Page 14 of Play the Last Track
“How best is best? Like sorority sisters that just happened to come from the same town and stay in touch after college, or sister from another mister type best friend?” Ivy giggles at Hollie, and I roll my eyes, fighting the urge to glance over at Katie again.
“Best, best. Sisters.” Ivy nods.
“She has a key to our house,” Scott grumbles under his breath. I watch Hollie’s eyes widen and light up.
“No.”
“She’s perfect,” Hollie says at the same time.
***
“I can’t ask this of her,” I murmur under my breath. Scott and I sit at the back of the team’s theatre. Wednesday nights are late ones for us. We practice outside in the mornings, break into teams after lunch for meetings, and then review game tapes of the next team we’ll play in the evenings.
“You’re sort of friends, aren’t you?” he replies, not looking away from the tape in front of us.
“Not really. She can’t even look me in the eye.” God, do I miss her looking at me.
We fall silent, Coach’s voice from the front of the room echoing around us and the rest of the team. Scott takes a deep breath and glances over at me. “What the fuck happened in Italy?”
I cringe. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, one minute you two are practically eye fucking across the dinner table, and the next, she’s slapping you and shutting a door in your face. What the fuck happened?”
I take off my cap and run a hand through my hair. So, Katie didn’t tell Ivy. Or at least, she did, and Ivy didn’t tell Scott. Unlikely, considering the two of them tell each other everything. After the way their relationship started, neither keeps any kind of secret from the other anymore.
“Nothing. Nothing happened.”
“Liar.” Scott shakes his head. “Fine, don’t tell me. Just say you’re sorry and then ask her to be your fake girlfriend. Hollie is kind of right. She’s the perfect candidate. She won’t sell you out to the press after it’s over, and the backlash won’t be massive on either of you because she’s not really in the public eye. They’ll likely move right on once you say it’s over.”
I shake my head. “It’s complicated. She won’t go for it.”
“I don’t know what to tell you. You shouldn’t have punched the guy, and you definitely shouldn’t have gotten caught on camera, but you did. If Hollie says that the way to fix this is to show the team you can be dependable, then we have to trust her. This is what we pay her thousands of dollars a year for. Ask Katie. I bet if you make the point that she can sit in the same box as Ivy at every game, she might just agree.”
“I’m so going to get slapped again, aren’t I?” I groan.
“Probably.” Scott smirks.
“Fuck.” I bury my face in my hands and squeeze my eyes shut. Fucking hell. How am I going to convince a woman who can’t even look me in the eye to move in and play house with me for a few months?
“You know what? I’ll get Ivy to feel her out for you.” My head shoots up to stare at Scott.
“You will?”
“Sure, man.” The shock must be written all over my face because he shrugs. “You’re looking at me like helping you is a foreign concept. Did you forget who argued our way out of the frat house party incident of 2016?”
“I just didn’t think you and Ivy would want to be involved in my mess. All that shit with the press and Ivy, after last year …”
“She’s getting the support she needs to deal with the press. Besides, you’re my best friend, and I want you to stay on this team. I just got here, and we have a ring to win, remember?”
“Hell yeah, we do.” I hold my fist up, waiting for Scott to hit his knuckles against mine.
“God, you’re a loser, Reed.”
He fist bumps me anyway.
Chapter Five
Katie
