Page 266 of Second Chance Trouble

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just didn’t see the root.”

“That’s because you’re too busy talking,” I said teasing him. “It’s a hike, not a chat-a-thon.”

“Chill out, Nero,” Cage said defending his man.

I could respect that. Because I did, I let it go. But, the two of them did a fair bit less talking after that.

I didn’t actually mind their endless chatting. The only thing that got to me was that I didn’t have Kendall here to do the same. Thinking of him again, I pulled out my phone to see if he had texted.

“Checking for a message from Kendall?” Cage asked teasingly.

“Chill out, Cage,” I told him.

Not finding one, I stuffed my phone back in my pocket. After a moment of silence, Cage spoke again. This time with more empathy.

“He’ll text. I saw the way he was looking at you after the game. He’s into you, too.”

“I said chill out, Cage!”

Despite my reaction, I appreciated what he said. Every time Kendall took an extended time to reply, I wondered if things between us were over. He had already told me to go to hell once. Should I expect him to do it again?

I had to figure out the thing he had against football players. He was helping me deal with my shit. As a football player, maybe there was something I could do to help him.

Not returning to Dr. Sonya’s labor camp with my siblings, I headed home and waited for Cage to deliver Quin. Driving back, Quin and I talked about Kendall. He suggested that we invite him to our next game night. It wasn’t a bad idea. But I felt like I needed alone time with him before we did.

‘When are we doing our next session?’ I texted him when he didn’t reply to what I thought was a funny meme.

‘If you want, we can talk over lunch tomorrow.’

‘What about over dinner at Commons?’ I asked referring to the cafeteria connected to the popular study space. It was a little more intimate.

After our rapid-fire exchange, Kendall didn’t respond for an hour. When he did, he wrote, ‘Sure. What time?’

I couldn’t have been happier. Seeing him was all I thought about for the rest of the night.

Going extra hard in practice to burn off my excess energy, I was exhausted by the time dinner rolled around. I could barely lift my arms.

“What’s up with you?” Kendall asked me after looking me up and down.

“Hard practice.”

“Oh. So, what have you been up to?”

I wanted to say that he would have known if he had replied to my text, but I didn’t.

“I took Quin home on Saturday. He and Cage wanted to show me the house they’re buying together.”

“They’re buying a house? How is it?”

“It’s the nicest house I’ve ever been in.”

“Really? Wow.”

“I could show you at some point. The realtor said they could move in in a week.”

“Oh. Yeah,” Kendall said unenthusiastically.

“Okay. I gotta know. What is it that you have against football players?”

---