Page 14 of Game Changer

“You’re making this harder than it needs to be. On you and everyone else,” Harlan calls, catching up to me.

I drop my half-open bag between my feet. Sweat drips off my face and lands between my Kobes on the polished floor. “You think I don’t care about basketball?”

“You care more than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s why this team went to the effort to trade for you despite your baggage.”

I snort. “If you were part of this team when the trade came up, I would’ve passed.”

I keep my game dialed so the rest doesn’t bleed in. Except…

A flash of neon pink catches my eye.

It’s only a staffer wheeling a cart of colored basketballs for some charity thing at the other end of the hall.

Still, the sight drags me back to the plane, and the girl whose hair was the same color.

Nova.

The pixie sitting in my seat who said more in an hour than I say all day. Cute and bright, the kind of cheerful that tries to rub off on you when you’re not looking. Even when I tried to shut her down, she persisted.

She didn’t know who I was. Can't recall the last time I felt so invisible.

At first, it was entertaining, but after a while, it was liberating.

I could be anyone, do anything I wanted.

A hollowness has lingered in my chest ever since I arrived here in Denver last year. An emptiness or a dissatisfaction or both that I can’t talk about, let alone square with, because I’m living a life most people only dream of.

But when she looked up at me with those indigo eyes, trusting and vulnerable and talking about how she was gonna go to the wall for her sister, I felt something tugging on my heartstrings for the first time in years.

Harlan’s voice brings me back. “You’re one of the best players I’ve ever seen, Wade. You can make this team win. But your stock isn’t as high as it was. You’re coming off an injury, and even if you weren’t, you can’t do this alone.”

I grab a sweat towel out of my bag, wiping my neck.

“Save your breath. Don’t pretend to be my friend or whatever the new management technique is—we’re not friends. You made sure of that years ago.”

I ball up the fabric and shoot it into the used towel bin half a dozen feet away before continuing down the hall toward the locker room.

4

NOVA

“Oh God, yes.”

My praise echoes off the walls of the bathroom.

The shower is every bit as decadent as it looked. The water pressure is like a massage, and the heat is amazing.

I bounded out of bed at six thanks to the time difference. The flight is behind me, and so is everything from my past life.

Back home, I might have a complicated work and relationship status, but in Denver, I’m about to help my sister have the most incredible wedding and maybe create a new version of myself at the same time.

When I stepped into the shower, I let the warm water cascade over my body, washing away the grime of a long day of travel.

Now my fingertips graze my skin, following my curves.

Without permission, my growly plane hottie appears in front of me.

His dark eyes and messy hair. The way he looked at me made my skin tingle. The way he spoke to me made me feel…

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