The Pass (Smart Jocks Book 5)

by Rebecca Jenshak

  Emily hands me my cup as I get close. “I found us the perfect spot. Come on.”

  She climbs up the ladder of the pool slide and sits at the top. I squeeze in next to her. “Comfort aside, this is a great spot.”

  She squirms. “I think I underestimated our combined width.”

  I rest my head on her shoulder. “I’m really glad you’re here.”

  Another spark shoots up into the air. Red and blue dots the sky and falls. One after another. The music blasting at the party has changed to a patriotic playlist. It’s the perfect end to the best summer ever.

  “Yo, babe!” Tanner yells.

  I glance around before a splash of water shoots up from the pool. He’s standing in water up to his chest grinning at me.

  “Get your sexy ass in here. I’ve been looking all over for you.”

  “I thought you were doing the fireworks.”

  “What?” he yells over another loud pop.

  “I thought…” I shift my hips side to side to unglue myself from the spot. “Screw it,” I mutter. I hand my phone over to Emily. “I’m going in.”

  Hands over head, I squeal with happiness as I go down the slide fully clothed. Tanner catches me at the bottom, but the force sends us underwater.

  Strong hands glide up my body and frame my face before he kisses me. If breathing weren’t necessary, it’d be a pretty great way to spend the rest of the night.

  When we resurface, I wrap my arms around his neck, and he keeps us afloat.

  “Who’s doing the fireworks?” I ask as another set of three goes off.

  We lift our heads toward the sky to watch as the lights slowly disappear leaving a trace of smoke behind.

  “Jonah and Ollie.”

  “But you were so excited to blow shit up.”

  “Jonah let me have the first two. That was enough to get the fire bug out of my system for another year and now I get to watch the finale with you.”

  We adjust so that my back is against his front. He wraps his arms around me, and I lean my head against his chest.

  “Best summer ever,” he whispers next to my ear. “How are we going to top it next year?”

  “I’m not sure, but I’m looking forward to it.”

  28

  Tanner

  As I walk onto the court at the fieldhouse, I breathe in the musty smell, the squeak of shoes, and the laughter and raised voices of the guys joking around.

  A guy I recognize but haven’t met is talking with Datson. They look up as I approach.

  Datson spins a ball between his palms. “Shaw, have you met Cameron Reed?”

  “No.” I extend a hand to the sophomore transfer. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Same.”

  “Are you guys working on drills or just shooting around?” Official practices won’t start for a while yet, but most of the guys are back at Valley already and we’ll start conditioning and lifting together in the morning, and in the afternoons, we’ll most likely all show up to shoot around or work on agility drills. It’s a chance for us to find a rhythm again before school and regular workouts begin.

  “Messing around,” Datson says and does a once-over of my outfit. “Where have you been?”

  I grab a ball from the rack. “I met with Coach Wiles.”

  “Oh yeah?” Datson pauses. “And?”

  “And… I’m going to be busy again this year.”

  “Good for you, buddy.”

  “Yo, Shaw,” Benny calls to me from the sideline where he chats with Lawson. “I heard you and Sydney finally hooked up.”

  Chuckling, I fire a shot at the basket. Benny rebounds and holds it, waiting for an answer. I glance over at Datson who smirks.

  “They’d have found out eventually,” he says by way of an excuse.

  “We didn’t hook up. We’re together. She’s my girlfriend.”

  “Congrats, man,” Lawson says. He’s one of the few guys on the team who has a steady girlfriend—the same one since our freshmen year.

  “Thanks.” It feels weird to finally call her my girlfriend. Amazing but weird.

  We shoot hoops and get to know Cameron. He’s a bit of a mystery, not because he’s quiet or shy—he isn’t, but because he transferred from one of the best college basketball programs in the country after only one year. He played as a freshman and even helped take his team to the final four. They were a young team, and everyone was already speculating that they’d make it back to the championship again this coming year.

  Our Valley record is nothing to laugh at. We won the national championship my freshman year and the past two years we’ve done all right, but not so well that I can understand why he’d transfer.

  We’re lucky to have him, though, and he seems like a decent guy. We’re finishing up when Wes, one of our assistant coaches, walks onto the court and juts his chin to me with a tilt of his head. “Shaw, can I talk to you?”

  “Uh-oh,” Datson whispers. Or his version of a whisper, but it’s loud enough I’m sure Wes heard it.

  I hand Datson the ball and walk off to meet Wes who hovers on the sideline.

  “How was your summer?” he asks, though I can tell it isn’t why he called me over. Wes is a great coach, but small talk is not his thing.

  “Good. Yours?”

  “Good. Yeah, really good.” He shifts uncomfortably. “Listen, I heard you talked with Coach Wiles, and you’re planning to keep playing baseball this year.”

  Shit, news travels fast. I thought I had at least through the weekend before everyone found out. It isn’t that I wanted to hide it, hardly anyone even knew I was seriously considering quitting baseball, but I wanted to give it a little more time to adjust to the decision myself.

  “Yeah, that’s right. I know you hate that I’m doing both, but I promise when I’m here, I’m here.”

  “I don’t hate it,” he starts. “Well, okay, I totally hate it, but you’ve proven you can manage both. It can’t have been easy to juggle everything. I admire your dedication to both.”

  I’m slack-jawed. This from the guy who spent my freshman year telling me I needed to choose one or the other. God, he was a pain in the ass. I looked up to him. He was a senior on the team then and I watched how he led the team on and off the court. I wanted to be him, and he wanted me to get lost.

  “Thanks, I think,” I say with a chuckle.

  One side of his mouth pulls up into a grin and he takes a step away. “Don’t think I’m going to start taking it easy on you or anything though.”

  “Bring it, Coach.”

  Sydney and Emily moved into an apartment off campus and she’s been busy getting that set up all day, so by the time she stops by The White House it’s dark and a small party has formed.

  I get up from my chair when she walks outside and meet her halfway.

  “Hey, how’s the apartment looking?” I drop a kiss to her lips and lead her inside to get her something to drink.

  “Good. It’s coming together. Emily had to try the living room furniture in every possible arrangement before she’d make a decision on which she liked best.”

  “I can’t wait to see it.”

  “Make sure to tell Em how well it flows.” She lowers her voice as her roommate walks toward us.

  “Hey guys,” she says. Emily has this bounce to her step and a bubbly personality that makes her seem all sweet and innocent, but she can turn that sweet to sour on a dime when someone pisses her off.

  “Hey, Em, congrats on the apartment and on your flow.”

  One brow lifts, and she slides her gaze to Sydney. “My flow?”

  My girl laughs. “The flow of the… you know what, never mind.”

  I hand Sydney the Malibu and grab the Coke from the fridge.

  “Is the new transfer guy here?” Emily asks, craning her neck to see outside. “I heard he’s hot.”

  Sydney puts her hands up defensively. “She didn’t hear it from me.”

  “He’s in the pool,” I say.

  Emily st
arts toward the door and pauses. “Don’t forget,” she says to Sydney. “First night in the new place, you’re coming home with me.”

  I wrap my arms around Sydney. “We’ll see.”

  “You had her all summer, Shaw. It’s time to share.”

  “I knew we should have stayed at the lake.”

  She turns around to face me and brings her arms to my chest. “How’d it go with Coach Wiles?”

  “Good, I think. I’m going to continue to do both. Maybe it’s the last year that I’ll get to do that and maybe I’m risking my chance to get drafted to the NBA, but I’m willing to take the risk. Quitting either one just didn’t feel right.”

  “I’m proud of you.”

  “Wes told me he admired me.” I shake my head. “He’s the last person I expected to hear that from. Coach was happy because he knew if I was going to quit one it was probably baseball, but I assumed everyone else was hoping I’d pick one or the other.”

  “You can handle both. You’re the most hardworking and dedicated person I know. I have no doubt that you’ll crush it this year and get drafted to the NBA and MLB next year and I’m excited to travel all around and cheer you on at both.”

  “You would do that? Travel to games and events and stuff?”

  “If you wanted me to, yeah.” She stares at me with a weird expression. “You seem surprised? Am I freaking you out? Is it too soon to say things like that?” She cringes. “Sorry, it feels like we’ve been together a lot longer than we have.”

  “I’m not freaked out,” I assure her. “I’m surprised, but in a good way. That’s a lot to ask of someone. I have no idea where I’ll end up and it might change year to year.”

  She shrugs. “I want to be where you are.”

  “Even tonight?”

  “Nice try. I promised Emily.”

  “Well, fine, I’m stealing you now, then. Grab your drink.”

  I lead her up the stairs and to my room. Hesitating at the door, I squeeze her hand. “Remember that night you came over to the house with Nathan and Chloe, after we’d all gone to The Hideout?”

  “Of course. That was the night we first kissed and then I opened my big mouth and told you I wasn’t going to sleep with you. How dumb was I?”

  I chuckle. “It worked out okay.”

  “Yeah, but all those years of missed sex.”

  “Well, I might have a solution of sorts for that.” I open the door and let her go in first.

  “Tanner, oh my gosh.” She walks in, stops, and glances back at me with wide eyes and mouth open. “What is this?”

  “It’s date number five.”

  “It’s perfect.”

  I finally move into the room with her and shut the door. Not half bad, I have to admit. I bought a bunch of twinkle lights and strung them around the room, much safer than candles since I wasn’t sure how long before I could get her up here and they don’t smell like weird combinations of food and flowers. Speaking of, I also bought flowers and placed them in vases around the room. Colorful bouquets in yellows, oranges, and bright pinks. Roses didn’t feel right. Too predictable and too boring.

  She walks to me and rests her hands on my shoulder. “You didn’t need to do all this to make up for the past.”

  “I didn’t.”

  She looks unconvinced.

  “I admit that before this summer I always felt like I missed my shot and when we finally got together I wanted to do everything I could to make up for it, but the thing is you’ve always been exactly what I needed, when I needed it, and I wouldn’t change that. But now, I need you to be my girl.” I graze my teeth lightly along her neck. “Today, tomorrow, ten years from now… it’s always going to be me and you. I love you. So, this, date number five isn’t about looking back—it’s about celebrating it all.”

  “I like the sound of that.” She tilts her head to give me better access and then pulls back with a sigh. “Emily’s going to kill me.”

  “We’ll stay at your place tomorrow night,” I promise.

  Sydney pulls away and flops onto my bed. She taps a button on her phone and music starts playing. “Okay, let’s see your moves?”

  “My moves?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Did you have a special song picked out?”

  “A special song? What the hell are you talking about?”

  Her mouth puckers into a smug smile. “I believe I was promised a striptease on date number five. Don’t think I forgot.”

  I toss my head back and laugh. “Anything you want, babe.”

  Epilogue

  Sydney

  Two years later

  “I think I might puke… or shit myself,” Tanner says, voice high and tight.

  “Charming. I’ll be the laughingstock of the Wags section. They’ll call you Skidmark and I’ll be Skidmark’s girl.”

  “Skidmark’s fiancée,” he corrects me, suddenly sounding calmer.

  “You’re going to be great. I’m going to FaceTime Tara and the new boyfriend so we can watch the game together.”

  He grunts.

  Over the past two years, Tara has dated a series of guys, each one worse than the last. I admire her perseverance, but I really hope this one works out so Tanner can stop adding guys to his glitter bomb hit list. She and I have slowly become friendly. We don’t have girls’ nights out or gab on the phone, but we both always show up to support Tanner and I think we’ve found a mutual respect for one another.

  “All right. I’ve got to go. We’re pulling up to the arena. I’ll call you after the game. Will you still be up?” he asks.

  “You think I’m going to bed early on my superstar fiancé’s first night playing in an NBA game?”

  “Well you’re like four hours ahead.”

  “Three. You’re really going to have to figure out the time zones.”

  “If the other states would stop doing daylight’s savings time like Arizona did, it would be so much easier. Half the year it’s two hours. The other half it’s three. Who can store all that useless information?”

  “You’re rambling,” I say, biting back a smile. It’s rare that I’ve seen, or heard, Tanner this spun up. Not that I can blame him. He’s worked hard for this. The past year since we graduated from Valley hasn’t been easy. He signed with the Celtics and the Red Sox. The media went nuts and my boyfriend—now fiancé—became a sensation. His handsome face was everywhere I went for a while—magazines, TV, social media. It was super trippy.

  So was moving to Boston. In what universe did I end up living somewhere so cold? At least I have the beach.

  Then, he got hurt. He was nervous that it was all going to blow up, but he worked twice as hard and tonight he finally gets to play in their game against the Lakers in Los Angeles.

  “I’m fucking nervous.”

  “You are going to be amazing,” I say for what is probably the hundredth time this week. “I can’t wait to watch. I’m going to call Tara; do you want to stay on the line and say hi?”

  “Nah, we’re getting off the bus. Tell her I said hi and apologize in advance that she’s about to be known as Skidmark’s sister.”

  “You’re so dramatic. I am not telling her that. Good luck. I love you. Don’t shit your pants.”

  He chuckles. “Love you, too. Bye, babe.”

  I drop my phone into my clutch as I approach Tara.

  “Was that Tanner?” she asks as we share a quick hug hello.

  “Yeah, he says hi.”

  She glances around. “Does he know we’re here?”

  “He has no clue. He thinks I am FaceTiming with you and Steve for the game.”

  She makes a face. “That’s over.”

  “I liked Steve.”

  “His penis was like…” She holds up her hand to show me just how small and I wave her off.

  “Got it. Okay. Well, Tanner’s teammate, Henry, left tickets for us at will call so we can sit behind the bench with the Wags.”

  Tara takes a bunch of pictures of us outside the arena that we
can tease Tanner with later. Then we fall into line with the other fans and navigate to our seats.

  “Oh, man, I feel like I might be sick. I’m so nervous for him.” Tara holds a hand to her stomach.

  I seem to be the only one of us who isn’t worried. He’s got this. I’ve never had any doubts that Tanner would be here one day or that I’d be on the sidelines cheering him on. There was a time I wouldn’t have believed I’d be doing it as his fiancée, but I’ve always believed in him.

  “There he is!” Tara squeezes my arm and stops in the middle of the aisle. The guys are on the floor in their green uniforms. He looks calmer now as he palms a basketball and scans the arena. He’s taking it all in and I’m so glad to be here to witness this. Nothing he could do in the game would be as good as seeing him finally walk out with his team knowing he’s going to do something besides sit on the sideline.

  Tara screams his name and waves her hands over her head. She has absolutely no chill. He looks down, avoiding eye contact with the crazed fan yelling his name, but Henry nudges him and points toward us.

  Tara keeps waving until he spots us. His mouth slowly pulls into a huge grin and he moves toward us.

  We go down as far as we can. It’s still early, so many of the seats are empty.

  “Surprise!” Tara says as he gets to us.

  He shakes his head. “What are you two doing here?”

  “You didn’t really think we’d miss this?” She rolls her eyes at her brother and then pulls back, leaving me room to step up to him.

  “You’re here.” He squeezes me hard against him and I swear I can feel some of his nerves fall away. He smells like laundry detergent and leather and something that’s just Tanner. He left yesterday morning to fly up with the team, but it feels like so much longer. I’ve never once regretted my decision to move with him to Boston. I get how that might be a big deal to some people, but there’s nothing I love more than being with him. Arizona, Massachusetts… I’d follow him to the ends of the earth.

  Tanner

  After the game, Sydney and Tara meet us at the hotel. We fly to Utah tomorrow for another game before we head back to Boston on Thursday. The road trips aren’t as bad as I thought. Although, admittedly much better when Sydney surprises me and shows up.