More Than A Game (The Kings of Kroydon Hills Book 2)
Page 5
So, the ice princess does have a weakness after all.
That thought quickly leaves my mind as Sabrina pulls her hoodie over her head, and the white t-shirt she has on underneath goes with it. Her stomach is on full display before the t-shirt gets pulled back down, giving me just enough time to enjoy the curves of her hips and the slight indents of her abdominal muscles. There’s something about a girl with muscles she’s earned that is so fucking sexy.
When I look up, I can tell I’ve been caught staring and can’t bring myself to give a damn, so instead, I flash my best panty-melting smile and get a tight-lipped look of annoyance in return.
“Okay, Aiden, you walked me to my room. I’m safe for the night. Unless you are going to tuck me into bed, I think it’s time for you to go. Tell Nattie I’ll see her tomorrow for yoga.”
Crossing my arms and flexing my muscles just a little for show, I ask, “Why do you do that?”
“Do what?” Sabrina looks at me, confused.
Narrowing my eyes, I answer, “Call me Aiden. You did it earlier too. The only people who call me Aiden are my mom and my sister.”
“I don’t know. It’s your name, isn’t it?” Sabrina shifts uncomfortably.
I push for a better answer. “Yeah, but you call me Murphy too.”
“I guess I do. Do you want me to stop?”
I reach forward and wrap a soft brown curl around my finger. “No. I like the sound of my name on your lips.”
“Oh, come on, Murphy. Talk about a cheesy line.” Laughing, she grabs my shoulders and ushers me to her door. “Time to go. Thank you again for making sure I got back safely.”
Opening her door and straightening her spine, she decides it’s time to get serious again. “I’m glad you got the results you did today. I know you feel bad for how Tessa reacted at the doctor’s office, but I think it was for the best. Maybe keep that in mind.”
“Good night, Sabrina. Thanks for listening to me tonight. You seem to be making a habit of that, and I appreciate it.” Leaning in, I kiss her on her forehead and let the strands of her ponytail slide through my fingers.
I don’t think she realizes she lets out a soft hum of approval that goes directly to my dick, cementing the fact that I need to leave now before I do something epically fucking stupid.
Pulling the door shut behind me, I wait until I hear the lock engage before heading out of the building.
Getting involved with Sabrina Cabot is not a good move. Hell, getting involved with anyone feels like a risk right now. As I walk back to our house, all the reasons why I should stay away from the virginal senator’s daughter scroll through my mind. But there was something there tonight.
Sabrina needs to loosen the fuck up, and maybe I need to get more serious. Maybe we could help each other.
A few minutes later, I walk into the house through the garage door and throw my stuff in my cubby. Brady’s mom went a little overboard when she decorated this place, and it looks like a Pottery Barn catalog threw up. There’s a big, white panel-walled entry area with four separate floor-to-ceiling cubbies. Each has its own bench and two hooks to hang shit on with a shelf above that. They’re seriously useful, and I kick my sneakers off under my bench.
Once I get to the kitchen, I’m surprised to see Bash, Brady, and Nattie all sitting at the table. Bash is the first to stand as I enter the room. “Murphy, we’ve been calling and texting all fucking night, man. What happened at the appointment?”
Aww, fuck.
We’re all pretty good about answering our phones, especially when it’s one of us calling each other. Pretty sure Nattie put that Find My Friends app on all our phones months ago. Oops. “Shit, guys, I’m sorry. I turned my phone off when I walked into the doctor’s office and never turned it back on. I needed to figure a few things out afterward, and I went to the field. I just needed some time alone. I ended up bumping into Sabrina there and walked her back to her dorm before heading home.”
Nat walks over to me, pulling my hand until I sit down in the open spot next to her. I’ve heard people talking about friends being the family you choose for yourself. And yeah, it sounds cheesy, but it’s true.
I’m so fucking glad I’ve got these people in my corner.
“What did the doctor say?” Nat is trying to sound calm and supportive, but I recognize the nerves in her voice. You don’t go through the things we’ve all been through together and not know each other’s tells.
“There’s no baby. Tessa was never pregnant. It was a false positive.” Everyone visibly relaxes, and Nat throws her arms around me.
“Oh, Murph. That’s such great news.” Her tiny arms squeeze me as tight as she can, and I have the sudden urge to cry.
“Yup. You’re going to have to hold off on the whole being an auntie thing, Little Sinclair.” She drops her arms and sticks her tongue out at me. I knew that would get her to back off. Nat hates being called Little Sinclair almost as much as she hates being compared to Tinker Bell.
Bash moves next to me and grips my shoulder. “Seriously, man. That’s great news. How did Tessa take it?”
“She was really upset. I think she was disappointed there was no baby, said I ruined her life. She never wants to see me again, which I’m happy to oblige. I think the only girl I want to see for a while is this one.” I throw my arm across the back of Nattie’s chair.
Nattie gives me one of her classic smiles that lights up her whole face, and I throw a wink her way.
Our resident overthinker and quarterback, also known as the man hopelessly in love with Natalie Sinclair, throws a pretzel from the bowl on the table at my head. “Like a sister, Murph,” he grumbles.
“Come on now, QB. In a couple of months, she will be my sister. How fucking weird is that? I guess I can kiss any hopes of ever seeing you naked goodbye, huh, Little Sinclair?”
Nat moves onto Brady’s lap and wraps her arms around his neck. “Pretty sure you never had any chance of that. But I’m kinda excited to get to call you my brother.”
“You’re fucking lucky she’s holding me back, man,” Brady grumbles, and we all laugh.
Yup. I love my family.
Dear Coop,
You’ve only been gone a few days, but we miss you already. Dad and Dec won their game Monday night, and it was totally wrong to be watching it without you. How are you? Is boot camp hard? Did you make any friends yet? How hard is giving up technology? I can’t believe you aren’t allowed to email or text. I guess writing an actual letter isn’t bad, but I don’t want to have to wait a week at a time to hear from you. Think this is what it was like when dad was young?
Everything is pretty good here. Classes are fine. Nothing too interesting going on. Well, except Murphy’s having a bit of a weird week. Maybe send him a letter when you can. I’m good — just missing you.
Talk to you soon, little brother.
Love you!
Your BIG sister.
Hey Nattie.
It’s going ok so far. They don’t believe in letting us get much sleep here. We’re always interrupted with drills. The food doesn’t completely suck. I’ve had worse. A few of the guys are pretty cool. We each got assigned a Battle Buddy to stick with throughout training. My buddy is a guy named Linc. He’s from Georgia. You’d like his accent. He’s kind of a loner, but we get along okay. He’s hoping to go into the SEALs too, so we’re working on it together.
I didn’t get to watch Dad’s game, but I heard they won. Go, Kings! Declan is having a great season. Hope the damn media lays off him soon. Tell the guys I’ll see if I can watch their game this weekend online — Miss you, little sister. Take care of yourself.
Love, Coop.
PS — Tell Brady I can still kick his ass if he treats you wrong.
Hey Murph -
Nattie said you were having a fucked-up week. What’s going on? I need shit to think about at night other than how fucking sore my muscles are, and your drama should do the trick. Write me back, asshole.
Coop
Don’t get your panties in a twist. I may have had a hot minute where a chick I hooked up with over the summer thought she was pregnant, but she’s not. Thank Fucking God! It’s all good. I may try a sex diet soon. How many girls a month do you think would be a filling number? Any hot girls in the Navy with you?
Murphy
9
Sabrina
The next morning, I wake up to the beeping of my alarm and desperately want to throw my phone across the room. My room is still dark thanks to the shades I put up when I first moved in, and I am warm and comfy under my blanket. Why would I want to get out of bed? No one can ever accuse me of being a morning person. Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I sit there for a few moments and try to steady myself before I get moving. I’m supposed to meet Natalie for a yoga class this morning.
Neither of us has classes until the afternoon, so it’s become our normal time to try and catch up. When I finally look at my phone, I realize I must have snoozed more than I thought, and I only have fifteen minutes to get to the gym. Throwing on black athletic pants with mint-green stripes running down the sides and a matching mint sports bra, I grab a cropped, white sweatshirt and head out the door.
An hour and fifteen minutes later, Nat and I are lying side by side on the floor, barely moving as the supposed soothing sounds of a rain forest echo throughout the warm room. The instructor was new today, and she kicked our sweaty asses.
Nattie turns her head to look at me. “We doing smoothies downstairs or going to the coffee shop? I need to reward myself for enduring this kind of torture.”
I try to laugh at her, but it comes out more like an exhausted groan. “You’re a ballet dancer. Don’t you basically do this every day but to different music?”
Nat gets up slowly and rolls her mat before extending her hand to me. “Trust me, it’s not the same thing. Come on, smoothies or coffee?”
I grab her hand and let her pull me to my feet. “Let’s do smoothies. Less walking required.”
After gathering our bags, we head down to the café on the first floor of the university’s gym. Nat’s smoothie sounds more like a dessert than a healthy drink when we place our orders, and I can’t resist laughing at my friend. Chocolate, banana, raspberry. Separately either banana or raspberry sound good with chocolate, but together . . . not so much.
Winking at me, she responds, “What? Chocolate makes everything better. Don’t knock it ‘til you try it. I don’t even know how you swallow that green thing you call a drink.”
Paying the cashier and grabbing our smoothies, the two of us head to a small chrome table to relax and catch up. We’ve been trying to do this once or twice a week since school started, and it’s been nice. Neither of us has a big circle of girlfriends. We’ve both bonded over our love of Chloe. I’m not sure exactly when, but at some point last year, I stopped placing her in the category of Chloe’s friend and realized she was my friend too. I wasn’t kidding when I told Murphy I don’t make friends easily. My parents have made me skeptical of everyone’s intentions. Combine that with my inner shy girl who never feels like she fits in, and it’s a bad combination.
I sip my kale smoothie and take in the sights and sounds of the noisy café located on the bottom floor of the giant brick building housing the student gym. Relaxing into my seat, I ask, “What do you think of your dad getting engaged to Murphy’s mom?”
Natalie lifts one eyebrow at me and takes a sip of her dessert wrapped up to look like a healthy drink. Scrunching up her face, she looks like she’s warding off brain freeze. “You know what? Once I thought about it, I wasn’t shocked anymore. There were signs last year that he was seeing someone, and I ignored them. If they’re happy, I’m happy. The best part of the whole day was finding out Murphy walked in on them doing the deed. Out of all of us, it’s so fitting that it was him. Karma is a bitch.”
My eyes nearly bug out of my head. “What? Oh my God. Please tell me you have not walked in on Murphy having sex?”
Nattie grimaces. “No. Oh, God. No! He just likes to talk about sex and joke about it more than the rest of us. If anything, it’s me and Brady who have almost gotten caught a couple of times since we’ve moved in.” Nat’s cheeks pink at the thought, and I laugh.
She throws her napkin at me. “It’s not funny. I can’t help I want that man all the time. We thought no one was home.”
Biting my bottom lip, I cringe, and wonder what it must be like to have that kind of relationship. “I don’t want to know, Nattie.”
I don’t think I’d want to get caught having sex, but the thought of the thrill of almost getting caught does sound exciting. I’ve had sex, but it was always kind of boring. I want exciting. I want to not be able to control myself, to want it right then and there. Unfortunately for me, when I’m thinking of exciting sex, it’s with Murphy, who wouldn’t know monogamous if it knelt down and sucked his dick.
Oh, that isn’t a bad image.
Shaking myself out of my momentary lapse in fantasy judgment, I remember what I wanted to ask Nat at the BBQ. “So, Declan moved out of your Dad’s house, right? Is there something going on with Anabelle and him? Those two were throwing off weird vibes last weekend.”
“He did move out. I don’t think he even stayed there for a month. Dec said it was bad enough people were already talking about his own father drafting him. He didn’t want to be living at home with him too. I didn’t notice anything between Annabelle and him, but maybe I need to pay better attention. I thought Declan was quiet because he was thinking about Monday night’s game. I don’t know that Annabelle has time for a guy right now. I’m still helping her out a few times a week at the dance studio. She swears she’s going to hire someone else soon to help us out.” Nat looks down at her phone and laughs. “Chloe just texted. She’s pissed because she knows we meet for yoga on Wednesday mornings, and she’s sitting in calculus.”
“She’s got one year left. She’ll survive. Are we still meeting at your house Saturday to watch the guys’ game?”
“Yup. The game starts at 1:00 p.m. The guys are flying out Friday night. It’s only in Ohio. They’ll be back a few hours after the game Saturday. The invitation still stands if you want to road trip with us the following weekend. The game is in Boston, and Chloe and I are making a weekend of it.” I shake my head no, so she singsongs, “Seeing some sites, doing some shopping. It should be fun. Come on, Brina.”
Just then, Brady, Bash, and Murphy appear behind Nattie, looking like the kings of campus they are. Sleeveless shirts have their sculpted arms on display. Bash has on grey sweatpants, without a care in the world that he’s providing every girl in the room the perfect image to think of later when they’re grabbing their BOBs from their nightstands. Murphy and Brady are both in basketball shorts. Murphy’s wearing his ever-present green baseball hat that makes his mossy-green eyes stand out brightly against his black lashes. When he sees me looking, he winks.
God this man.
Brady leans down, kissing Nat on the top of the head before she even knows he’s there. “We should be back on campus around seven this Saturday. You girls should hang around. I’m sure there’ll be a party happening somewhere.”
Natalie beams up at Brady. “Hi, handsome. I didn’t think you guys had the weight room today?”
Murphy elbows Bash. “These two assholes are trying to catch up to my numbers. Give it up, guys. It ain’t happening.”
“Let’s see what you got, Murph.” Brady leans down, and quickly kisses Nattie’s lips. “See you at home, sweetheart. Bye, Sabrina.” The guys nod and start to leave, but not before I feel a tug on my ponytail. When I turn my head, I see the three of them walking away, looking like they belong on a movie poster instead of at a college gym.
On a sigh, I tell Nat, “It isn’t fair how good-looking those three are. Seriously, when they’re together, how is the female population supposed to respond to all of that?”
“Don’t expect an answer from me. All I
need to do is see my man smile, and I melt. Pretty sure Bash and Murphy have shared a girl or two if that floats your boat.” She smiles at me like she knows exactly what I’m feeling.
I can feel my eyebrows shooting up to touch my hairline. “Natalie Sinclair! I can’t find time for one guy, let alone two! Are you insane?”
“Brina, you’ve got to lighten up and make time. Seize the moment. Pretty sure I just saw Murphy tug your hair like a third grader.” She taps her finger to her lips. “I don’t think you could actually handle both of them at once. Murph might be a bit much for you. Maybe just Bash.”
Our laughter echoes throughout the café, and I am so glad I dragged myself out of bed this morning.
10
Murphy
When Brady and I were little kids throwing a football around in our backyards, we used to talk about our dream games. I can still picture the two of us thinking we were so cool because we played football. Brady could always throw better than me, and I could always tackle better than him. Back then, we had no idea the two of us would be playing together at the level we are now. Although, I’m pretty sure that our eight-year-old selves thought we’d both be playing for the Philadelphia Kings football team someday.
Being a freshman starting for the Kroydon Crusaders has been an adjustment.