He snorted as he smiled, still staying in place as he leaned his weight against me. “What are you doin’ the rest of the evenin’?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Reply to some emails maybe. I did everything I wanted to do today. This working-from-home thing is pretty nice. You?”
I regretted asking the question the second it came out of my mouth.
But he shook his head. “Nothin’. Don’t feel up to much with my blood sugar levels bein’ all weird.” He slid me a look like he was waiting for me to contradict that’s what had made him faint.
I just pinched my lips together.
“Wanna watch a movie?”
“What are you going to watch?” CJ asked from the kitchen. From the sounds of it, he was pulling something out of the fridge and was going to heat it up.
“I don’t know what’s on. I haven’t checked, but there’s gotta be somethin’,” Zac answered before leaning back again to look at my face. “Unless you got a date or somethin’.”
“I’ll watch a movie,” I told him. “I could use a break.”
“I bet, Miss Popular.”
“I will crawl across the floor when you’re sleeping, take off your socks, and tickle your feet, don’t try me.”
He grinned. Then he tried to stick his finger into my ear.
Somehow he grabbed the remote without looking and started changing the channel. I didn’t think much of it until he sat up and scooted all the way back onto the chaise, his hip directly against mine, his leg lined up with my own. One arm went over the back of my neck, and he hauled me into his side.
Then he tossed the blanket over us.
He’s just being affectionate, I told myself as he faced forward again and started going through the movie channels.
He liked… to snuggle.
And I was lucky I was the girl around for him to do it with. The safe one. The one he felt so comfortable with.
Lucky me.
Chapter Twenty
I was downstairs washing my dishes about two weeks later, listening to Zac talking on the phone with his agent—CJ had left to run errands—when the doorbell rang.
He glanced at me, and I shrugged. It wasn’t like I’d invite someone over.
Well, no one other than the photographer who had been by. I still couldn’t believe it had happened, much less grasp just how amazing the pictures she’d taken were. It had taken five days to get all the shots done.
Five days of Zac oohing and aahing with me as he spent his bye week—a sort of week vacation every team got during the season—on the couch and around the kitchen, watching the woman in action. He’d helped me cook and clean and been my moral support the entire time.
Part of me had expected him to say bye and go off on vacation like CJ—who had gone to the Virgin Islands with Amari and another player whose name I couldn’t remember. But he hadn’t gone anywhere, not even to visit his beloved Mama or Paw-Paw. He’d hung out with me. We’d gone grocery shopping, to the movies, to the beach even though it was crazy windy, and we’d gone for a couple of long walks.
And if it hadn’t been for the fact that I still hadn’t gotten my channel back, it would have been a great week we’d gotten to spend together. But the loss had loomed over my head and in my heart even though I tried my best not to think about it since there wasn’t all that much I could do but call and email repeatedly.
Anyway.
By the time I’d rinsed the soap off my hands and dried them, the doorbell rang again. Zac put his hand over the receiver. “Gimme a sec, darlin’, and I’ll get it.”
I mouthed “I got it.”
He needed to focus on his conversation about next season. I’d been eavesdropping the whole time he was on the phone and knew exactly what kind of plan they were formulating.
Sign another year with the White Oaks if they’d take him, or he would go just about anywhere else if they didn’t.
But it all hinged on one major thing: the remaining games of the season.
If he managed to get the team to the playoffs—which I was hoping more than anything happened—then there was a shot. The White Oaks were the dark horse of the season. Mostly because of Zac and the way he’d played and led the team. I’d been on the edge of my seat days ago when he’d been in Arizona and they pulled an upset out of nowhere in the last quarter. I was glad Trevor hadn’t been at his house, because I’d been screaming at the top of my lungs and jumping up and down when Zac threw a pass that CJ connected with and won them their game.
I’d stayed up that night to make them donuts that they could eat when they got home the next morning as a treat. Even Deepa had texted me with firework emojis at the end. I’d said bye to her a couple of days ago when I’d gone over to her place and helped her pack before she drove home to be with her mom. I was going to miss her a lot, but I knew she had to go. We would keep in touch, I’d make sure of it.
I still had no idea what I was going to do without her or in general. Zac had helped me the last time I’d filmed, but I knew I couldn’t rely on him always being there. I was still recording videos, getting ready for the day I’d get my channel back. Zac was trying to keep me optimistic.
Anyway.
Sure, the current season wasn’t over-over yet, but they had to win the next couple of games to make it into the playoffs. If they made it into the playoffs, that was one thing. If they didn’t… well, that was going to be a totally different story for Zac.
The pressure he was under kept me up at night.
Well, that and the fact WatchTube still hadn’t taken access of my channel away from the motherfucking hacker assholes who had taken it from me. I’d raised hell this last week and had some of my viewers call and email too. I’d even had a couple of other blogger friends post about it.
And they still wouldn’t give me an update or just straight-up give it back to me.
But the more time it took, the more convinced I made myself that I was going to get it back and shoot straight for the damn moon with it. I wasn’t going to lose it, especially to some assholes. If I had to sue WatchTube, I would.
I’d just sell a kidney to get a lawyer.
Or ask one of the two people who loved me who would give me the money without a blink, if I stopped being stubborn.
If I wasn’t feeling so stressed from Zac’s future being on the line, me not knowing what the hell I was going to do and where I was going to live, and all the drama with having my channel hacked, I would have been overjoyed that some things were progressing.
Things were going to get better though; I could feel it. I just had to stay strong and keep my eye on the prize.
And quit my job.
I was doing that shit the second I got my channel back, I’d decided. My three weeks off from work were coming to an end, and I was ready to cut ties now that I didn’t feel any obligation to stay at Maio House. My two weeks’ notice was already typed and saved as a draft.
Now, I just needed my channel back.
I made my way toward the door after gesturing to him again that I would answer it, instantly spotting a woman standing in front of the glass door, holding a baby on one hip and her cell in the other.
She was pretty. Beautiful really. Way taller than me. And the baby in her arms, squirming to get down from the looks of it, couldn’t be three years old. A toddler.