Ryan Hunter (21 page)

“All right,” I growled after I had named
Winter captain of the opposite team and had picked Frederickson, Torres, and Miller to play with me. “You wanna know what happened? I was out with Matthews, it was a nice evening, but apparently we’re not made for each other. Period. Can we please play soccer now?”

“What did you do to her that she left the team?” Audrey Hollister demanded with furrowed brows. “Did you…I mean, were you two—”

“Of course not,” Mitchell snarled before Audrey could ask me if Liza and I had had sex. He cast an annihilating scowl in my direction. “Liz would never do that with
him
. He fucking kissed her is all.”

I fully turned to face him. “That’s a lot more than you ever worked the nerve up to do with her.”

“That’s because she’s been my friend, and I appreciate her.” Mitchell strode forward until we glared at each other from a foot away. “I’m not desperate to get every girl in town into my bed.”

The damn idiot hit a nerve with me that clenched the muscles in my gut. “Oh, but
I
am, right?” I sucker punched his shoulders, making him stumble back a few steps.

Tony steadied fast and returned the shove. “Liza is the only one you could never have, and that’s driving you crazy.”

“She’d be with me now if you hadn’t burped that bullshit about me playing with her!”

“Liza is way beyond your level. She would never choose you.” Mitchell cast me a scornful look.
“Because she doesn’t hang out with rats.”

The next thing I knew was that we were on the ground fighting for a truth that we both knew and that no one else needed to hear. I took a hard punch to my ribs, but I gave Mitchell a black eye in turn. Alex and Frederickson dragged me off of Tony before he turned blue in my headlock.

“Dudes, get a grip!” Alex shouted at us. “You’re on the same team, if you like it right now or not. No fighting a team mate.”

I tried to battle myself free from his and Frederickson’s hold, but they only fastened on my arms harder, twisting them behind my back.

“I said
no fighting
, Hunter!” Alex snarled next to my ear. “Take it out in the game. But if you want to stay captain you better get a hold of yourself and act like one.”

Sending him a killer glare over my shoulder, I wrested my hands free and tromped to the bench, getting rid of my jersey that Mitchell had torn in the fight. He’d destroyed a lot for me lately.

“A to M play with Winter. The rest comes into my team,” I told them in a resolute voice as I walked back. This way I made sure that Mitchell ended up in Winter’s team, but I also lost Frederickson as our goalie.

We then played soccer. And it was a bloody game, literally. Whenever Tony and I encountered on the field as we went for the ball, somebody had to drag us apart. Alex called the game and training off early, declaring that he’d had enough of watching us bashing our heads in.
Fine with me. I’d rather stare at the ceiling all day before I had to look at Mitchell’s puss one more second.

Back home, I thought about what Alex had said.
The duties of a soccer captain. Maybe I should take a break from playing all together. But then I decided I wouldn’t let Mitchell take this last important thing from me, too. He’d already taken enough.

I went back to training on Thursday but made it a point not to get into Tony’s path any more. I was done with him. Friends—we
had
been. From the guys I heard that he wasn’t back on good terms with Liza yet, and I wondered if she’d sent him the same text she’d sent me.

Go to hell.

Every thought I had of Liza ended with that particular line. Just why did she have to cast me out of her life so irrevocably? A small chance to talk things out…was this really asking too much?

Two weeks went by in which I’d found a way back to a normal rhythm in my life again, but it was more set on autopilot than anything else. Training wasn’t fun, but it was okay. At least it distracted me for a few hours each week from my aching heart. The fights with Mitchell had stopped completely, but also had all conversation.
That stubborn, selfish, goddamn bastard. He did well to stay out of my way, too.

It was when I noticed him checking his phone for texts or missed calls every ten minutes during training one day that I realized he was probably hurting just as badly as I was. Even if he hadn’t realized it when all we others did, he had loved the girl from the beginning. And with the crap about Cloey, he’d lost something very special.

I hadn’t seen Tony and Cloey talk to each other even once after that night. In fact, they didn’t even look at each other if there was no pressing need. I got the feeling that Tony really hated her and himself for what he’d done. Why Cloey was so hateful escaped me, though. She’d never made such a clean cut with her former
possessions
—or with anyone who came after Tony. And there were quite a few of my teammates on her list. Luckily, the guys weren’t in love with her but just enjoyed a meaningless fling, or else there would have been no more talking at all in the team by now.

Sometimes I wondered if Cloey raced through the guys just to hurt Tony. And sometimes I wondered why Tony didn’t give a damn. Maybe he hadn’t been in love with Cloey after all and just needed that one-
nighter to find out.

Ah, what did I care? He lived his life now, and I lived mine. Just like Liza lived her life without the two of us.

What a crappy development…

Walking up next to Tony to get my things, I wondered how much of the friendship that he and I had shared I really was missing. I hadn’t played
Call of Duty
in ages, and there was still a monster supply of cheese crackers in a drawer in my room.

With his back to me, Tony pocketed his phone and dragged out a sigh that he certainly thought no one heard. I stuffed my cleats into my backpack and zipped it closed as I said, “We both lost her.”

Tony spun around, no doubt shocked about the fact that I spoke to him—in a normal voice and not roaring like a mad lion. But his stunned expression quickly turned into a dry look. “Right. And you’re telling me this, why?”

I shrugged one shoulder. “I just think there’s no point in hating you, when she won’t pick either one of us in the end.”

Tony just stared at me for a second, and though he said nothing, I was sure that he was chewing my words over. He’d have lots of time for that because I turned on the spot and headed for my car.

I wasn’t any happier that day, but it felt good to finally let go of my wrath. Hating Tony after half a life of friendship was an exhausting thing, and nothing I wanted to keep up doing any longer. What he made of it was his problem.

Sometime this evening, my phone went off in my jeans pocket, and when I fished it out, his name and a little letter sign showed on the display. I turned the volume of the music down and flung on my bed to read what he’d mastered after half a day of mulling. Hopefully, he’d invited himself for a round of video games, because hands down, Justin had no idea of how to play cool video games.

But the text Mitchell actually sent me struck me dumb for the total of ten minutes.

REMEMBER WHERE WE CAUGHT LIZARDS AND NUMBED THEM WITH YOUR DAD’S MEDS? I’M HERE WITH A GIRL THAT CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU AGAIN, BUT SHE’S TOO STUBBORN TO TELL YOU SO. JUST THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW.

The place he described was a small pond in the woods. And the girl he meant was…mine. As the information sank in, it took me a few
moment to restart my heart, but then it shot into high speed and was all I heard drumming in my ears.

Liza wanted to see me. I wasn’t banned to hell any longer. Dammit, why was I still sitting on my bed and staring at that message? I stripped off my tee and buttoned my favorite black shirt, rolling the sleeves up to my elbows. Then I ran some gel through my hair and turned it into what I hoped was an irresistible chaos.

A grin started to grow on my lips as I raced my car down our street, and it spread wider the closer I got to the woods. Leaving the car parked at the dead end, I hiked the final half mile. Voices drifted to me, and soon I glimpsed two bikes leaning against a tree. In just a few seconds I would see her again.

Holy shit, I was actually getting nervous.

And then she was there, sitting on a log with her back to me. Her long, beautiful hair cascaded down her shoulders. My heart wanted to give out, but at least I could make my legs work.

I had no idea what they were talking about when she asked Tony, who sat mirroring her on that log, “Maybe.
Who’s coming?”

“Andy, Sasha, Alex,” He replied, not looking away from her, though he must have noticed me coming.
“He’s with Simone now, by the way. Frederickson will come if he doesn’t have to sit his baby brother—”

There it was clear to me that he was talking about the planned movie night in two days that I had let Alex talk me into. I didn’t know that someone had invited Tony, too. But it was good to know.

“And then of course—him.” Tony nodded his chin in my direction.

Liza jerked her head around so fast, it must have hurt her. Her apple green eyes were huge, and her sweet
mouth hung slightly open. Kissable lips was the first thought that came to my mind as we started at each other. Then I realized I should actually say something.

“Am I disrupting
anything?” I asked and went for a half-smile.

Tony rose from the makeshift bench.
“Nope. I was just about to leave.”

Startled even more, Liza cut him a glance and then hissed,
“What have you done?”

She didn’t know about the text message. That much I figured out. Leaning down to her ear, Tony whispered something back that I didn’t hear, but when he straightened again, he told her in a normal voice,
“See you later.”

His gaze skated to me, too, as he said it, and I gave a subtle nod when he walked past me.

Liza’s eyes were the only thing currently moving about her. She still had her legs hugged to her chest and her back to me, and I noticed her hitched breathing. Maybe it was mean of us to surprise her like that, but it felt so awfully good to see her again. And that she didn’t run, or shout at me to do so, was definitely a good sign.

I lifted one leg across the tree trunk and settled down behind her, looping my arms around her beguiling body and pulling her back against my chest
. It didn’t matter that she went stiff like a board, she felt wonderful in my arms. “I’m sorry for what happened, but I never meant to hurt you,” I said softly, nuzzling her neck. “And I certainly didn’t have any bad intentions. I swear.”

Slowly, her body relaxed against mine.
“Yeah, I guess I know that,” she drawled. “Susan told me a few interesting things today.”

I caught my breath.
“Did she?” Damn, what had the book lover told her? Probably everything about my fight with Tony, and then some. But what was I afraid of? Liza had a right to know. And if it made her forgive me, like she seemed to have done, I would have to thank Miller the next time I saw her.

I hugged Liza a little tighter, pressing my cheek against her brow.
“So, what are we going to make of this situation?”

“
Situation?
What do you mean?”

What I meant? Oh, I could be quite creative with my dream girl in my arms.
“I mean you…me…” I kissed her shoulder to give her an idea of what I meant. “Alone…in this place…”

Her skin coated with a nice layer of goose bumps when I trailed my tongue in a slim spiral toward her neck and up the column of her throat.
“With only the frogs to watch us…” I finished with pressing a gentle kiss on the tempting spot behind her ear.

Liza didn’t move, and I hated not to see the reaction to my caresses in her eyes. Shaping my palm against her burning cheek, I tilted her face slowly toward me.
“What do you say, Matthews? Should we two give it a try?”

Liza remained silent long enough to make me feel uncomfortable and lose all hope. But then a
reluctant smile curved her lips. “Only if you start using my first name,
Hunter
.”

The relief and joy I felt made me laugh.
And also how she called me Hunter. When she said my name, it always sounded like something dangerous. And hell, with those tender lips in front of me, it was too easy to turn into a wild wolf with her. I brushed her cheekbone with the tip of my nose, then I stole the first sweet kiss after three torturous weeks.

But before I went on with something I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop later, there was something I needed to sort out first.
“While we’re at it,
Liza
…I have a condition, too.”

“You do?
” She quirked her eyebrows. “What is it?”

“F
or the time being,” I said very slowly, so she would know how serious I was, “I’ll be the only one climbing through your window.”

A beautiful laugh escaped her and made my heart skip inside my chest.
“I think I can agree to that.”

“You
think
?” That wasn’t enough for me by far. Gently biting into her bottom lip, I wanted to coax out a real promise.