into) the latest internet gossip conspiracy theories—Piper and Jax are hooking up, the whole promotion was a scam!—or whatever.
Some of those internet losers even went so far as to fiddle with the video settings. They turned up the volume and edited out the background noise so they could try to make out what Piper and I were saying to each other on the couch. Some of those trolls evenswearthey can distinctly hear the sound of us kissing. Who knew Piper would attract such deranged fans with Soulmate?
Uh, but they’re right—you didkiss her,something inside me protested—before I angrily squashed it.
Parisi continued to needle me with a shit-eating grin. “How are things atChez Cameronnow that you and Piper finally found out you were made for each other, anyhow?”
I grumbled. “For fuck’s sake, Frenchy. Ijustsaid I’m not in the mood.”
“Tabernac!” he laughed, throwing his arm around my shoulder. “Lighten up, man! I’m just kidding you! Sheesh …”
