Since he’d brought me home from school a week before, I’d been sick with the flu. I’d missed so much school that I was trying to get caught up on all the homework I’d missed.
“I hear you’re going to the Stevenses’ party with Maiken.” Emma sounded sad.
“I thought you were going.” When we’d been standing down at the lake, she’d all but demanded that Maiken go, and she’d given me the impression that she couldn’t attend if Maiken didn’t.
Her ponytail swung as she shook her head. “I’m not allowed to go.” She stared out at the court. “Be careful. It is Tessa’s turf.”
“Do you know something I don’t?” Surely Tessa wouldn’t act out at her own party.
The squeak of the basketball shoes on the wood floor echoed in the gymnasium.
Emma’s cheekbones sparkled from her pink blush. “She doesn’t like that you’re officially dating Maiken.”
“How does she know that?” I hadn’t said a word to anyone except Celia. I gave my best friend a sidelong glance.
“I didn’t say anything,” Celia said. “I swear on my grandmother’s grave.”
She loved her grandmother, so I tended to believe her. Besides, word was bound to get around school. I was just relieved that Maiken and me dating wasn’t a rumor.
Regardless, I was sure Chase wasn’t jumping up and down for joy over the news either. The conversation we’d had in the cafeteria skipped through my mind.
“Let me make it clear again. I like you, Quinn. I told you last night I wouldn’t give up.”
Now that I was dating Maiken, maybe Chase would stop paying attention to me.
“Is there anyone owning up to the rumor about Maiken and me having… you know?” I spoke low so Christine and Kade wouldn’t hear me. I didn’t think they would because they were chatting about Maiken playing point guard instead of shooting guard. I’d heard bits and pieces every now and again.
Emma frowned. “Dana told a friend that Maiken was unavailable, and somehow the rumor morphed into something completely different, or at least that was her answer.”
The area around Celia’s eyes crinkled as she regarded Emma. “And you thought it would be me. Thanks a lot.”
Emma leaned over me slightly. “Celia, I’m sorry. But Dana is a nice girl. She was devastated when the rumor blew up. But we’re in high school. Aren’t we?”
I just wished I wasn’t the brunt of the rumors.
A hand landed on my shoulder. “Quinn,” Christine said. “Do you have a dress for the party?”
Celia, Emma, and I turned.
“Lacey has a few dresses that might fit you if you need one,” Kade said.
“Mom,” Emma said. “I want to go.”
“We talked about this,” Christine said. “Maybe next year will be your time.”
“She can help my mom,” Celia piped in.
“Isn’t Liam helping?” I asked. The last I’d overheard Momma and Liam talking, he had said he was.
Celia shied away briefly. “He is. But we could always use more help.”
Ethan had been super quiet, watching his brother. “I can help too,” he added. “I want to see what all the hype over this party is.”
“Both of you are not going,” Christine said in a motherly voice. “Now I don’t want to hear anymore about it.”
Ethan and Emma huffed but said nothing more.
The entire gym quieted when Alex Baker’s parents came in.
“What’s going on?” Emma asked.
“Those are Alex’s parents,” I said.
“You mean the one who was a great basketball player?” Ethan asked.
“So he was the point guard that Maiken told me about,” Christine said more than asked.
I cast a look over my shoulder at Christine. She seemed worried all of a sudden. Maiken had big shoes to fill, but I had no doubt he would be great.
After the Bakers found a seat, the conversations perked up again.
Both teams huddled around their coaches. The cheerleaders got into formation behind the basketball goals, the rival team on one end and Kensington on the other. Tessa Stevens stood out with her gold ribbon tied around her ponytail while the others, including our head cheerleader, wore royal-blue ribbons. It figured Tessa had to be different.
The color guard marched out to center court.
The first game of the basketball season was about to begin, and my nerves started to sing. I’d sat in the stands many times at basketball games, ogling Alex as he ran up and down the court. But now I was about to watch my boyfriend in his first game for Kensington High. I was nervous for him. I knew how important basketball was to Maiken, and for that, I wanted him to shine, not for me but for himself. I wanted the fans to love him like they’d loved Alex.
As if Maiken knew what I was thinking, he broke his attention from Coach Dean and glanced up at the stands. Whether he was seeking me out or his family, I smiled and waved, and when he grinned from ear to ear, my heart melted.
The ref blew the whistle. “Time-out!”
I ground my back teeth hard, glancing at the scoreboard. Pathetic. We were down by twenty with only five minutes left in the game.
The team gathered around Coach Dean, who had handed me my butt during halftime. Even still, I couldn’t get my shit together. I didn’t know what was happening with me. I couldn’t pass. I couldn’t shoot. I couldn’t read my team, and as a point guard, I sucked.
Coach shot daggers at me. “What the heck are you doing out there, Maxwell? Have you ever played basketball?”
I was wondering the same thing. I was good. I was capable, yet the boos from the fans told me otherwise. Hell, the score said it all. Our opponents were good, but they’d had their own issues, missing several shots.
“I told you he was useless,” Chase muttered.
I flared my nostrils so hard, I swore I had steam streaming out.
“Back off, Stevens,” Liam snapped.
Chase’s dirt-colored eyes became pinpoints.
Coach squatted down with his clipboard. “Can it, all of you, and listen up. Stevens, you don’t belong under the basket. That’s Thompson and Woods’s job.”
Hell yeah! Chase hadn’t given me a chance to pass the ball to him, and anytime he caught a pass from Liam, Miller, or Woods, he couldn’t convert the ball to a basket. It seemed to me that he hadn’t played shooting guard at all. I was scratching my head as to why Coach thought Chase would be better than me at that position.
“Maxwell is ignoring me,” Chase whined.
My upper lip twitched, but I tempered my anger for the moment. We were there to win a game. Good luck with that when you can’t even play the position.
“Miller, you need to move more. Get around your opponent. And Maxwell, stop shooting the basketball every time you have the ball. You’re a point guard now, and we’re a team. Do you understand the concept of a team?”
Chase started to say something.
“One word, and I’ll deck you right here,” I said through gritted teeth.
Coach rose. “We’re down by twenty. We can still come back. Now get out there. I want a zone defense. Maxwell, pass the damn ball.”
I doubted we would win the game. I doubted Chase would listen to Coach. I doubted that I would be playing in the next game.
I got some water, willing the knots in my stomach to go away. They had taken up a home for the last several days. All week at school, I’d heard kids talking about the basketball game.
“Do you think Maxwell will be as good as Alex?” a boy had asked.
“I hear he’s a god on the court,” a girl had added.
“He can’t be better than Alex Baker,” another boy had said.
I had some big shoes to fill. I’d been up for the challenge until that conversation. I knew I was playing in a dead boy’s position, but it really hadn’t hit me until that week, so much so that I’d debated whether to back out of playing. But Coach had been stoked when he’d learned I would play point guard.
He’d worked with me every day after practice, going over strategy and tactics with the position.
Moreover, I wasn’t a quitter, no matter how bad things were, and I wasn’t about to start.
The ref blew the whistle.
I finished the last of my water.
Liam slapped a hand on my back. “Ignore Chase’s taunts, man. Play the game. I know you’re good.”
I appreciated his encouragement. Actually, it was something I needed to hear. Aside from the pressure of the first game, my new position, and knowing that the fans wanted Alex Baker back, I’d been feeling extremely melancholy that my dad wasn’t there. Granted, he’d missed many of my games when he’d been on deployment, but I could always count on talking to him about the game when he called home.
I jogged up to the sideline to inbound the ball.
Miller, the shortest of the boys on the team and a small forward who was quick on his feet, was closest to me while the rest of the players darted in around each other.
I stole a quick look at the home side of the gym and zeroed in on one girl with butterscotch hair. Like she’d done earlier, she gave me the biggest smile, as though telling me I was doing great. My heart accelerated even more when I swung my gaze to my mom, who was sitting behind Quinn. She seemed so proud, giving me one of her megawatt smiles. They shouldn’t be proud of me.
Thankfully, the ref blew the whistle before handing me the ball.
Get your head in the game. You know what to do. You know how the game is played. So what if you’re not a shooting guard.
I blew out a breath, waving my hand at Chase to get around the big redhead who was manning him. Liam was trying to ditch his opponent. The only open person was Woods. He was as tall as Liam and primed to shoot the basket with a toss of his hands.
Just as I was about to throw the ball to Woods, one of the Forest Grove members slid in front of him.
Miller ran up, hands out, and I passed the ball to him. He then passed the ball to Liam, who spun around, and with one step, he went in for a layup and scored.
Finally.
My team ran down to get into our zone position. We’d been playing man-to-man defense, but that wasn’t working. All of us seemed to have glue on the bottom of our basketball shoes.
“At least we know we can score when Maxwell doesn’t have the ball,” Chase murmured rather loudly behind me. “I think Maxwell’s head is clouded over from all that sex he’s having.”
Ignore him. Ignore him. Ignore him. My problem was that when it came to Chase, I was finding it impossible to walk away.
“Careful, Stevens.” Liam’s tone could cut stone. “You’re talking about my sister, and I don’t care that we’re in the middle of a game; I will knock you on your ass.”
I wanted nothing more than to sew Chase’s lips together so I would never hear his grating voice again.
Forest Grove was in position as their point guard, a short and lean boy, carried the ball down the court. He held up three fingers, signaling to his team the play he wanted to set up. Coach had taught me a few signals to let our men know what I wanted them to do. That night, signals hadn’t worked, mainly because Chase wouldn’t acknowledge me.
The Forest Grove man barely reached the top of the key when he shot the ball.
Swish was all I heard before boos filled the gymnasium, drowning out the cheering of the Forest Grove fans.
Then a Kensington High fan shouted, “You suck, Maxwell. Get off the court.”
Chase laughed.
All sound died, and red as bright as the sun on a hot summer day blinded me. I stalked over to Chase and threw a punch right to his jaw. Chase lunged, tackling me to the hardwood, ramming his fists into my face once then twice before someone pulled him off me.
Liam extended his hand as all the players on both teams made a circle around me. The refs pushed their way in. The coaches were right on their heels.
Blood dripped from my nose for the second time in a week.
Chase bared his teeth.
Coach Dean mashed his lips into the thinnest line I’d ever seen. “Both of you are done for the night. Sit your asses on the bench. Both of you.”
The gym was so quiet, we could hear a pin drop. I kept my head down, afraid if I looked at my mom, I would lose it again, not because I was sad, but because she would have disappointment written all over her.
Chase stomped over to the bench and threw his head in his hands.
I couldn’t sit idle or among the crowd or next to Chase. I needed air, or I needed to stick my head in a locker and bang the door against my skull a few times.
With the blood pumping through me at breakneck speeds, I grabbed a towel and left the gym. No sooner had the zero temperature hit my bare arms and legs than the sweat on my body froze, a welcome relief for the moment. I paced the courtyard behind the sports complex, holding the towel to my nose. I would have two black eyes, although the one Carter had given me was yellowing.
“Bro.” Ethan’s voice carried on the wind. “What is going on with you?”
I continued to pace, seething and berating myself. “Fuck if I know.”
“Do you want my two cents?”
I clutched the towel, finally coming to a halt inches from him. I always gave him advice when he asked or I offered. “I’m listening.” I would do anything to help get past whatever it was that was bringing me down and causing me to play like an amateur.
“No one can expect you to be the dead boy.”
I laughed, but it wasn’t light or funny. “Tell that to the crowd.”
“Since when do you worry over the crowd? You’re always in your element on the court. What’s changed?”
“Filling his shoes is eating me inside.”
A spotlight from high above on the building shined down, giving Ethan a glow as if he were an angel. “Why?”
As I considered my brother, something surreal came to me, and in that moment, I was looking into the eyes of my father as if he were standing there. “Everyone has been talking about Alex Baker, and the fact that he’s dead somehow gets me thinking about Dad.”
“Maybe that’s the problem,” Ethan said. “You haven’t processed Dad’s death.”
I was sure I hadn’t. “And you have?” It would take years. Or maybe never.
I headed for the sports complex. The air was starting to seep into my bones.
Ethan walked alongside me. “Not in the least. But you have to find a way to focus on the court. Why don’t you ask Coach to play one game as shooting guard? He’s really never seen you in action in a game. And don’t say he has in practice. We both know practice isn’t a game.”
I’d played better during practice.
Heat blanketed me as soon as I was inside, but I shivered nonetheless.
“Stevens is horrible at shooting guard,” Ethan continued. “He doesn’t move around. He can’t shoot. And he seems to stay near the net. What’s that all about?”
I wasn’t in the mood to figure out the answers. Besides, all I could come up with was that I was the problem, not Chase.
Footsteps resonated in the empty hall before I spied Quinn. She was a sight for sore eyes.
“I’ll let Mom know you’re okay,” Ethan said before his backside faded down the hall.
Mom wasn’t going to be happy with me, and no doubt she would scold me when I got home. But right then, that didn’t matter. What did matter was seeing Quinn. I hadn’t seen her since I’d asked her to go out with me. That was a week ago, although it felt longer than that.
She craned her neck to look up at me. “Are you okay? I looked for you in the locker room. I thought you and Chase had killed each other.”
We still might. “The game over?”
She nodded, staring at me with so many questions stamped in her eyes.
“I would like to spend time with you now that you’re feeling better,” I said. “But Coach will want to talk to me tonight, and then my mom will probably ground me.” The latter was a given.
> “We have school tomorrow, and I have a load of homework to catch up on anyway. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” Sadness hung on the last three words.
I lowered my head until our lips were almost touching. “Now that you’re here, I’m good.” Then I kissed her—no tongue action, just a soft and tender kiss. “I can’t wait to take you to the party.”
A laugh broke out in my head. I was the last person interested in that party, but for her, I was finding that I would do anything, especially when it made her light up like a bright star.
Oh my God. The party’s tonight. I literally had to catch my breath several times during the day, and it wasn’t only due to the holiday gala, but I had my first ever date. I’d hoped to spend time with Maiken during the last week, but that hadn’t happened. His mom had grounded him, and since Daddy didn’t have any more trees to sell, Maiken wasn’t working at the farm. Plus, I hardly saw him at school.
The only time I’d gotten to talk to him was at a recent basketball game. Coach had benched him for starting that fight with Chase. Maiken couldn’t play again until after the holidays.
He’d said he expected to be punished, but that was the extent of that topic and sadly the extent of our conversation with the exception of the party. At first, I’d thought he would cancel on me since he’d been punished. But his mom had given him the green light thanks in part to Eleanor. She’d said it would be good for Maiken to get out and clear his head.
Knuckles rapped on my bedroom door before it opened. “Quinn,” Carter said.
I had fifteen minutes before Maiken picked me up, and the last thing I wanted to do was argue with my brother. I was in a good mood, and I didn’t want anything to spoil my night. Regardless, I’d avoided the subject of boys and dating and even Maiken with Carter.
I brushed my hair in front of the mirror over my white dresser. Mom wanted me to pin up my hair, but I wanted to leave it down. I liked the way the ends were curled and how my hair framed my face. “I’m not speaking to you.”
He sat on the edge of my twin bed.
My room was the smallest bedroom out of the four in our two-story farmhouse. While we had acres and acres of land, our house appeared like a tiny dot amid all the rolling hills. Even our barn was almost bigger than our house.
My Heart To Touch: A Maxwell Family Saga - Book One Page 18