Page 80 of Damaged Protector
“So if you can bump the ball up high, I can set it for Shiloh. She’s an awesome spiker,” Hawk continued.
When the game started, the night air filled with raucous laughter and trash talking. Sooo much trash talking, and the women were worse than the guys.
“Booyah!” Bristol shouted, hands stretched over her head in victory when she landed a hit just out of the range of Axel’s long arms. “Take that Mr. Superstar.”
“Oh, just wait, Queenie. I’m about to ace your ass,” he shot back as he backed up to serve.
For the next few minutes, I managed to stay out of the fray and not touch the ball at all—which was fine by me—until one of Landree’s serves came right at me.
“Crap!” I screeched, trying to remember everything Hawk had told me. I clenched my hands together and bumped the ball with my forearms. It flew high and…
Right out of the pool.
Dammit.
“Sorry, guys,” I called, feeling dejected. A hand that was a few degrees warmer than the water rested on my back, and I heard Hawk in my ear as someone hopped out to retrieve my errant ball.
“Don’t worry about it, Bee. She’s got a hard serve that’s difficult to hit.”
“No one else seems to be having trouble,” I said dryly, tilting my face around to see him grinning wickedly.
“I’ve got an idea. Do you trust me?”
“Yes.” It was a simple reply, but I meant it.
“All right, when the time comes, I want you to slam the ball down over the net as hard as you can.”
“Number one, I’m too short to do that, and number two, how will I know when the time comes?”
“You’ll know.” He backed away, taking that warm hand with him.
You’ll know? That’s all I get? Landree had the ball again, and obviously sensing the weak spot on the team, she grinned and served it in my direction.
Mother of pearl, I’m about to screw up again. Before the thought had barely gelled in my brain, I was being lifted by huge hands around my waist. The ball crossed over the net at the same time I reached that height, and I reared back and slammed it downward. The resulting splash of the ball between a surprised Bristol and Cam gave us the point, and I kicked my legs in glee.
Hawk let me slide down his body, and holy guacamole, that’s one hard-built man.
“No fair! You can’t lift a player,” Blaire complained, hands on hips, as my teammates all high-fived me.
“Show me in the rule book where it says I can’t,” Hawk said smoothly, one hand still resting lightly on my waist until Cam’s scowl in that direction became apparent. “You did good, Bee,” he whispered before taking a few steps backward and calling, “Let’s finish kicking some ass.”
We lost by a point, but at least I hadn’t screwed up any more. Now the entire group was sitting in the enormous living room at the Broxton house. Well, minus Tank and Bristol. Those two had left right after the game. Bristol had been whispering something in her husband’s ear, and approximately two seconds later, he was bounding upstairs to grab their sleeping toddler before hustling her out the door.
Though the house looked fancy from the outside, it was comfortable and homey on the inside. It was mostly tidy, but there was an occasional stray sock, children’s book or toy dump truck laying around that said kids live here.
Charli bumped Axel with her elbow. “Did I tell you what Max asked in class the other day?” The Broxton triplets attended Charli’s preschool.
“I hate to even ask,” the big man said wryly.
Her face creased into a wide grin. “One of the teachers was out sick, so I was filling in for her that day. We were discussing plants and soil, and the subject of using manure as fertilizer came up.”
“Jesus,” Ax said, covering his blue eyes with his hand. “The boys are all into toilet humor these days.”
Charli was barely containing her laughter. “So Max said if poop could be used to grow plants…” She was overcome with a fit of giggles before continuing. “He wanted to know if he could grow a tree out of his butthole.”
The entire room erupted in howls of hilarity.
“I swear, that kid is going to be the death of me,” Blaire announced, walking into the room. “I just put another batch of drinks in the freezer, if anyone needs a refill.”