Dating: For the Assist

by Stephanie Street

  When she got drafted, I’d been tempted to call her again. Or just text. I could have gotten her number from any one of our friends. They would have given it to me. But I didn’t. I was too chicken. I hated admitting that, but it was the truth. Piper stripped me down, reduced me to nothing.

  Yeah. I was pathetic.

  For about thirty seconds, I got my game face on. I’d need all the guts I could muster to face the only girl I’d ever loved and not fall down at her feet and beg her to take me back, no matter how much she’d hurt me.

  And before I walked out the door to my room, I had to remind myself not to let her do it ever again.

  20

  Piper

  I spent the hour between Luke and Dannika leaving my room and the time my brother said they were going to meet to play basketball pacing my room and trying to decide what I was going to do. Which would be easier? Seeing Drew for the first time with all of our friends surrounding us as a buffer? Or alone, just the two of us?

  Whoa. Alone sounded scary.

  Not scary. Intimidating.

  Drew in high school had been mildly intimidating. Drew as a full grown man was a sight to behold. According to his stats, which I unashamedly stalked on the internet on a regular basis, he’d grown a couple of inches since high school. He was now a towering six-seven-and-a-half. He’d also added about forty pounds of solid muscle. Between his size, dark hair, menacing stare, and edgy fashion choices, Drew was a hot bad boy no woman on the planet could resist. Myself included. Which was one of the reasons I’d stayed away. I mean, how stupid was I? I had the best man in the world for me and I let him go. No. I sent him away! And truthfully, it hadn’t even helped. It just made me realize I loved him.

  And he was here.

  Who was I kidding?

  There was no way I could sit here alone in my room while everyone else went downstairs. These were my friends! Luke was my brother, for heaven’s sake. I wasn’t going to let an old flame keep me from enjoying my brother’s wedding, was I?

  No.

  Quickly, I changed into a pair of shorts, telling myself I’d chosen the short shorts over the longer pair because it was hot outside and not because someone had always had an unhealthy obsession with my legs. He probably wouldn’t be looking, anyway.

  I exchanged the cute top I’d worn on the plane for a sports bra and tank top and stepped into a pair of basketball shoes. Never leave home without them, that’s what I say. I stuffed the key card into my bra and grabbed my basketball after throwing my hair up into a messy bun without looking in the mirror. The shorts were bad enough. I couldn’t look like I was trying.

  Enough!

  I had to get out of this room. Before I could change my mind, I yanked open the door and walked smack dab into a solid wall of muscle.

  Oh, wow.

  I’d know those muscles anywhere.

  And that scent. Hmmm. My eyes closed of their own volition while I inhaled.

  Five years. Five long years.

  He’d changed his cologne but that didn’t mean he didn’t smell the same. Like Drew. His scent was more powerful drawing me in than any fragrance developed in some laboratory. Pheromones.

  Drew’s strong hands found my upper arms and kept me from falling into a heap at his feet. This was not how this was supposed to go! He wasn’t supposed to see me until I walked out on that court full of confidence and with my defenses up.

  Falling apart outside our hotel rooms was not part of the plan. Not that I’d had a plan before three minutes ago.

  “Are you alright?” he asked, his voice deep and gravelly, and I almost whimpered. The only thing keeping me from throwing myself at him completely was that I hadn’t looked him in the eyes. No, instead, I stared at his broad chest- it still amazed me how much taller than me he really was- and prayed. Prayed he’d just let me go.

  “Piper. Did I hurt you?”

  No. But I’d hurt him and in that moment I decided to never forgive myself.

  “I-I-” I was an idiot. Clearing my throat, I tried again. “I’m fine.”

  “Are you sure? Your head hit me hard.” How could he sound so calm? I wanted to look up, see into his eyes. I wondered if I could read them as easily as I used to. I wondered if he’d let me, or if he would shut me out.

  Of course, he wouldn’t want me to see what he was thinking or feeling. It didn’t matter, anyway. I’d hurt him. He probably didn’t care anymore.

  That thought, more than anything, almost shredded me down to nothing. A world where Drew didn’t care about me. Maybe that’s why I’d avoided him all these years. Because I couldn’t handle knowing for certain and all that had kept me going was the hope that he still cared.

  Shrugging out of his grasp, I kept my head down and headed toward the elevator. “I’m fine. I’m sorry I ran into you.”

  It took a second, but then I heard his footsteps behind me. Right. We were going to the same place. I was in real danger of hyperventilating again at the idea of having to share elevator space with him. He was too big. Too familiar and unfamiliar all at once. I was sure along with all the things that were the same, there were just as many that were different.

  Everything about these last few seconds were torturous. But I deserved it. I could bear a thirty second elevator ride. Or maybe I could take the stairs.

  I started to pass the elevator, but his hand shot out and gripped my elbow.

  “I won’t bite,” was all he said as he released my arm and punched the down button with his finger.

  There was nothing to say to that so I kept my mouth shut and my eyes focused near his knees.

  “Why are you doing that?” he asked, his tone sounding more than a little annoyed.

  “Why am I doing what?” I allowed my eyes to brush his collarbones before bringing them back down.

  “Keeping your head down like that. Stop it.” I didn’t have to see his face to know he was frowning.

  He was doing it again, looking out for me. I didn’t want him to do that! It was the whole reason being with him was so risky. He made me feel safe in a world that was unsafe, and that was dangerous. Why couldn’t I feel that way when he was gone?

  Suddenly, I remembered the nights he’d held me until I was able to fall asleep. I never slept so well as when I was in his arms.

  No.

  “Don’t tell me what to do.” And then I did what he wanted me to do anyway. I looked at him. For a single, split-second, my eyes looked into the blue depths of his. Just before I could get lost in them, the elevator door opened.

  “Hey,” Dannika chirped, bouncing on her feet beside the elevator. “You guys made it.” She didn’t say it, but it was there, together.

  “Yep!” I said, stepping forcefully passed Drew before anyone could say anything else about us and a few seconds in an elevator. Together.

  Since I’d already seen Luke and Dannika, I headed straight toward Mia and Tierney. Mia looked adorable and sweet with her rounded belly and I told her so.

  “It’s okay, Piper. You don’t have to lie. I have a mirror,” she said as we hugged.

  “I’m not lying! You look amazing, you’re glowing!” I’d never believed the baby glow myth I’d heard about, but seeing Mia definitely changed my mind.

  Mia just scowled. Grayson, who’d heard our exchanged, sidled up to Mia and put his arm around her waist.

  “Don’t be offended, Piper, she gets mad at me if I tell her she’s more beautiful now than she’s ever been.” Grayson grinned and I could see from the way he gazed at his wife, he’d never meant his words more.

  Mia elbowed him in the gut. “Stop it. There’s no possible way that’s true.”

  Grayson just shook his head and pulled her closer, kissing the top of her head. “You are the mother of my child, Mia,” he said softly, but I could still hear him. “Of course you are the most beautiful woman in the world to me.” He didn’t wait for her to say anything, but dipped his head and captured her lips in a sweet kiss that made my teeth ache.
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br />   When their kiss ended, Mia glanced up to catch Tierney and I both watching them. Her cheeks flushed and she groaned, pressing her forehead to Grayson’s shoulder.

  Tierney and I both laughed.

  “Don’t be embarrassed!” I told her, reaching out to pinch Grayson’s cheek. “That was so sweet!”

  Grayson frowned, but I knew he didn’t mean it. “Knock it off.”

  We laughed again and I turned to Tierney. I wasn’t as close to Tierney and Mia as I was to Dannika, but I still considered them my best friends. “How are you doing, Tee?” I asked, giving her a quick hug.

  “Good. Really good. I just sent my latest book off to the publisher, so I’m happy to have some fun for the next few days before I have to get back at it.”

  Tierney was an author. She majored in English and graduated with a degree that allowed her to teach if she ever needed or wanted to, but from what I heard, she was making enough with her books that she and Noah were able to go to school without student loans and that was almost unheard of when you were talking about medical school.

  “How many is that, now?” I asked. I’d actually read all of her books, I just wasn’t sure off the top of my head how many there were.

  “This is number five and the last one in the series,” she said a little shyly.

  “That is amazing. I’m so proud of you! And you’re totally famous now, too.”

  Tierney rolled her eyes. “No, I’m not. At all. Not like you, anyway. Or Drew.”

  “Nobody’s as famous as Drew,” I said, and it was kind of true. He really was a sports celebrity. I had a fan base, that was for certain, and I loved each and every one of my fans because they were the ones who came out to support our team. But women’s basketball wasn’t even on the same planet as men’s and Drew was well known all over the country, not just because he was a high school and then college sensation, but because he’d lived up to the hype once he made it to big league basketball. He was consistently the highest scorer on his team and he had the most triple-doubles of any player in professional basketball last season.

  Behind me Noah scoffed. “I don’t get the hype,” he said playfully, making us all laugh. I wasn’t joking, Drew lived up to the hype and we all knew it.

  Drew punched Noah in the arm. “We’ll just have to see about that on the court won’t we, Mr. Perfect,” he teased right back, spurring everyone into motion.

  The guys walked out ahead, leaving the four of us women to walk a little slower due to Mia’s protruding belly.

  Of course, I knew exactly what they’d want to talk about.

  “So, uh, Piper. That seemed like an intense moment there on the elevator, huh?”

  “Subtle, Tierney, real subtle.” Mia nudged Tierney with her elbow.

  “What?” Tierney asked, shrugging. “It was, wasn’t it?” She pointed to Mia and Dannika knowingly. “You were both thinking it. I know you were!”

  “Just because we were thinking it doesn’t mean we were going to ask about it,” Dannika defended herself and Mia.

  “Yeah, right, you liar,” I called out my best friend, but I was smiling, too. I’d missed these girls. There wasn’t much time during the season, which started in about a week, to spend time together. I could have visited during the off-season, and I had, but it wasn’t the same when it was only two or three of us as when we were all together.

  “Okay, you’re right. I was dying to know what was going on. So, spill,” Dannika demanded, her eyes all wide and excited. Suddenly, it was like we were all back in high school, sitting behind the boy’s bench during a game and gossiping about which ones we did or didn’t have crushes on. Usually, it was them talking about the other guys and me trying not to swoon over the one I already had- Drew.

  Shrugging carelessly, I tried to act as though my whole world hadn’t been turned upside down the moment my head bounced off his ridiculously hard chest and my senses were filled with every thought of home I’d ever had.

  Whoa!

  What?

  Was that true?

  I mean, I loved my mom. And heaven only knew I adored my idiot brother. But when I thought about home, the place I felt I could be myself and the most safe and comfortable, I only thought of Drew.

  I glanced ahead of us. Drew stood taller than the other guys. But that wasn’t the only thing that set him apart. He was strong. And confident. He seemed indestructible, undefeatable. On the court, he was a star. Not because he was gorgeous, although that helped. But because he was a leader. A force to be reckoned with.

  But he wasn’t really those things. That was just the outside. The warrior he appeared to be was only for the world to see. When we’d been together, I saw a whole different side to Drew. I saw the vulnerable Drew that hated what his parents had let themselves become. A Drew that was sweet, caring, selfless, and amazingly loving.

  An old and familiar ache bloomed in my chest.

  If I was being honest, the reason I hadn’t reached out to Drew all these years was because I felt unforgivable. I’d hurt him. I had my reasons. I certainly hadn’t meant to be cruel to him. I hadn’t meant to lose him forever. I truly meant to try to heal in order to present a better me, a whole and unbroken me, to him. The trouble was I never have felt unbroken or whole. I thought that was because of what happened to me. I tried not to think about it much, those hours I suffered at the hands of Jack Fawcett and his friends. Instead, I focused on the aftermath. Luke, my brother, my all-time protector. And of course, Drew. When they found me, I was shattered into a million pieces of Piper. Then finally, Drew’s arms came around me, holding in place those pieces that remained. Slowly, over time, shards of me returned. Drew helped. And Dannika. My mom and Luke. All the people who surrounded me now.

  What I was finally realizing, just at this moment, was that I needed all of them. Desperately. I’d become like broken pottery, repaired and made stronger through Kintsugi, the ancient Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with gold.

  I was broken and the gold that fixed me was love.

  We’d made it to the basketball court. Everyone was talking and laughing, but I couldn’t seem to drag my gaze away from Drew. I still loved him. Even though he’d been out of my life for five years, residual love from him had been holding me together all this time. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have let him go? Love like ours didn’t just come along everyday. He wasn’t perfect, just like I wasn’t perfect. But for a little while, we’d been perfect for each other.

  “Piper and Luke are captains!” Noah called out and no one disagreed with him.

  Frowning, I took inventory of my options. Luke, Drew, Grayson, Noah, and me. The teams weren’t even.

  “There are only five of us,” I pointed out, trying to act casual, even though I kind of wanted to curl up in my bed with a good book and some ice cream. I bet Tierney would let me read her manuscript.

  “The guys are almost here,” Luke called out after looking at his phone.

  Oh, brother. “Which guys?” It really was like high school. When was the last time I’d played with these guys? All of them? It had been a long time. Drew hadn’t always been a part of our crew since he only moved to Indiana the summer before junior year, but I’d been playing basketball with everyone else since elementary school.

  Luke began ticking them off on his fingers. “Jared, Mateo, Will, AJ, and Zeke.”

  Noah snorted. “Zeke’s wife let him leave the house?”

  Grayson pushed his arm. “Quit giving her a hard time. If Zeke would stop knocking the poor girl up, maybe she wouldn’t be so grouchy.”

  “If she’d let him leave the house once in a while maybe he’d quit knocking her up!” Noah shot back.

  “Will you guys stop saying ‘Knocking her up’! That’s not very respectful!” Tierney shouted with a frown from the edge of the basketball court, her arm around Mia who appeared ready to strangle her husband.

  “Sorry, babe!” Noah and Grayson called back in stereo.

  Luke rolled hi
s eyes and shook his head. “Man, you two are so whipped for those girls.”

  Drew, who spun the basketball on his index finger, chimed in. “What? Like you aren’t?”

  My brother frowned. “I am not like these two at all!”

  Drew snickered. “Hey, Danni! Luke says he’s gonna skip the tux and wear a kilt for the wedding. And he’s going commando. What do you think?”

  Dannika’s head shot up from looking down at her phone. Her frown said it all. “He better not if he knows what’s good for him.” She glared at Luke. “He’s just joking, right, hon?”

  Luke, cowering in the face of Danni’s wrath, of course reassured her. “I’d never do that and you know it. Drew’s just being a jerk.”

  Drew continued to spin the basketball. “And proving a point.”

  Luke reached out and knocked the ball off Drew’s finger. “Let’s pick teams. Piper, you pick first for the shirts.” He gave me a look. “We’ll be skins.”

  “I can’t believe Danni wants to marry you. It’s like you never grew up.” These guys were so immature when they were together.

  Luke stuck out his tongue. “Just pick, Neander-tall.”

  Just then, Jared and his band of misfits came walking up to the court. “Yeah, string-bean. And you better pick me if you want to win!” He walked right up to me and tried to stuff my face in his armpit, but since I was taller than him, he had to jump up and down to make it happen.

  I elbowed him hard in the stomach. “Stop that, you idiot!” I would never understand why my brother was still friends with Jared or how he’d managed to get such a sweet girl like his girlfriend, Kara, to put up with him, but somehow he had.

  “You know you love me,” he said, rubbing his knuckles on my head.