“It’s okay,” I said softly. “I’m sure it’s all going to be okay.”
“And the worst of it is,”—Cameron pulled back to look at me, his expression beaten—“I can’t tell anyone. I mean, Ash knows some stuff, but Jase doesn’t get it. He doesn’t understand because football is everything to him. The end goal. But I have to think about Xander, my family. My dad wants me to focus on football, on winning State, but what kind of person does that make me?”
“Cameron, you’re eighteen. It’s senior year, I’m sure if things were… well, I’m sure your dad would tell you if he needed more help.”
He gave me a small smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I don’t know anything anymore,” he sighed. “Football, the team… Jase; it always seemed so important but now Mom might be sick, really sick, and you’re caught in the crossfire in this thing with Thatcher and I just don’t know—”
“Ssh.” I pressed my lips to the corner of his mouth. “I’m here, I’m right here.” I’ll be here as long as you need me.
Cameron held onto me like I was a life raft and he was drowning, and I realized there was so much more to the infuriating, cocky guy I knew him to be. He was shouldering the weight of the world; the pressures and expectations of the team against his family’s situation. And now, for reasons I still didn’t quite understand, he’d taken on my worries too.
I’d spent almost six years hating him. For being Jason’s sidekick. For standing by, even helping, my step-brother make my life hell. I hated their stupid football team, that hadn’t changed. I hated what they stood for, what they represented. The way people worshipped the ground they walked on and excused their shitty behavior because they wore a blue and white jersey. I hated the whole damn institution.
But I also couldn’t deny that although I hated Rixon Raiders with every fiber of my being, I was pretty sure I was falling for one.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Cameron
I left Hailee asleep in Felicity’s bed. She was exhausted. After we’d talked and kissed and touched some more, she started to crash. So I’d told her to get some rest and that I would check in with her later. I needed some air. Not from Hailee, she’d been perfect. Everything I needed and hadn’t even realized. But she’d said something when we were together, something I couldn’t shake.
Heading over to Ash’s house, I was hardly surprised to pass Felicity on her way out, Asher hot on her heels. “Do I even want to know?” I asked him as we both watched her storm from the house, fists clenched by her sides, anger rolling off her in waves.
“Just Jase being his regular asshole self.” He shrugged. “I’ll go make sure she’s okay.”
I gave him a nod and he took off after her. At least now we had the house to ourselves. I found Jase in the kitchen, nursing a funky looking protein drink.
“Did you do it?” I looked him in the eye, praying to God Hailee was wrong.
“What the fuck did you say?” Jase’s eyes narrowed dangerously as he rose to his full height.
“Tell me you didn’t do it? Look me in the eye and tell me you didn’t set this whole thing up to ruin her?”
I hadn’t even considered it until Hailee planted the seed. But as I’d lay there, watching her, it had taken root, growing into something ugly. Something I couldn’t stop.
It was a stretch though. Jason hated Thatcher, so the idea of them colluding to hurt Hailee was out of the question. Especially given the history between them. But I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d had a hand in everything going down the way it had.
“You think I had something to do with…” He dragged a hand down his face, letting out a heavy sigh. “No, I didn’t fucking do it. But part of me wishes I had. Is that what you want to hear?”
“But Aimee—”
“Aimee has nothing to do with this.”
“You fucked Thatcher’s sister and sent him a video of the two of you.” It was low, even for my best friend, and it had raised the stakes in their war. But he’d had his reasons. For as messed up as it was, Jase never acted without motivation or provocation and Aimee hurt him in a way few ever had.
“Yeah, well she was a conniving bitch who got what she deserved.”
“There’s something very wrong with you; you know that, right?” I hadn’t known what he planned to do to Aimee, but even if I had, there would have been no stopping him. He’d let her in, only for her to throw it back in his face. And in his twisted logic, Jason had only been killing two birds with one stone.
“Go fuck yourself, Chase. You don’t know what it’s like walking in my shoes.”
“Boo fucking hoo. You have this whole goddamn town at your feet. But it doesn’t mean you can walk all over people, Jase. There are consequences to your actions. Just because you didn’t pull the trigger on this doesn’t mean it doesn’t have your prints all over it. If you hadn’t started this thing with Thatcher, Hailee would never have got caught in the crossfire.”
“You think I give a shit?” He folded his arms across his chest, raising a brow. “You have no idea what it’s like living with her. Pretending everything is fine when it’s not fucking fine. My mom left because of her.”
“Hailee?” I frowned, confused. “Your mom didn’t leave because of Hailee. She left because your dad couldn’t let go of his past.” He was married to the game, the future he’d lost out on, the future Jase had within his grasp.
Anger ignited in his eyes, the muscle in his jaw pulsating. “I’m talking about Denise, dickhead. They were working things out until she came along.” He all but spat the word.
“Jase, come on, it was over.” Things had been rocky between his mom and dad long before Denise came onto the scene. “This thing with Hailee, it isn’t fair. She isn’t her mom. You can’t keep punishing—”
“You think I’m punishing her?” He barked, a wicked glint in his eyes. “I’m not punishing Hailee; I just don’t fucking like her. She thinks the sun shines out of her mom’s ass. She has no idea what a homewrecking bitch she really is. Do you know she chased him? She spent months sniffing around my dad when he and mom were trying to work things out. I’d catch her calling him, even caught them almost fucking once, and I heard Mom call him out on it.”
“Shit, man, I didn’t know…”
“No, you didn’t.” His expression was guarded.
“You never said anything?” But then it was no surprise. Jase was a closed book to everyone around him. Me included.
“What was I supposed to say? My dad, a local hero, a man everyone worshipped, was a cheating son of a bitch who cared more about getting his dick wet with some whore than fixing his marriage?”
“Does he know you know?”
“What do you think?” he snarled.
Mr. Ford didn’t know. If he did, there was no way Jase would have still been living under his roof because shit would have hit the fan long before now.