Chapter 3
2140 Words
three
RYLAN
I get déjà vu on the escalator down to the baggage claim. I was just here eight months or so ago when my grandma Ethel passed away. At least then I was able to fly in and out without having to spend the night. I had hoped for the same short visit when Declan called me six months ago and told me he was going to propose to Aubrey, but I promised him I’d return here as soon as my season ended and unfortunately that was earlier than I’d hoped. Declan should be happy she stood by his side all these years. Anyone who knows Aubrey knows patience isn’t one of her virtues.
My bag is the only one riding the conveyor belt since I stopped upstairs to eat before coming down. Every one of my family members, including my parents, asked to pick me up, but I told them I’d need a car, so I’d drive myself to Sunrise Bay.
Three weeks.
I knew this day was coming, but I still find myself unprepared to see Calista again.
It doesn’t help that it feels impossible to get my head together since we lost in the first round of the playoffs, and I can’t listen to any sports commentary without the subject of my piss-poor performance during the playoffs coming up. Coach said to flush the year, flush the game, but I keep replaying how the opposing players got by me.
I grab my suitcase, bigger than I normally bring home because I haven’t stayed for longer than a week in years. And I can’t really give a reason for that. Or at least one that I’ll admit.
After grabbing a rental SUV, I couldn’t be happier to be driving into Sunrise Bay on my own. Instead of taking the highway, I extend my drive another half hour by taking the back roads, needing time to prepare myself.
Calista and I cannot have a repeat of last Christmas. It’s like having to rip a Band-Aid off a festering wound afterward. When I leave town this time, things between us have to be finished for good. I need to do some soul-searching.
A surge of emotion hits me when I pass the sports performance building that Jamison Ferguson and Kingston Bailey own. I spent all my youth there, and so did Calista. From the time we were six, we trained together under Jamison since he’d played professional soccer in the US and Europe. He’s the entire reason I am where I am.
But my first real memory in that place—other than my annoyance at Calista when she’d beat me to the goal—was when we were fourteen. It was a big tournament and Calista was playing with us because Ian Porter had broken his leg that week. The problem was that by that point, Calista was playing with the girls’ team and since we were both center midfielders, Jamison decided to have us take turns playing center. I laugh, remembering how stubborn she was then and still is.
“Uncle Jamie, you know I’m the better player.” She put her hands on her hips. She’d started wearing shorter shorts and only sports bras by midpractice when she got hot. My juvenile self could barely keep my hard-on hidden.
“You’re kidding. God.” I sighed and shook my head.
Jamison was her uncle and I sometimes felt his loyalty went her way, or he had a soft spot for her because she was a girl.
She kicked the ball out from under my foot and dribbled it around. “See?”
She got the ball up in the air and bounced it on her knees, then bopped it on her head to her feet again. Not about to be shown up, I kicked it away from her.
“You guys,” Jamie whined.
But I was busy kicking the ball downfield, Calista chasing me. She got in front of me, her eyes focused on my footwork. We were the best in the club, but that wasn’t good enough for Calista. She had to be better than me too.
She kicked, and I pushed the ball the other way, laughing.
She groaned and followed, almost getting the ball from me before I stopped and kicked it the opposite way. Sometimes I wanted to put her in her place, show her I was the better player; other times I wanted to kiss her. My body was at war with my mind and was so f*****g twisted back then.
“Go, Calista!” Declan said from the sidelines. He’d come with me because we were going to the high school football game after practice.
I scowled at him while Calista’s forehead crinkled. “That’s your friend? What’s his name again?”
“Declan.”
“What kind of name is that?”
“What kind of name is Calista?” I kept drawing her closer to me, making her think she had a chance to get the ball.
Declan liked Calista. He’d been on me for weeks about setting up a double date with her.
Her labored breathing cooled the sweat on my neck. Our hands brushed as she stepped into me, but I kicked the ball to the right.
“Come on, you two,” Jamieson hollered across the field.
“Not fast enough,” I taunted.
She groaned and got closer, then her breasts brushed my arm and she got a toe on the ball, shooting it out from under me. She ran down the field and I sprinted to catch her, but I was still processing that her breasts had grazed my arm. I figured that was exactly why there were always separate men’s and women’s leagues.
She kicked and scored, shimmying her hips left and right with her arms raised above her head. I bent over to catch my breath.
“She got you, Greene!” Declan screamed and I flipped him off behind me.
“It’s her perseverance. She never gives up.” Jamie clasped me on the shoulder. Calista kicked the ball toward Jamie and he caught it flawlessly. “Okay, you two. We’re done for today. I’ll see you at the game, and let’s remember that yer on the same team tomorrow.”
Calista giggled and grabbed her bag. She’d shower, then Jamie would drive her home while I was headed to the game with Declan.
In the shower, all I could think about was Calista and the way her n*****s had poked out of her sports bra when she stood in front of the fan to cool down earlier. My d**k was starting to grow hard, but I wasn’t about to knock one off in a public bathroom, so I turned the water to cold. My older brother Jed always made comments about needing a cold shower, so I figured that might help. Thankfully it did help enough that I wouldn’t be going out with a boner. Declan would never let me forget it.
I walked out wearing jeans and a Sunrise Bay High School sweatshirt, my hair still damp from my shower. Throwing my bag over my shoulder, I stopped when I heard Calista’s giggle, hating that someone else was making her laugh. I had to get over this crush I had on her. It was making me insane.
“Awesome, tomorrow night then.” Calista nodded and walked away from Declan as I approached.
“What happened?” I whispered to Declan since Calista was standing by the glass doors—waiting for Jamison, I assumed.
His face lit up with the same look that had gotten me in trouble so many times before. “Double date tomorrow night after the game.” He ran his palms together.
“Who’s the other couple?”
He laughed because Declan didn’t always care how what he wanted affected others. “You and her friend Aubrey.”
The only thing I knew about Aubrey was that she came to some soccer games and always had Calista’s number painted on her cheek. That and the worst part, was that she wasn’t Calista.
“Thought we were gonna…” I looked around. “You know, the Netflix thing.”
He nodded and scoured the area too. “Relax, they’re coming with us.”
“What?” I snapped.
Calista glanced over, her usual smug look on her face.
“They’re going to get us in trouble.”
“No, they won’t.” He waved away my concern, but I knew it wasn’t a good idea…
The next night, my brother Fisher walked me into the sheriff’s station after we were caught sneaking into other people’s houses, watching things on their Netflix accounts as a joke so that it would change the algorithm and suggest they watch weird stuff.
Declan leaned forward and looked at the girls, then at me. “Just relax, my dad is a lawyer. They have no proof.”
“No matter what, I’m screwed. My brother is the sheriff, and my dad and mom are probably already on their way down here.” I crossed my arms and glared at Declan, but beyond him was Calista, and she offered me a soft smile as though she felt bad for me. I inwardly rolled my eyes.
The entire night, Declan had been trying to impress Calista and it’d been getting on my nerves. We should’ve been done two houses sooner, but he’d insisted we keep going. Then Mato, another officer, found us sneaking out a window.
A while after he’d left us to stew, Fisher came out and pointed at the other three. “You go with Mato. Rylan, you’re with me.”
“Told you,” I mumbled, following my older brother.
Fisher rambled on, saying pretty much what I expected from him. “How could you do this? It’s disrespectful to our family.”
“Declan likes Calista,” I admitted, and Fisher’s face fell. My whole family believed I liked her, and unfortunately, they were right, but I wasn’t about to tell anyone that.
Minutes later, my dad and mom knocked on the door of Fisher’s office and he pried it open. “Here’s your felon. Going to check on the others.”
He left and I got Dad’s disapproving glare while Mom was glancing at Calista talking to Fisher.
All in all, our parents came to get us, which was humiliating. On the way out, Declan shook his head at me while his parents talked to mine.
“What?” I asked.
“Her friend said Calista likes you. Of course she f*****g does.”
“Bye, Declan,” Aubrey says, her dad glaring over while he had one hand on her upper arm, leading her to their car.
“See you, Aubrey.”
Calista was already in her dad’s truck. She sat in the front seat, looking stoic as her dad kept turning to talk to her. I gave her a small smile and she shared her own with me.
“Aubrey’s cute, right?” Declan interrupted. “She’s hot. Do you like her? Because if you don’t, then…”
My gaze stayed on Calista before her dad turned at the light. “Go ahead, Declan. I don’t like her.”
He clapped me on the shoulder. “Awesome. Thanks, Ry!”
By the end of the week, Declan had gotten Aubrey’s phone number and asked her out.
I shake my head from the memory when my phone buzzes on the console.
Declan: Best man duty #1 - get your ass to Lucky’s in Lake Starlight.
Instead of continuing to Sunrise Bay a few exits down, I get off in Lake Starlight.
I park and jog across the street of their small town that is quaint and touristy like my own. Declan hasn’t shown yet, so I take a stool at the bar and ask for a beer. Any one of Calista’s relatives could walk in here. Hell, maybe even she could. My heart leaps with hope, which makes me a very stupid man.
“What’s up?” Declan says from the door. You’d think he was a Lake Starlight lifer the way he seems so comfortable here. He comes over and we shake hands then hug. “Damn, it’s been too long. You’ve been slacking on your best man responsibilities.”
I nod, feeling a little guilty. “I’m all yours now.”
“Oh, before I forget, Aubrey’s grandma Alice wanted me to give you this.”
He hands me a small envelope. It reminds me of one that would accompany a bouquet of flowers.
I run my finger under the seam to open it. The card reads:
Tomorrow 9am
27 Cottagewood Dr.
Lake Starlight, Alaska
What the hell is this all about?
- Writer
