Page 172 of Wish

“I told you Elite is behind you,” Ryan said.

“I really would suck at poker,” I muttered, totally embarrassed.

“Nothing wrong with wearing your heart on your sleeve, bro. Makes it easy for us,” Jamie mused.

“We can’t keep avoiding the place,” I said, choosing to ignore the heart-on-my-sleeve observation. It kinda stung since I tried so hard to not be such an open book. Clearly, I sucked at it. “Shirley seemed worried about it.”

Ryan nodded. “We’ll go back. Just let us know when you’re ready.”

Kruger and Prism came out of the locker room, Prism with a beanie on his head and Airpods already in his ears. Kruger had his bag slung across his chest and his hands buried in the pockets of his sweatpants.

“Bros, where we eating this morning?” Kruger asked as the duo walked closer.

“Campus,” Ryan answered.

Kruger lifted his chin. “See ya there.”

“Shirley’s tomorrow?” I said loud enough for everyone to hear.

“I miss their waffles,” Jamie said, forlorn.

“Me too,” Prism echoed.

One of the swimmers who was just coming out of the locker room heard me and opened the door back up to yell, “Back to Shirley’s tomorrow a.m.!”

I mean, I knew what Ryan had just said, but damn. On his way past, he nodded to me. “Passed word for ya.”

I laughed under my breath. “Thanks, Vargas.”

Once Kruger, Prism, and Vargas were gone, I pulled off my swim cap as the three of us headed toward the locker room for a quick change. Even though my stomach growled hungrily and we’d just made plans for breakfast, I thought longingly of driving back to the townhouse and slipping into bed with Max for another hour before I had to head to classes.

I never had a problem getting up for these earlier-than-early swim practices… until there was a warm, muscular, tattooed body wrapped around me. I hit the snooze twice this morning and was almost late for my first practice back.

“How you liking the Wrangler?” Ryan asked.

Before I could answer, Rinkin shoved out of the locker room, nearly colliding with us. His shoes squeaked against the tile when his feet planted so we didn’t all end up in a heap.

When he saw it was me, his face darkened and upper lip curled a bit. “So nice of you to allow us back to Shirley’s tomorrow.”

“You can eat wherever you want. I’m not stopping you,” I told him.

“You’d love it if I was the pariah of the team, wouldn’t you?”

Jamie stepped forward, and I held my hand up, not taking my eyes off Rinkin. “Going to eat at Shirley’s doesn’t make you a pariah. It makes you hungry.”

He scoffed. “Yeah, and if I go against the team, I’ll be the traitor.”

“Sucks to worry about your team turning their backs on you, doesn’t it?” Not exactly the best thing to say in the moment, but oh wells. It was true. And yeah, maybe I was sorta bitter at his assholery.

His eyes narrowed a bit, but I still saw the flash of anger. Actually, no. Not anger. Disgust. He really was disgusted by me. That realization would have affected me before. Might even have sent me into hiding.

But not anymore.

Now I had friends who had my back and had proved it more than once. I had Win who ducked out of classes and flew across the globe to make sure I was okay. And Max… I had all of him.

Rinkin took a threatening step forward, his body tense, jaw tight. “That what this is? Retaliation of some kind?”

I made a rude noise. “No. We called a truce, remember? I plan on sticking to my end. What I do and where I eat has nothing at all to do with you.”

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