Spiked by Love (Bellevue Bullies #6) - Toni Aleo Page 0,2
it hard to our libero. She passes it up to me, and of course, it’s still spinning. Her passes fucking suck ass, but she is fast, and I can make any ball hittable. I slow the ball, setting it for Angie, and she jump hits it to their back row. Soon, we’re in an intense volley, and it’s what I live for. Angie and I are all over the court, setting and spiking the ball left and right. My team moves with us, picking up the slack, but when Coach jumps up, spiking the ball on our libero, she misses it.
We all groan as Katie lets her head fall back. “Ugh. Sorry.”
“Water break!” Coach exclaims, which really means, “Everyone else get water, and Katie, come here.” I pat her back, squeezing her shoulder. “You got this. It’s okay.”
She doesn’t look convinced as she walks toward him, while the rest of the team heads to the bleachers where all our stuff is. I sit down beside Angie and reach for my phone as I guzzle my water.
When I see a text from Asher, my face lights up.
Asher: Landing in an hour ten. Don’t be late.
Me: How are you texting me when you’re on a plane?
Asher: I got the Wi-Fi to text you.
Me: Aww, shucks. You paid $8.99 to text me?
Asher: I’d pay more…to make sure I have a ride.
Me: Ass.
When he sends me a kissy face, I laugh just as Angie leans into me. “I didn’t know you had a boyfriend.”
I give her a blank look. “I don’t. It’s Asher.”
“Oh, your hot-as-hell best friend?”
I shrug. “I don’t know about hot-as-hell—”
“How do you stay just friends with him? I’d bang him every chance I got.”
“Angie!” I say, appalled. “You’re, like, ten.”
She laughs, her green eyes full of playfulness. “Just because you’re old and crusty doesn’t mean the rest of us are babies. I’m eighteen and ready to mingle.”
This is why Lucy wanted me to watch her. Horny little shit.
“Jeez, send you off to college, and you’re ready for a good time.”
Angie grins, looking just like her mama. “Whatever. You are just as busy as I am.”
Shit, she’s not wrong. I flash her a suggestive grin as I lean back, pressing my water bottle to my forehead. It may be cold outside, but it’s hot as hell in this gym.
“For real, for real. How?”
“How what?” I ask, confused.
“Do you stay just friends?”
“Because we are.” I shrug. “We’ve been best friends since we were kids.”
“That’s so weird. No hookups?”
“No,” I say simply. “We’re just friends.”
“Is he gay?”
“What in the world!”
“Seriously,” she says, laughing. “No red-blooded dude can resist you. You’re so damn hot, and he is too. Y’all should get together, have hot-ass sex, then have a hot-ass wedding, and then have hot-ass kids. It’s really a service to the world.”
I just blink. It’s the only thing I’ll allow myself to do. I may love Angie, and she’s family, but I don’t confide in her. That’s reserved for Asher and my cousin slash best friend, Posey Adler. And I don’t even confide in Posey concerning Asher. It’s quite complicated. “I don’t know how to answer that.”
“With the truth?”
“The truth is, he’s my best friend. No feelings. Just friends.”
She gawks at me, and then her lips curve. “Fine, can I get the hook-up?”
I snort and ignore the anger bubbling inside me. He isn’t even here, and people are already thirsty for him. “I don’t hook people up with my best friend. You want him, you gotta go after him.”
“Will do,” she says in her sassy way. When she gets up, I swallow hard and ignore my instinct to text Asher to tell him to be on the lookout for Angie. He just got out of a serious relationship. Yes, it’s been almost five months, but still. He really thought he’d marry his ex, but come to find out, she was gay. It was unfortunate, but I think we both knew. She hit on me a lot. With him around—and sometimes when he wasn’t. It was weird, but Asher always thought she was just playing around.
Yeah, she wasn’t.
I know it broke his heart when she told him her true sexual preference, but it’s better that it happened before they were married. I kind of hate her for holding on to him for as long as she did. Pretty sure she knew she was a lesbian, but she kept the relationship going. I think it might have been because she was embarrassed, but I don’t know why.