You and Everything After

“Listen, legs—we’re almost done. And tomorrow, I promise—rest. I won’t push you as hard,” I say to myself, chugging the last bits of my water and walking over to Ty, who’s waiting with arms crossed, a cocky sense of pride worn on his face. I definitely like that in my boyfriend.

“Those are some fast sprints you were doing there,” coach says, reaching out his hand to shake mine. “I’m Matt Pennington. My son works out with Tyson here, and he said you were thinking of coming out for our squad.”

Of course Ty has a connection. I glance his way, and he smiles quickly and winks.

“Cassidy Owens, nice to meet you,” I say, still a little out of breath. “And yes, I have been thinking about it.”

“I remember you,” coach says, looking at me sideways. “Your team took state in California, am I right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Striker. You had a mean penalty kick,” he says, pointing a finger out to punctuate the fact that he’s sold on me. I’m actually a little surprised. While the rest of my team put out recruitment feelers, I disappeared. I figured nobody would remember my name—let alone my stats.

“Thank you,” I say, not sure what else to add.

“Well, I’d sure like to see what you can do, see if you can do any of that…” he says, nodding toward the treadmill I just lit up, “out on the field. We have some friendlies, non-mandatory, this weekend. Maybe you’d be up for coming out for a workout tomorrow and sticking around Saturday for a game? Inter-squad.”

“I’d like that,” I answer, and the speed at which I do surprises me. Yeah, I want this. I REALLY want this.

“All right, well, I’ll get Ty the info, he can pass it along. We’ll see ya there,” he says, giving me one more shake, sealing the deal.

When the weight-room doors close behind him, I feel Ty’s hands at my waist, and soon I’m trapped on his lap.

“You were amazing today,” he says, his lips close enough to my ear that his breath sends shivers down my neck and spine, my skin finally cooling off from my sprints.

“Yeah, well, my trainer was a little pushy today,” I squint at him.

“I was,” he says, his eyes caught on mine, his mouth in a firm line. “I’m sorry. I sort of brought some baggage from earlier in here with you. That’s not fair, and I shouldn’t have done that.”

He nuzzles his nose against my arm and kisses my skin lightly before looking back up at me. “Wanna talk about it?” I ask, sensing that whatever it is that’s resting behind his eyes is weighing on him even more than he’s letting on. He takes a long deep breath and our eyes remain locked for several seconds before his lip finally curls into that familiar Preeter smile.

“Nah, it’s okay. Just some stuff with Nate, personal—ya know,” he says with a shrug, and I almost believe him.

Almost.

Ty

I lied to her. I don’t even know why I did it. I don’t lie. I’m a truth-teller—even when the truth is fucking brutal and will hurt someone’s feelings. I. Don’t. Lie.

But I just did.

I sat there, looking into her eyes, my mind conjuring up a thousand images of Cass, everything about her that makes me smile, and then crisscrossing it with the absolute heartbreak I heard in Kelly’s voice just an hour before. I couldn’t get the two to parallel—Cass making me happy, and Kelly making me sad.

But instead of just telling Cass about Kelly, instead of sharing a little bit of my past—I wrapped it up quickly, cloaked it in a lie, and buried it under a fake smile.

I don’t know why I did it, and I’m not proud. I want to fix it, take it back, have a redo…but I replay the scenario over and over in my mind—and it always comes out the same. And I don’t know what that means.

Chapter 15

Cass

Rowe and Nate seem to still be fighting. When I ask her about him, she just shrugs, says he’s been busy. But I kinda think it’s bigger than that. She’s been going to dinner in the cafeteria with Ty and me, and I can tell she feels awkward. We feel awkward. Rowe just seems sad, like she had this brightness that was really coming alive, and then it suddenly started slipping away after their fight.

I asked her about the fight the other night. One of my moments of absolute eloquence…I just blurted out, “What’s wrong with you two?” She couldn’t really put it into words, saying something about how her old boyfriend—the one barely alive back home—made it impossible to move forward, and how it was probably for the best. She was giving up. Quitting. And I suck, because I didn’t know what to say to get her back into battle. But Ty did. And I love that he feels compelled to take her in. I can tell he’s trying to fix whatever went wrong between her and Nate.