A Game Worth Watching (16 page)

“I’m
proud of you.”

“Oh,
thank you,” she said, the sarcasm rich in her voice. “Not only do you play the
role of my best friend, but you wear the hat of my dad as well. How fortunate
for me. Tell me, what other roles do you play?”

He
grabbed her leg just above the knee and squeezed, knowing it was the most
ticklish part of her body. It was the only time she squealed like a girl. He
laughed as her high-pitched shriek flooded the interior of the jeep, and she
struggled to pry his hand from her leg.

“You’re
not as tough as you think you are.” He leaned back in his seat, watching her.
“I think you’re actually enjoying this whole basketball thing. Including the
girls.”

Her
jaw dropped. It was the most ridiculous thing ever. She had a strict
no-girl-enjoyment policy. It was ironclad, as in unbreakable, nonnegotiable,
nontransferable. “You’re delusional.”

“Why
else would you spend time teaching a freshman girl how to play?” he challenged
her. “It doesn’t exactly fit your profile.”

“I
didn’t have a choice,” she protested, remembering only too well how the entire
mess started in the first place. “The kid cornered me after practice, begging
and pleading, two seconds away from drowning me in her waterworks.”

He
chuckled. “I’m just glad it wasn’t a boyfriend. A freshman I can handle, but a
boyfriend? Too much drama.”

She
shook her head, his comment not worthy of a response. To him, a boyfriend would
cause more trouble, but she’d prefer the boyfriend to a team full of girls any
day.

He
smiled, amused. “It’d be okay, you know.”

“What?”

“If
you liked them.”

“I
don’t,” she said firmly.

“I
know,” he said, “but if you did, some day, it’d be okay.”

Lauren’s
sneer popped into her head, along with Madison’s tears after the ball smacked
her in the face, and Ashley’s wide, beady eyes every time she saw Emma execute
a move on the court. Liking them was not an option.

***

Emma
and Riley walked to the neighborhood court together. The air was cold and crisp
and tasted like freedom. After a week of practicing with the girls, plus the extra
hours with Ashley, Emma relished in the opportunity to play with the guys
again. To play without holding back and worrying about whether her passes would
knock some girl down. All she wanted was one girl-free Saturday with the guys,
which was why the sight of Ashley huddled next to the fence stopped her in her
tracks.

“What
are you doing here?” Emma demanded of the freshman.

It
was Riley who answered. “I invited her.”

She
spun on him. “You what?”

“You
heard me.”

“What,
five days a week plus overtime with her isn’t enough? She has to encroach on my
weekends too?” Emma took a deep breath and held it to prevent from screaming.

“Relax,”
Riley said. “I figured the kid would like to see how real basketball is played.
What better people to watch than you and me, huh?” He nudged Emma with his
elbow, but she wasn’t flattered by his compliment.

“Hi,
Ash.” He smiled at Ashley, causing Emma to scowl. The last thing the freshman
needed was encouragement to stick around.

Ashley
looked at Emma with innocent eyes. “I don’t want to impose.”

“You’re
not,” Riley said firmly before Emma could respond, shooting her a glare. “Stick
around and learn a thing or two.”

Why
did he always get his way? Even if she called in an army full of people whose
sole mission was to take her side, Riley would still get his way. Life wasn’t
fair, it was infuriating. She remained silent, but it wasn’t a secret that she
was two seconds away from going lethal, and Riley knew it.

“Excuse
us.” Riley grabbed Emma’s arm and pulled her away from Ashley.

Emma
twisted out of his grasp. “You could have at least warned me she’d be here.”

“What
for? It’s not like she has the plague or something.” He looked at Ashley as she
stared at the guys on the court, her mouth open and eyes shining. “Besides, she
kind of reminds me of you as a freshman.”

“Is
that supposed to make me feel better?”

He
laughed and passed her the ball, trying to distract her. He seriously didn’t
understand the issues she had with girls. This entire time she’d thought they
were on the same page of the same book governed by the same set of rules. Riley
had never been interested in girls until they became the central point of her
madness, and now he wanted them as allies.

Emma
scowled at Ashley, wondering why Riley had taken an interest in her and why
Ashley was so intent on invading every part of Emma’s life. Her one day of real
basketball with people she liked? Corrupted. Taking a deep breath, she found
comfort in the fact Ashley would be watching from the sidelines. Her feet would
not step onto the court to foul up the game or trip someone or give the guys a
reason to tease her. Today, Ashley was a spectator, not a player.

Emma
joined Tom, Jerry, Riley, and Cy to shoot around until the rest of the guys
showed up. No duck and cover method here. All shots, if not going through the
net, at least hit off the rim. No girly shots. No air balls. No whining or
crying. Saturday was a great day, even with the annoying freshman in tow.

“Who’s
your little friend?” Tom asked, approaching Emma and nodding toward Ashley.

Her
lips curled in disgust. “No one. Just some girl from my team.”

“She’s
cute.”

Emma
shot the ball. “Don’t even think about it.” She recognized the prey-mode look in
Tom’s eyes and was well aware of his habits toward the female population. He
earned his bragging rights through demonstration, not by sitting on the
sidelines and dreaming. “She’s too innocent for you.”

Tom
looked at Ashley and smiled as impure thoughts formed in his head. “I can fix
that.”

Emma
spun toward him, yanked his arm behind his back and slammed him face-first
against the chain-link fence, causing Tom to grunt in pain. A move she should
thank her brothers for some day.

“Hey,”
Tom growled.

She
tightened her grip on his arm, vaguely aware of Ashley and the guys watching
her. “If you touch her, I swear I will break both your arms and make you cry
like a baby in front of the entire school so no girl would ever think about
giving you the time of day ever again.” She felt Tom’s arm in her hand, heard
her voice threaten him, and felt her stomach sicken over his comment about the
freshman, but why in the world should she care? Girls were the enemy, not Tom,
but she couldn’t help her reaction.

He
held up his free hand, showing mercy. “Relax, Emma. I was just messing around.”

“Go
mess around with someone else,” she said through clenched teeth, releasing her
hold on him and shoving him away. Her friendship with Tom, although better than
her relationship with any of her brothers, wasn’t built entirely on
conflict-free resolutions. Regardless, she would take his side over any girl’s.
At least she thought she would. Until now.

She
whirled around, unable to look in Tom’s direction, and found herself face-to-face
with Riley. “Impressive,” he said, his face unreadable. “If I didn’t know
better, I would think the freshman is starting to grow on you.”

“That’s
ridiculous,” she seethed. A momentary lapse of control didn’t mean anything. “I
just don’t want his filthy thoughts distracting my players. We’ve got enough to
worry about without him creating drama.”

He
shrugged. “If you say so.”

She
hated when he did that. Saying he believed her when he totally didn’t,
everything about him gearing up for the I-told-you-so moment.

They
finally had enough guys to make the game fun, and Emma soon left the drama of
the day behind and just played basketball. The fast breaks down the court, the
all-out defense, the passes firing from one set of hands to another. Surrounded
by guys. No girls. Basketball at its best.

Ashley
was their own little cheerleader, cheering and clapping from the bleachers any
time someone made a shot or executed a good move, no matter what team they were
on. At first the guys looked at Ashley like she was crazy, but as the game wore
on they smiled at her, took breaks to give her high-fives, and just like that
it happened; Ashley became their own little mascot. Emma found the whole scene
annoying, but when they took a break an hour later, not even Ashley’s presence
cast a shadow on her mood.

She
joined Ashley on the sidelines and snatched her water bottle from the ground.

“Riley
is so cool.” Ashley watched him goof around with some of the guys. Of all the
guys out there, Riley had given Ashley the biggest smiles and the most
attention. Why wouldn’t Ashley love him?

Emma
gulped water and swiped the back of her hand across her mouth to catch any
loose drops, her eyes on Riley. “Yep. He’s the best.”

Ashley
peered up at Emma, her eyes curious. “Do you like him?”

“Of
course I like him,” Emma said. “He’s my best friend.”

“No,”
Ashley said. “I mean do you
like
him?”

Emma
looked at the freshman wondering if the kid was hard of hearing. “Didn’t I just
say yes?”

Ashley
laughed and shook her head.

“What?”
Emma’s mood soured the longer their conversation stretched out.

“You’re
completely clueless,” Ashley said, not a bit shy at stating her opinion. “What
I’m asking is, do you like Riley as more than a friend? Like as a boyfriend?”

“What?”
Emma screeched. Where in the world did the kid get such a stupid idea? “Of
course not. Do I look like the kind of girl who spends her days swooning over
some sleazy guy?”

The
freshman laughed again. “Number one, it doesn’t matter what you look like,
you’re not immune to love, and number two, we’re not talking about some sleazy
guy.” She looked across the court at the boy in question. “We’re talking about
Riley.”

Emma
couldn’t prevent her eyes from wandering in Riley’s direction. Riley and Jerry
launched balls from half-court, seeing who could make the first shot. Before he
took the ball to shoot, Emma knew Riley would take a two-dribble head start,
shoot the ball from his hip, and bounce on his toes, waiting for the ball to
drop. She also knew the way he clicked his pen when doing homework, the way he
hummed when everything felt right in his world, and the way his thoughtful eyes
rested on her and the corner of his mouth lifted into a smile whenever he saw
her. She knew everything about Riley. It was called friendship.

“I’ve
seen the way he looks at you and believe me, there’s more there than
friendship.”

Emma
clenched her teeth, her hands balling into fists. “No. There’s not.”

As
if to prove Ashley’s point, Riley glanced over and caught Emma looking at him. He
gave her an up nod and a smile, his gaze lingering longer than necessary before
his demeanor became more lighthearted, and he waved at Ashley. Ashley didn’t
have to say anything. Her raised eyebrows and I-told-you-so smile said it all.
Emma ignored her. Riley had looked at her like that a thousand times. What was
the big deal? But then Emma’s thoughts snapped back to the night of the dance.
The way his arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her close, the way he held
her gaze, the way she’d felt something other than friendship pass between them.

His
words echoed in her head,
It’s not so bad, being here with my girl.
Did he really consider
her his girl? Did he see her as more than just one of the guys? She remembered
the connection between them at the dance and how, near the end of their slow
dance, he leaned in as if to…
no!
It couldn’t be. Riley would not have kissed her in the middle
of the dance floor with all those people. Would he?

Emma’s
heart pounded in her chest. Her mouth suddenly dry, she gulped down water,
spilling half of it on her shirt and nearly choking. She gripped the edge of
the bleachers to steady herself as the court started spinning, vaguely aware of
the freshman watching her.

“You
really didn’t know?” Ashley asked gently.

Emma
heard the sympathy in her tone. Like Ashley considered herself an adult
mentoring some child. Emma squeezed her eyes shut. This whole thing was
ridiculous. Ashley was the kid. She didn’t know anything, especially about
Emma’s relationship with Riley. It was probably just some psycho girl trick to
derail her, to cause tension between her and the boy she couldn’t live without.
The last thing she needed was to second-guess every smile, every word, and
every touch her and Riley had ever exchanged. She wasn’t about to let some girl
corrupt the only good thing in her life.

Emma
threw her water bottle on the ground. “Look, Riley and I are
just
friends.
Nothing more. So keep your thoughts to yourself or I’ll call it quits with our
one-on-one practice sessions. You got it?”

Fear
flashed in Ashley’s eyes. She clamped her mouth shut and nodded.

“Hey,
girls,” Riley said, coming up behind Emma. He settled his arm around her
shoulders like usual, sending a sense of protection and friendship through
Emma, which only aggravated her more. Now was not the time for his
friendliness. She shrugged off his arm, threw Ashley a glare, and stalked
across the court, needing a basketball and a few guys who wouldn’t play easy on
her.

She
and Riley were friends. Nothing more. So, why, when she glanced over at Riley
and he smiled at her, did her stomach turn over like the engine of a car? And
why did the sight of him with Ashley aggravate her? Must be a stupid girl
thing. Hanging out with girls made her crazy. It made everyone crazy. Riley would
never like Emma as anything more than a friend…would he? She shook her head to
clear it and focused on basketball.

She
would’ve preferred to be guarded by Tom. If she pushed, he would have pushed
back, not caring if she was a girl or not. If she fouled him, Tom would seek
revenge until it was a full-out challenge of who would win, especially after
their little incident a while ago. Emma got Riley instead. He knew her too well
to react. When she pushed him, he’d give her a step or two. If she fouled him,
he’d tickle her ribs. But he always knew when something was wrong. Just like
best friends do. The key word being
friends
.