by J. Nathan
It hung around my neck so I held it up for her to see.
“You did it,” she said with pride coloring her tone.
“I did it.”
“Was it worth it?” she asked, obviously aware of how much had been on the line.
I shrugged. “You’re worth it.” Not caring who was around, I lifted her right off the ground. Holding her with my arm in a cast wasn’t easy, so she helped, wrapping her legs around my hips and draping her arms over my shoulders. “You’ve always been worth it.”
Our lips collided. And, despite all my shortcomings and flaws, Shay loved me. The real me.
CHAPTER 46
Shay
I lay with my head on Kason’s bare chest with him on the verge of falling asleep. We’d returned from Aspen earlier and finally had some alone time together after celebrating his gold medal win with his friends and family.
“Shay! Kendall’s here!” Thayer called from downstairs.
I tipped my head back to meet Kason’s tired eyes. “She probably wants to congratulate you.”
He smirked, and I couldn’t believe I once loathed such a butterfly-inducing look. “You mean, she wants to see my medal up close and personal?”
I rolled my eyes as I climbed off his bed, tugging one of his T-shirts over my head and pulling on my jeans. “Put some clothes on if you’re coming downstairs,” I said to him before hurrying downstairs.
When I got to the living room, Kendall smiled. “Welcome back.”
Kason came downstairs wearing his boxers, dangling his medal in his good hand. “Hey, Kendall. Are you here to see my medal?”
“No,” she said, shutting him right down. “But congrats.” She held up her phone. “I have something I need you both to hear.”
Kason and I exchanged a glance, having no idea what she’d need us to hear.
She tapped on her phone, and a recording began to play.
“Your turn, Cora,” a girl on the recording said.
“Well…” Cora began. “I pulled the fire alarm in my dorm so I could clear the dorm and replace some bitch’s shampoo with hair dye.” Cora laughed. “Her hair turned orange.”
The girls on the recording broke into a chorus of oohs and laughter.
Kendall switched off the recording.
After having such an amazing time at the Games and Kason telling me he loved me, I didn’t like being reminded of something so terrible. Why did Kendall think I’d want to hear that? “I don’t get it,” I said.
“I told some of the sorority sisters what happened with you and Cora. They have friends at Cora’s sorority who can’t stand her. Apparently, they’re ruthless and make their pledges spill every secret they’ve got before allowing them to become sisters. And, they record them.”
“Yeah, but we know Cora did it,” I said.
“Yes, but we didn’t realize she pulled the fire alarm in order to do it.”
I was unclear where she was going with this. She was right that we hadn’t considered the fire alarm being a decoy while Cora replaced my shampoo. But, I still didn’t understand why that was a good thing.
“Pulling a fire alarm is a misdemeanor,” Thayer added from the sofa where he’d been playing a video game. “Punishment’s a thousand dollar fine or a year in jail.”
Excitement flashed in Kendall’s eyes. “Exactly.”
“How do you know that?” Kason asked Thayer.
“My law class.”
“You normally skip that class,” Kason said.
“Not that day,” he said. “Apparently, pulling an alarm holds such a steep punishment since first responders are taken away from real emergencies to deal with the false alarm. So, it’s not only a crime but a real shitty thing to do.”
Realization hit me and my eyes shot to Kason. “Oh my God.”
“What?” he asked. “You want Cora to go to prison?”
I shook my head, not caring what happened to her. “If her dad knows we have that recording and could take it to the police at any time, he’ll want to keep us quiet.”
“Yeah,” Kason said, but the tone of his voice and the confused look in his eyes told me he still wasn’t completely getting it.
“He’ll offer anything to keep us quiet,” I explained.
His eyes widened. “Like letting me out of our sponsorship agreement.”
I nodded.
“Holy shit,” he said, before looking to Kendall. “I’d hug you right now if I didn’t think my girl would hurt me.”
Kendall and I laughed as Kason swept me up in his arms and spun me around. “Kincaid. Here I come!”
I laughed at his excitement and the realization that he’d no longer be stuck in a bad situation because of something I did.
“This is only the beginning, Shay,” he assured me. “With Kincaid, we’re gonna travel this world together and fill that bracelet.”
“Promise?”
He pressed his lips to mine, and that was all the promise I needed.
EPILOGUE
Kason
Shay lay topless on her stomach as Mack, the tattoo artist I’d used in the past, pressed the ink gun to her back. I’d arranged for Mack to give her ink since he was a burly older guy. There was no way I was letting any of the younger guys touch my girl. Shay had been a real trooper, laying in that spot in the tattoo parlor for over two hours. And, she hadn’t cried. Not even once.
“How’s it look?” she asked for the hundredth time.
From my seat beside her, I took in the scar on her back that was almost non-existent now that Mack had been working on it. Though it was a bitch to tattoo over a scar, Mack wasn’t necessarily trying to conceal it. He used it as a stem, trailing delicate small flowers off of it. I wasn’t a deep guy by any stretch of the imagination. But even I couldn’t ignore the symbolism of it all. Something so ugly—and done from such an ugly place—was turning into something so beautiful. “It looks amazing. I can’t wait for you to see it.”
She smiled and warmth spread to my chest. She smiled more these days. She was lighter. Happier. And, with Cora transferring colleges, Shay had nothing else to be weary of. Besides, she had me and my boys now. No one would ever mess with her again.
“You’re gonna have to come back in for me to shade in all the flowers,” Mack explained.
“Can you handle that?” I asked Shay.
“I think you’re forgetting who you’re talking to,” she said.
“Never.” I would have laughed if I wasn’t staring at the remnants of the scar on her back. I knew she’d endured a lot. And, little by little, she’d revealed more about her time in that trailer. I never pushed her. I always let her tell me what she wanted to tell me. I also didn’t push her to see her father when he called to check in from rehab. She’d hear him out, saying very little as she listened to whatever he said on his end. I could tell she planned to keep him at arm’s length, despite his success in recovery. And, if that’s what she needed to do in order to move on and live a healthy life, then I supported her wholeheartedly. Truthfully, I didn’t trust myself not to knock the son-of-a-bitch out if I ever met him. So, hopefully that day never came. Besides, she had my family now, and they loved her like their own.
“You gonna chicken out of your tattoo?” she asked me from the tattoo chair.
“I think you’re forgetting who you’re talking to,” I said.
“Never.”
I chuckled as I held out my arm and twisted it until I showed her the last vacant space on my bicep. “I’m putting one of your flowers right here.”
She smiled, and I knew it came from a place of contentment and security. She wasn’t worried I’d up and leave her. She knew this thing between us was real. I tried to prove it to her with everything I said and everything I did—hence the matching flower on my arm I’d be getting when she was done. I enjoyed giving her stuff like that because I knew it meant so much to her.
But, what she didn’t realize—what she’d probably never realize—was that her loving me was
the best gift she could have ever given me. I was a self-centered asshole when we met and, somehow, she actually looked past all my indiscretions and gave me a shot. Thank fuck. So, if anyone were to ask what drew me to Shay in the first place, I’d tell them it was the other way around. What drew Shay to me? Then, I’d tell them it wasn’t her feisty attitude or her nerdy glasses and braids that had me falling for her. I’d tell them what I told her at the Games. There was just something about her that made me a better man. Maybe it was everything she’d gone through and still came out on top. Maybe it was the way she put me in my place. Maybe it was the way she didn’t back down from a challenge. Or, maybe…it was just the way I felt when she smiled at me.
Regardless of what brought us together, I knew with much certainty that there was nothing in this world I wouldn’t do for Shay Miller.
Enjoy a Sample of For Finlay
A College Sports Romance
Finlay
“Hey, sweetheart. Why don’t you bring me a little something over here?”
I sucked back what I really wanted to say to the big oaf wearing only his shoulder pads and football pants as I crossed the locker room filled with college football players in all stages of dress. I plastered on my ‘I could give a damn’ face and maneuvered around the players, careful not to get too close to what they didn’t bother covering up with me in the room. I extended a water bottle to the idiot.
A smug smile slipped across his face. “I didn’t say I wanted water.”
The room exploded with cackles and hoots of laughter.
I stifled my annoyance as I pulled back my shoulders and turned away from him like it didn’t faze me.
“Hey. Where you going, sweetheart?” he drawled.
I caught the sky-blue eyes of the quarterback seated on the stool in front of his locker lacing up his cleats. He looked surprised I’d held my tongue. Hell, I was surprised I’d held it when all I really wanted to do was tell the offensive lineman I’d come to hate—the one who’d been razzing me since I’d begun with the team a week before—where to stick his jock strap.
My eyes flashed away, seeking out my spot in the corner of the room where I waited for someone who actually needed a drink to signal me over.
Coach Burns burst into the crowded locker room rattling off the game plan for the start of their first closed scrimmage of the season. Fall semester began in a couple weeks. Football players and team staff started early, hence my presence on campus during the last few weeks of summer.
I looked out at the football players, all primed with black paint under their eyes for a battle against a local college. They sat focused on the coach’s words like football was life. Like it meant anything in the grand scheme of things.
I inhaled a deep breath. I could do it. I could be there. A hundred miles from home. Starting college at a school I never planned to attend. One I never even considered attending. It was never my dream. It had always been his.
* * *
Cole ran across our backyard. He was taller and leaner than most of the ten-year-old boys in town, owing his athletic build to football. He played every day whether he had practice or not. And on days when he had no one to play with, in other words when I wasn’t around or didn’t feel like it, he threw into a tire swing our dad hung from an old oak tree in the backyard.
I pulled back my arm and tossed Cole the ball. Though a little wobbly, he reached over his head, nabbed the off-center pass, and tucked it against his side. He took off running toward our mother’s flower bed at the edge of our property, celebrating when he reached it like he just caught the game winning pass in an actual game.
I brushed my long dark hair out of my face and dug my hands into my hips, waiting for his excessive celebration to stop. Even at ten, my twin’s confidence drove me nuts. He was such a showoff. Rightfully so, but it still irked me. So did my friends who came over to play with me but ended up staring at Cole the entire time.
He finally stopped his ridiculous dance and turned to me, his face suddenly serious. “You throw like a girl.”
My eyes flared. “I am a girl.”
“Yeah.” His lips pulled up in one corner. “Sometimes I forget.”
I stuck out my tongue. “Idiot.”
“Loser.”
We both laughed as he tossed me a perfect spiral which I caught easily. Growing up with a football phenom taught me some impressive skills.
“Maybe by the time we go to college, there’ll be more female football players,” he said as I tossed him back the ball.
I scrunched up my face, completely thrown by his admission. “You think I’m good enough to play?”
He shrugged. “You’re better than most of the guys on my team.”
I smiled on the inside, never letting my brother know how much his words meant to me. He thought I was good. Cole Thatcher, football player extraordinaire, thought I was good.
* * *
I stood on the sideline under the unbearable August sun. There was no reprieve from an Alabama summer. Pool water turned to bath water, and lakes were overcrowded. So, unless you were brave enough to jump into a cold shower, you dealt with the heat. And out there in the open stadium, the sun beat down like a mother.
A couple players ran over to the sideline, pulling off their shiny red helmets revealing damp hair and sweaty red faces. The once menacing black paint trailed like tear drops down their cheeks. They grabbed the water bottles I extended to them. “Thanks,” the shorter one uttered, while the taller downed the contents of his without taking a breath.
They tossed me back the empty bottles. I grabbed two more from the bench and searched for anyone else looking for sustenance. When no one caught my eye, I hurried to my back-up supply in the big jug behind the bench and filled the empty bottles.
“Hey, sweetheart.”
Ugh. That freaking voice.
“Get your ass over here.”
I turned, eyeing the asshole approaching me with nothing but disgust. And while I had a million comebacks for his inappropriate comments, I held my tongue—at least for the time being. I needed to be there. A prick like him wasn’t going to drive me away.
“Didn’t you see me motioning for you out there?” he growled.
Yup. I shook my head. “Sorry.”
“Well, give me a damn drink,” he ordered, colder than usual.
I bit down on my bottom lip as I handed him the bottle, wishing I’d spit in it first.
He ripped it from my hand. “Coach might’ve gotten one with tits this time,” he said to no one in particular. “But she’s sure dumb as dirt.”
I sucked back a sharp breath.
“Grady!” a deep voice shouted. “That’s enough.”
I froze, startled that someone actually had the balls to stand up to the three-hundred pound brute.
Grady’s eyes lifted over my shoulder. A cold calculated grin—nearly concealed by his pathetic attempt at a beard—tugged at his lips. “This don’t concern you, Brooks.”
“Leave her alone,” the quarterback warned.
Grady laughed wickedly before his eyes shot back to mine. “Don’t get your hopes up, sweetheart. Brooks ain’t nobody’s Prince Charming. He’d fuck you then ditch you in a matter of seconds.” Grady downed the water and tossed the bottle to the ground as he lumbered away.
I didn’t turn around. I knew who Caden Brooks was. I’d known before I even arrived on campus. Junior star quarterback. His conquests epic, making his way from his home state of California to Alabama in grand-freaking-style. And his looks…well, he certainly was pretty. If football didn’t work out, his dirty blond hair, blue eyes, and body people bowed down to would be gracing underwear billboards in Times Square in no time. But the last thing I needed to see was Brooks waiting for a thank you. Waiting for me to fawn all over him like every other girl.
Not a chance in hell that was happening.
“You okay?” Brooks asked from somewhere behind me.
My head whipped around, my dark ponytail
slapping me in the face. My eyes locked on his sweaty face, his eyes prominent in the bright afternoon sun. “I could’ve handled it,” I scowled.
His head recoiled, the lack of appreciation catching him off guard. “Yeah, looked like you were handling it.” Of course he recovered. Guys accustomed to people kissing their asses always recovered, never letting anyone see them falter. As if on cue, his features sobered. I watched it happen. I watched him realize I wasn’t worth his time.
I wasn’t. Nor would I ever want to be. I hated Caden Brooks. I hated him with everything I had left in the world.
“No worries,” he said. “I won’t make that mistake again.” He turned and walked toward the other end of the sideline.
I didn’t need him.
I didn’t need anyone.
Purchase For Finlay
MORE FROM J. NATHAN
For You Standalone Sports Series:
Book #1 For Finlay
Book #2 For Forester
Book #3 For Crosby
Book #4 For Emery
Savage Beasts Standalone Rock Star Series:
Book #1 Kozart
Book #2 Treyton
Standalones:
I Just Need You
You’re the Reason
Until Alex
Before Hadley
Since Drew
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you so much for taking the time to read Kason and Shay’s story. I hope you enjoyed it! I love reading opposite attract and enemies-to-lovers romances, so this was so incredibly fun to write!
To all the bloggers, bookstagrammers, booktokers, and readers who have continued to share my books. I say it every time, but it’s the truth. I could never do this without all of you! Thank you so very much!