“There’s another type beside cocky arrogant jock?”
“Sunshine,” Cameron warned.
“What?” I played dumb. “It’s true. You jocks are all the sa—”
He dipped his head silencing me with his lips and tongue. I melted against him and a couple of people behind us snickered.
“Cam,” I breathed. “We have to... stop.”
“You’re no fun.” It was his turn to pout.
“How’s your mom, Cameron?” We both turned to Flick and her expression grew serious.
“She’s doing as well as can be expected, thanks. The good news is her doctor seemed confident they got it all.”
“That’s great.”
It was great. Karen had survived the surgery and her prognosis was looking good. She wasn’t out of the woods yet, and she still had a long road ahead of her if the doctors decided she needed radiotherapy; but it was as positive as it could be given the circumstances.
Wrapping my arm around Cameron’s waist, I snuggled into his side. Despite his mom’s surgery going well, he’d still wanted to remain off the roster for tonight’s game. Coach and his teammates begged him to be on the sidelines, but in the end, he decided to watch from the bleachers. I think, deep down, he was still waiting for the call to say something had gone wrong.
“She’s okay,” I whispered, squeezing him tighter. Cameron glanced down at me and smiled.
“I know.” He kissed me again, and Flick grumbled.
“I think I liked you both better when you hated each other.”
“You’re practically glowing.” Flick linked her arm through mine as we followed Cameron around the back of the stadium to meet the team and congratulate them on a well-deserved win.
“I’m happy,” I admitted. “He makes me happy.”
“Well, duh.” She chuckled. “You managed to score yourself a Raider. I guess some things do come true.”
I gaped at her unable to school my indignance, but she only laughed harder. “You should see your face. Just be thankful I didn’t get you a shirt for your birthday with ‘hashtag I ride a Raider’ printed on it.” Flick winked.
“You’re just jealous.”
Her eyes clouded for a second, the air around us cooling considerably, but then Flick was smirking as if nothing had just happened. “Of course, I’m jealous. I mean, I have eyes. Look at him.”
So, I did.
Cameron was fist-bumping and guy-hugging his teammates. His friends. We hovered while he did his thing, letting Kaiden and Asher give him a play-by-play account of every touchdown as if we hadn’t been front and center watching the whole game. But I realized it was probably just their way of including him in their victory.
“How are things at home?” Flick pulled my attention away from Cameron.
“It’s weird. Mom and Kent are acting as if nothing happened, and Jason barely acknowledges either of them, so not much has changed there. I’m at that weird place where I want to be mad with her, but I’m not sure I have the energy to keep it up for much longer.”
“Look,” my best friend said. “She made a mistake. Yes, it was a pretty fucking epic one, but you can’t help who you fall in love with. You of all people should know that.”
“I...” Flick was right. She always was. But it didn’t quell the sting of Mom’s betrayal. I think I was more hurt by the fact she’d lied all this time than the fact she’d had an affair.
People had affairs all the time. I didn’t condone it, but she and Kent were adults. They knew what they were doing. Jason and I knowing wouldn’t have changed anything.
But something told me, he was in no rush to forgive his dad.
“And you and Jason, what’s going on there?”
“Yeah, sister.” He appeared out of nowhere. “What is going on there?”
Flick rolled her eyes at him, but he barely looked twice at her.
“Don’t be a dick, Jason.”
His hands went up. “I come in peace.” His eyes flicked over to where Cameron was. “How is he?”
“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” There was no malice in my words. Cameron was right; life was too short. After sitting with him in the hospital waiting room while his mom underwent a life-saving craniotomy, I realized this grudge between me and Jason, the stuff with Thatcher, it didn’t matter. This was high school. Kids were mean and got off on bringing each other down. But the real world, where things were hard and painful and uncertain, was waiting for them. High school didn’t define me. I knew my worth, and this moment, right here, defined me.
Jason ran a brisk hand through his damp hair as I stepped closer to him and lay my hand on his arm. “You should go talk to him; he misses you.”
It didn’t matter what Jason did or didn’t think about me, our lives were entwined now. Whether he liked it or not. I loved his best friend, his brother in all the ways that counted, so we had to find a way to co-exist.
“I...” he hesitated.
“Go,” I said quietly. “He needs you; he needs to know you’re okay with all of this.”
Cameron might have said he was ready to quit the team, but I knew he wasn’t. Not really. But this thing between him and Jason was swaying him toward making the wrong decision. And regardless of what I thought about football, I didn’t want him to give up his dreams.
As if he felt us watching him, Cameron’s head snapped over to us. His eyes darkened when he saw Jason at my side. I dropped my hand to my step-brother’s back and nudged him forward. “Go, you’ll regret it if you don’t. Trust me.”
Cameron
I watched Hailee and Jason as he decided whether or not to come over here. She wanted him to, it was right there in her honey-brown eyes. But I didn’t make a move; this had to be on him.
Hailee was in my corner now. She might have only been in my life officially for a few days, but she had been there every step of the way. At the hospital while we waited for Mom to come out of surgery, waiting outside the locker room while I told Coach I needed some time away from the team. She’d been there, no questions asked. She just got it. Understood what I needed. And she was there.
It meant the fucking world to me.
But Jason was wired different. In his eyes, empathy and compassion were weaknesses. Traits that meant letting people get close—something he rarely did. So when he started stalking toward me, I braced myself for whatever shit was about to come out of his mouth.
“Hey,” he said.
“What’s up?” I tipped my head. Since I could remember, the two of us had been inseparable, but now it felt like there was an entire football field between us.
“It didn’t feel right out there tonight.” Jase looked over at me, his hair falling over his eyes slightly.
“You got the win; that’s all that matters, right?” I hadn’t meant for it to sound like a dig, but he flinched.
“Come on, bro, it’s not… Look, I screwed up, I get it.” His expression didn’t match the Jason I knew—the guy who was one step closer to State. “But you didn’t tell me, you didn’t—”