Page 40 of We'll Meet Again
“Uh - alright,” she stammered, but he was already jogging away.
By rights, his body should not have been able to move at any pace faster than a slow walk, but he was too eager to see Billie. Talk to her. Explain himself a little. He couldn’t do it in front of all these people, but he could at least arrange a time for them to have a private conversation.
“Hey,” he said when he got close enough for her to hear.
She turned her head and at the sight of him, frowned. “Hey, yourself.”
“Look, I think there’s been a…miscommunication,” he said. “Have I done something wrong?”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Do youthinkyou’ve done something wrong?”
“You’ve given me that impression, yeah,” he said. Seeing Nelle’s curious face out of the corner of his eye caused him to take Billie’s shoulder and lead her to the least populated part of the still-buzzing pitch, private conversation be damned. He needed to know now. “Talk to me. Tell me what you’re feeling.”
A bit of pink rose to her cheeks, which he figured didn’t have anything to do with the cold.
“I…” she trailed off, refusing to look at him. “I was embarrassed.”
“About?” he said. He had an idea this was, in fact, about him not going up with her after their date, but he wanted her to say it.
“You-”
She was cut off when Hector leapt onto Ethan’s back, still on a post-win high, and expressing it in rapid Spanish. Ethan laughed, but stopped himself at the irritable look on Billie’s face, so he eased Hector back to the ground.
“Bro, you were on fire tonight!” Hector cried. He pressed a finger into Ethan’s arm, and quickly retracted it as if he’d touched a hot stove. “Ay, caliente!”
“Thank you,” Ethan chuckled in spite of himself. “Y’all were a big part of it too, don’t forget now.” He paused for a beat, and then nodded toward Billie. “Could we have a second?”
“Oh!” Hector gasped. “Sí, sí, of course.”
“Thanks, man,” Ethan said, and they parted ways with a fist bump. He turned back to Billie, who watched Hector’s back fade down the pitch before meeting Ethan’s eyes.
“You turned me down!” she hissed.
“I did not!” he shot back.
She raised a skeptical brow at him, but he was just thankful she was looking him in the face again.
“Okay, I kinda did,” he admitted. “But I was just trying to be respectful.”
“Well, don’t!” she snapped, and immediately appeared to regret the words, as she dropped her gaze again. Ethan schooled his face so that she wouldn’t see his amusement. “I mean…obviously, I want you to respect me, but I also…” She stopped once more, the pink turning a deep shade of red. “Oh, never mind.”
He went to comfort her, but they were interrupted again. Luka was there, and slung an arm around Ethan’s shoulders.
“We’re going out to celebrate after,” Luka said. “It’s time for your initiation, Knight.”
Fond as he was of his teammates, Ethan was beginning to get annoyed himself. Couldn’t they see he was in the middle of something important? He forgave them quickly, though. A post-win high meant a drastic drop in observation ability.
“Yeah, of course,” he agreed. “I’ll meet y’all in the locker room, okay?”
Luka patted his shoulder with a smirk. “Strap yourself in, brother.”
He too, let them be.
Ethan shot Billie a pleading look. “Come out with us tonight.”
“What?” Her eyes widened. “No way.”
“C’mon, just for a little while,” he pressed, and took her hand, feeling that odd, tingling sensation he got whenever he touched her. “Let me make it up to you.”