Chapter Thirteen

"Night, DJ."

"Night, Aaron."

Win clapped me on the shoulder. "Get a lot of rest. You already took your ibuprofen, right?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, Coach."

Bill grinned at me as he enfolded me in his massive arms. "Need a couple of knee braces for your jump tonight?"

"I'll pass," I said.

He laughed. "Night, then."

But I was the one that wanted to laugh. They all thought that there was no way I would try sneaking out my window again, and they were absolutely right. I wasn't going to. But they hadn't – not even for one second – considered the possibility of someone else sneaking in. Someone athletic enough to pull it off successfully.

I took a long shower and then took some time doing some girly stuff, like applying a face mask and tweezing my eyebrows and the suchlike while I waited for the appropriate amount of time for Win and Bill and Aaron to fall asleep. It wouldn't take too long, considering they'd all stuffed themselves at dinner and had yawned all through the movie that we'd watched as a family.

After a while, I headed back to my room, closed the door soundly, and walked over to the window. Once I was there, I unlatched it and lifted it as high as it could go.

A minute later, Brian eased himself into the room and turned to shut the window behind him. I settled onto the bed to watch him. Watch the way that his white T-shirt moved over his muscles and the way that his jeans rode kind of low on his hips, showing a strip of his golden skin.

He turned and grinned when he saw me looking at him. "Hey there."

"Hey." I leaned back against the headboard. "Hard climb?"

"Not so bad."

"Good."

He settled himself into the bed beside me and ran his hand over the hem of my black T-shirt. "Glad you dressed up for me."

I looked down at my basketball shorts and just rolled my eyes. "Sorry. I had no idea that this was a formal occasion."

"Every time you get to be with me doesn't seem like a formal occasion to you?" He feigned offense.

"Nope. Sorry." I shrugged as if to say 'what can you do'. "Maybe if you'd make it more worth my while, my attitude would change. Until then, though, there's not a whole lot I can do. Sorry."

"Ouch." He sighed. "I'll have to call Coach in the morning. Tell him that I'm too injured to play. You just broke my heart. Into a thousand tiny pieces, most likely. There's not enough superglue in the world to fix it. I hope you're happy."

I giggled softly and pulled myself up slightly to bring my lips to his. "How was your day?"

"Boring." He shrugged. "Football practice, then lunch with the guys, then more practice. I was beat when I got home. Showered, took a nap, ate dinner, and then came over here."

I chewed on my lip for a moment, thinking. "What if you wear yourself out with this? The late nights with me, I mean?"

He grinned and pulled me in. "I think that would be just fine with me."

When we pulled away, I tried to fight the smile to be serious, but I couldn't. "I mean, how would you explain your exhaustion to Jimmy?"

"Were you not listening?" He drew abstract shapes on my arm with his index finger. "I took a nap today. A long one. Besides, I won't need to give him a reason for my exhaustion. He's been at the practices. He knows what they're like. He won't ask."

"Let's hope he doesn't."

"But just in case…" he said with a touch of sarcasm. "I've prepared my explanation."

I laughed. "Let's hear it."

He sat up straighter and cleared his throat. When he spoke, it was in a voice full of faked choked emotion. "Coach, I didn't mean for it to happen. Neither of us did. And I'm sure you never saw it coming, because neither did I. Neither did she. But DJ and I…" He took a dramatic pause and pretended to sniffle. "Well, there's just no fighting it. Yes, Coach, it's true. I fell for my trainer. What can I say? What can any of us say, really, in the face of love?"

I had to press my face into my pillow to suppress the sounds of my laughter. When I could finally control myself somewhat, I raised my head and said, "If you say all of that, he'll just call you a pansy and tell you to take a few laps."

He pretended to be offended. "You're just full of all kinds of hurtful things to say, aren't you? Do you have some quota you're trying to fill? Is there, like, an online challenge or something? This hardly seems fair."

"Just giving you my honest opinion." I kissed him quickly.

"Hmm…" He sat up and moved the covers to expose the lower half of my legs. "How are your knees? They don't look so swollen."

"They feel okay. I just have a little limp. I think you were right about the jarring. They'll be good as new in a couple of days."

"Well, of course I was right," he said as he spread the covers back over me. "Have you met me?"

"Unfortunately."

"All teasing aside," he said as he gently wiped some of my slightly damp hair away from my face. "If they don't feel completely better in a couple of days, you really need to go to a doctor."

"I hate doctors," I informed him.

"I don't care," he smiled. "I care about you being safe and unhurt."

"Fine," I sighed. "If, in two days, I don't feel completely better, I'll go and see a doctor. Happy?"

"Ecstatic, actually," he said and brought my face to his for a kiss.

And after that, there was no more talk about knees, hurt or healthy.