Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 117363 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117363 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
“Awesome,” Travis enthused. “Congrats!”
Jean glanced at Cat to see if she knew what was going on. She caught his eye and said, “Xavier had surgery scheduled for right after finals. We got the good news in our floozy chat before you moved out here, so you missed all the excitement on that front. Speaking of—what the fuck,” Cat said, so loud the locker room was temporarily startled to silence.
Jean stared at her, but she was no longer looking at his face. He’d just peeled his shirt off, and Cat was staring at the scars that cross-hatched and curved over his skin. Jean wasn’t altogether surprised that Xavier hurried over to check on them. He was less surprised when Jeremy popped up at the end of the row with worry stamped on his face a few moments later.
“Hey, uh,” Cody said, staring at Jean’s bared skin. “You, uh. You good?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Jean tugged his white workout shirt off its shelf. Cat grabbed his elbow like she could stop him from getting dressed, but Jean yanked free with little effort. She didn’t try again, but neither did she lift her eyes from his chest even after he’d tugged his clean shirt on. “You will get used to them soon enough, and they do not interfere with my ability to play.”
“Get used to them,” Cat echoed, sharp with disbelief. “Jeremy said they were bad, but—”
“I am not the only one here with scars,” Jean said, motioning toward Xavier.
Xavier arched a brow at him. “Mine are surgical, and yours most definitely are not.” He put up a hand when Cat opened her mouth, waited a beat to make sure she understood, and held Jean’s gaze. “I only have one question for you: do you want to talk about it?”
“There is nothing to talk about,” Jean said.
Xavier weighed that in silence for a minute before saying, “Okay then.” He flicked a hard look past Jean when Cat made a disbelieving noise. “It’s not our business until you invite us to it. Just keep in mind that that door is always open. Cody?”
“I’ll keep an eye on things,” Cody agreed.
Xavier left to get dressed. His words sat like a stone on the defense line, and Jean couldn’t shake his teammates’ prickling scrutiny as he finished changing out. Cat’s mouth was pulled in a bloodless line when she finally turned away and focused on getting herself ready. The other rows had gone back to chatting, as they’d been around corners and out of sight, but the Trojans’ defensemen got dressed in tense silence. Jean didn’t mind; tension was something he was used to, and silence was better than intrusive questions.
Lisinski came to hurry them along when she thought they were taking too long, and the Trojans filed out of the stadium in a long line. They took a slow lap around campus before turning toward the fitness center. Lisinski called them all in close to go over the day’s workout before dividing them into groups that would alternate machine order. As Xavier had guessed, he was assigned Jean and the freshmen. Lisinski stopped by their group briefly to stare down Xavier and Jean in turn.
“If anything feels off, you ease up and let me know,” she said.
“Yes, Coach,” Xavier said. As soon as she was gone the vice-captain slanted a conspiratorial look at Jean. “Nah. We’re good, right? I’m beyond ready to get back to it.”
When Jean nodded solemn agreement, Xavier waved the freshmen over. Jean didn’t miss the way they spent more time staring at him than listening to Xavier, but since every one of them should be familiar with the machines they’d be using today he didn’t waste his time redirecting their attention.
It took just over two hours to get through everything, and back to the Gold Court they went. By then it was noon, so they stopped for an hour-long break to scrub dry and eat. Half of the Trojans disappeared to grab something from on or near campus, but Cat and Jean had prepped and packed the week’s lunches for the four of them. A couple hours away from him had seemingly restored Cat’s good mood, as she broke her frosty silence to chat about some upcoming movie trailers she’d seen.
Eventually everyone was back, and it was time to get dressed for the court. Cat shoveled her armor onto the floor in front of her locker, grumbling the whole while about the Trojans’ absent assistants.
“Can’t justify having them here over the summer,” Cat said. “I know, I know. But they do make the season ten times easier.”
“You have four coaches,” Jean said. “Why do you need assistants?”
“Waterboys,” Cat said. “Well, watergirls. Waterkids?”
“That’s not a word,” Haoyu said.
“Effective today it is,” was Cat’s breezy retort. “Anyway, you don’t really appreciate what a gift they are until they’re not underfoot. You’re telling me the Ravens didn’t have doting helpers chasing after you with water bottles and clean towels? We have something that you didn’t?”