Page 56 of Hard Hitter

A brown-headed duck in a cloth diaper waddled around under Eva’s desk. I pinched the bridge of my nose where I could feel a headache starting to form. “You stole Henry?”

Eva closed the door behind us. “I didn’t steal him. Alexis needed someone to foster him while they fix the duck enclosure.” She brushed past me to crouch by Henry who wiggled his butt happily.

I blinked a couple of times until my brain caught up. “Foster?”

“Yeah. It’s temporary. They should be ready for him to go home this weekend.”

“What happened to the rest of the ducks?”

Her lips twisted as she stood and sent me an exasperated look. “They were all adopted except for Henry. Apparently, he’s been causing trouble—biting the volunteers—so no one wants him.”

My gaze flicked to the bird, who gave me some intense side-eye while following Eva into the bathroom. I wasn’t surprised Henry was acting up, but I also felt a bit of kinship with him. He didn’t fit in with the other ducks, and everyone saw him as a trouble-maker when he was really just trying to live his best life.

Water started running, so I moved to the bathroom doorway. “Are we even allowed to have ducks in our apartment?”

Eva adjusted the flow into the tub and stripped the cloth off Henry before setting him in the water. “I’m not worried about the lease. He mostly lives in the bathroom, so he’s not destroying anything. Alexis gave me these duck diapers to keep his mess to a minimum, and he’s been happy to play in the bathtub.” Henry let out a relatively quiet quack, then dunked his head.

“If he’s living in your bathroom, where are you showering?”

She gave me a blank look. “Yourbathroom. It’s not like you’re here to object. At this point, I might as well start billing myself as a halfway house to the apartment full of football players across the landing.”

I squinted at her. “Are you upset?”

Eva sighed, shutting off the water. “Not about you and Noah. Come on.” She led me back into her bedroom, closing the bathroom door behind us.

“Is he going to be okay in there alone?”

“Yeah, we have a system.”

She and the duck had a system, but I couldn’t scrape my life together enough to date someone I really liked.

Eva turned and speared me with her sharp gaze. “Okay, while Henry swims, tell me why you’ve gone off the grid.”

My first instinct was to run. Eva in interrogation mode was scary, and I had a lot of mixed-up feelings I’d prefer to ignore. She stared at me, waiting, and the words built up behind my lips.

“I’m hiding from my brother.” I blurted out. “He’s called four times this week, and I’ve sent all of them to voicemail. Suuuper busy. Can’t talk.I forgot how persistent he could be.”

She tilted her head. “Why?”

I dragged my hands through my hair, then collapsed facedown onto her bed. “Can’t you go back to harassing me for the size of Noah’s dick?”

“I could, but I’d be derelict in my duties as your bestie. Plus, I already have that information.”

I frowned at her. “How do you know Noah’s dick size?”

“Mac likes to talk when we work on stunts.” She sat on her desk chair and swiveled to face me. “Why are you hiding from your brother?”

“He doesn’t know about Noah yet.” That wasn’t the whole reason, but it was the most prominent. I dropped my eyes just in case Mac’s mind-reading theory was correct.

A bit of neon pink peeked out from under her bed. The color reminded me of something, but I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen Eva wear something neon. She was more of a jewel tone girlie. Desperate for a change of subject, I grabbed the material.

“What’s this?”

Eva didn’t answer, but I didn’t need her to since I had eyeballs. Running shorts. I pursed my lips and propped myself on my elbows. No wonder the color was familiar. Pretty sure the last time I’d seen these they were speeding past me at the 5K.

“Aren’t these Mac’s?” I held the shorts up so she could see them.

Eva shrugged and took them from me, tossing the shorts into her laundry basket. “He must have left them here at some point. Mac never met a piece of clothing he couldn’t wait to take off.”

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