Bay glanced over her shoulder again.
I hated how she looked to Holden for reassurance and direction. I hated that I wasn’t the one she looked to. Hated that I wanted to be.
Holden nodded. “You should take the bus.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, when’s the last time you had a chance to hang out? It’s been a long day. Relax before you perform.” Holden shooed her back toward the rest of us.
Her uncertain smile twitched. “Looks like I’m riding with you guys. Lead the way.”
“We’re headed to the last bus parked over there.” It was less than fifty feet away.
Bay walked first with Knox, and Holden came out of nowhere to walk her to the bus.
My jaw clenched, but I relaxed it. I didn’t want Holden to come along. I didn’t want him hovering.
Walking to the bus, everyone else shot me a whispered ‘holy shit’ and wide-eyed looks of amazement that we’d all be riding together.
“Chill out.” I gritted out. “She’s going to turn back around, if you don’t all stop acting like weirdos. You act like you’ve never met a famous person before.”
“But not Bay. Even Berk sings some of her songs in the shower.” Jules grabbed my arm.
“Fine, have your mini-freak out, and then promise me you’ll treat her like a normal person.” With all the ways her life had changed, that seemed to be the one piece missing. Normalcy. Not that my life was normal, but I could go about my day with only a few pictures and autographs. She didn’t seem to have any interactions that anyone would consider normal.
We got onto the bus and the driver pulled the accordion door closed behind us.
Knox wandered around the bus like it was a relic in need of exploration. Bay took a two-seater three seats back from the first seat.
I sat in the three-seater across from her.
Berk and Jules took the three-seater behind me and LJ and Marisa rushed to the back of the bus, joining Knox in their middle school exploration.
Bay leaned forward, her eyes darting to the back of the bus. “Sorry if I made this awkward. I can go in the SUV. I don’t want to ruin a fun night with you and your friends.”
“You’re not ruining anything. They’ll calm down in a few minutes. I made them promise me they’d stop being so weird. I swear, they’re not normally like this.”
I sat on the edge of my seat, shoulders touching my seat back and the one in front of me. Shifting, I raised my arms and rested them on the cushioned vinyl tops. Had these seats always been so uncomfortable? Or was it being this close to her without the watchful eye of anyone else in a place that brought back all those old Greenwood memories?
Her legs were tucked into her row. If we’d both had out legs out in the aisle, they’d be brushing against one another. Or her knees would’ve been between mine.
She shrugged. “Occupational hazard. I’m used to it.”
An ember burned in my chest.
Her acceptance of never being treated like a normal person, struck a match against my heart.
I grabbed for the normal.
“How was your day?”
She wedged her hands between her knees. “Work. Meetings. Phone calls. The same as always. How about you?”
“I worked out in the morning. We had a team meeting. I spent the rest of the day trying to stay out of the way of everyone planning tonight.”
“The work your foundation does is truly exceptional. There are a lot of kids out there who could use the help.”
“Unfortunately.” I slumped against the padded bus seat. It shouldn’t have to exist. My foundation should be unnecessary, but that wasn’t the case. Part of me hated myself for wanting to take a salary cut to play in Wisconsin. My signing bonuses went to the foundation. Taking a step down for more time on the field was siphoning off money that could be put to good use.
My own selfishness won out there, but the conflict still raged inside my head. Maybe it was all still pretend. Maybe the guy I thought I was wasn’t as good as I thought. Maybe I hadn’t really made it past so many of the things I’d tried to put behind me.
Being here with Bay threw all the cracks and flaws into sharp focus, but I was drawn to her. She tugged at me like a gravitational pull I wasn’t sure I wanted to escape. It would either be a safe landing or I’d burn up in her orbit.
It was getting harder to deny my past and deny the feelings she ignited.
14
Bay
Riding in the school bus brought back all kinds of high school feelings. I’d biked to school most days, but there had been the coveted field trip days when the entire class crammed into the elementary-school-sized seats. Voices had echoed off the metal walls and roof and excitement at missing a whole day of school had buzzed in the air.
The whole thing smelled like 8th grade algebra and lunch meat. As terrible as it was, the change of pace was refreshing. The nostalgia bombardment turned me into a seventeen-year-old version of myself with one whiff of school-lunch pizza.
Tonight, the bus was way less rowdy than any trip to a local farm or amusement park.
Knox had been an unexpected familiar face, but with his connection to Keyton, it made sense. He was here to support his friend.
Holden and Eric followed in the SUV. I’d felt a bit like a dork asking to ride in the bus with everyone else while my chaperones tailed us like overprotective parents.
The bus was a safe zone. Just Keyton and his pro football friends. No crazy fans or mob situations.
Our driver was a fan, though, and asked for an autograph. I did it quickly, glancing over my shoulder before everyone else made it to the bus doors. The last thing I needed was for them to all feel even weirder around me when we were just going for a low-key bus ride to a performance I was doing…okay, maybe not as low key as I’d have liked.
The rest of the gang loaded onto the bus. Holden tapping on my window to make sure I was okay was the only bump in the road to normalcy, apart from an actual bump where LJ and Marisa sat in the wheel well seat and tried to catch as much air as possible. They laughed and bickered more than any two people I’d ever seen, but the ring on her finger and the comfortable way they spoke to each other hit a chord of longing wrapped around my heart.
“He told us he knew you, but in a vague—we’ve-run-into-each-other kind of way.” Berk, with the floppy hair and boyish demeanor shoved into a brick house of a man’s body, rested his arm on the top of the padded seat in front of him. His Captain America costume seemed appropriate, if a little tight. Jules sat beside him in a killer forties Peggy Carter costume.
Knox took the three-seater behind Berk and Jules, propping his legs up on the seat.
“We did—do know each other. We went to high school together. Me, Keyton and Knox.” I pointed to Knox, who touched his two fingers to his brow before flicking them toward everyone. “It’s great you’ve all stayed friends even after college.”
LJ came back up to the seats we had in the front with Marisa. “We roomed together for senior year. The four of us.” He pointed to Keyton, himself, Berk and Marisa.
I looked to her. “What was it like living with three guys?”
“It had its ups and downs for sure.” She laughed. “Keyton probably had the worst time of the whole thing, right? LJ and I got pretty close that year.”