Page 23 of The Draft
Something that felt a lot like relief washed through me, because then Iknew his odd behavior today at practice was just him being a dick.
“But that’s beside the point.” She waved her hand dismissively in my direction. “We’re going to be around each other a lot these next few months with your games, so we need to play nice, and the only way we’re going to do that is if we come up with a strategy.”
Strategy?She kissed the living daylights out of me the other week, and all she wanted to do was talkstrategy. It was my fault. I was too stunned and stilted to really give her my best stuff, but wow, the feedback was real.
Maybe she didn’t like me as much as she said. Maybe that kiss cured her of any feelings.
“MB.” Cade’s loud, gruff voice made Madison jump, and I took a few steps away to ease any suspicions. “Glad you could finally make it to practice.” He rolled a hand over my shoulder, squeezing tightly before making his way to Madison and hauling her into a hug. “Did you enjoy watching me nearly decapitate Dash today?”
“Can’t say it was the highlight of my evening, but if it makes you happy, then yes.”
He chuckled, and I glared at him because he should have been at the party already. “What are you still doing here?” I certainly wouldn’t have taken the risk of talking to Madison right now if I knew he was still lurking around the place.
“I had a call to take, but I guess you were too busy fucking your foam roller to notice.” He pointed at my arm. “I see you’re still holding Bertha, so I’m guessing it went well,” Cade joked.
“Did you name your foam roller?” Madison asked, holding back a laugh. I was glad she was enjoying this, but it annoyed me that she was so cute when she was giggling.
“No, and I don’t fuck my foam roller.” I pushed him off me and cracked my neck. Usually. Today, however, there was potential because I was thinking about his sister.
Cade raised his brows and looked at Madison. “Whatever you say, but honestly, you need to take a long, hard—no pun intended—look at your life when you’ve sweet-talked your foam roller more than any girls at college.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I sniped, so badly wantingto throw the fact that I kissed his sister in his face, but I held back because that was like throwing a grenade on our friendship.
“Ah, you’re right. I don’t.” With his arm over Madison’s shoulder, Cade leaned toward her and said, “MB, did you know that our friend over here got some a couple of weeks ago?” Madison’s eyes grew wide and she blushed.
“He did?” Her voice had gone up a few octaves, but Cade hadn’t noticed.
“Yeah. He won’t tell me who the girl is, but he came sauntering up the stairs like he was some big man on campus with a delirious smile and lip gloss smeared all over his face.”
“Gross.” She curled her lip in disgust. Why did she look so freaked out? Did she think he was talking about someone else?
I stayed silent, not bothering to deny it because I wanted a change in subject.
“Are you coming over for the party?” I asked Madison because apparently it was the only way I knew how to distract anyone these days.
“Yeah, MB, are you coming to ours for a little fun? The guys haven’t seen you in a while, and we’re getting sushi. Your favorite.”
For a split second, she glanced over her shoulder and then back to me. “Uh, yeah, sure,” she replied hesitantly.
“Perfect.” Cade threw an arm over his sister’s shoulder, dragging her along to this party. So much for going to my room and thinking about things. “So tell me, MB, what happened in that dating show you’ve been watching? What’s it called again?”
“The Baseball Bachelor.”
“Sounds riveting,” I said from behind them because I needed to keep up the façade that I didn’t care, when really, I wanted to know as much about her as possible. Madison glanced at me from over her shoulder with a tentative smile. I gave her my usual look of discontent, so she turned back around. I kept walking behind them, subtly glancing at her ass whenever I got the opportunity. One thing was for certain: I needed to talk to her, and it needed to happen tonight.
When we were close enough to the house, and Cade was listening to Madison explain the storyline behind that asinine TV show, I sent her a quick text.
Dash: Meet me in my room after you’ve had your sushi. We need to talk.
She jumped when the vibration of the message went off on her phone, and it was only when we were in the elevator and she was far enough away from Cade that she read the message, responding with a thumbs-up emoji.
I had no idea how things were going to go tonight, but I hoped we’d at least be able to clear the air.
When the doors opened to our dorm, the party was already in full swing. Brooks had his usual line of fangirls waiting to get a picture with him, while Scotty was talking to a bunch of hockey fans in the corner. It was like any other night we’d have here, and I felt like enough people had forgotten that I was the one to initiate the party to question me. Maybe I could sneak out of here sooner than I hoped.
A couple of hours and several awkward conversations later, I concluded that it was naïve of me to think that I could get out of here unnoticed. I was the tallest one here for crying out loud. Subtlety wasn’t my best quality. However, the party had slowed now, and as I got myself another water from the fridge, I saw the opportunity to get away this time.
Walking past the couch, I took a subtle look at Madison, who was still sitting and talking to her brother. It would probably be a while until she was free, but that was fine. I was willing to wait because we needed to clear the air. Madison wanted me to forget it, and I desperately wanted to as well, but that wasn’t going to happen without her telling me that I was a mistake because she was drunk and couldn’t think straight. I needed to be a mistake, otherwise I didn’t know where this would end.