The Trouble with You (Rixon Raiders 1)

er eyes at him, but he barely looked twice at her.

“Don’t be a dick, Jason.”

His hands went up. “I come in peace.” His eyes flicked over to where Cameron was. “How is he?”

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” There was no malice in my words. Cameron was right; life was too short. After sitting with him in the hospital waiting room while his mom underwent a life-saving craniotomy, I realized this grudge between me and Jason, the stuff with Thatcher, it didn’t matter. This was high school. Kids were mean and got off on bringing each other down. But the real world, where things were hard and painful and uncertain, was waiting for them. High school didn’t define me. I knew my worth, and this moment, right here, defined me.

Jason ran a brisk hand through his damp hair as I stepped closer to him and lay my hand on his arm. “You should go talk to him; he misses you.”

It didn’t matter what Jason did or didn’t think about me, our lives were entwined now. Whether he liked it or not. I loved his best friend, his brother in all the ways that counted, so we had to find a way to co-exist.

“I...” he hesitated.

“Go,” I said quietly. “He needs you; he needs to know you’re okay with all of this.”

Cameron might have said he was ready to quit the team, but I knew he wasn’t. Not really. But this thing between him and Jason was swaying him toward making the wrong decision. And regardless of what I thought about football, I didn’t want him to give up his dreams.

As if he felt us watching him, Cameron’s head snapped over to us. His eyes darkened when he saw Jason at my side. I dropped my hand to my step-brother’s back and nudged him forward. “Go, you’ll regret it if you don’t. Trust me.”

Cameron

I watched Hailee and Jason as he decided whether or not to come over here. She wanted him to, it was right there in her honey-brown eyes. But I didn’t make a move; this had to be on him.

Hailee was in my corner now. She might have only been in my life officially for a few days, but she had been there every step of the way. At the hospital while we waited for Mom to come out of surgery, waiting outside the locker room while I told Coach I needed some time away from the team. She’d been there, no questions asked. She just got it. Understood what I needed. And she was there.

It meant the fucking world to me.

But Jason was wired different. In his eyes, empathy and compassion were weaknesses. Traits that meant letting people get close—something he rarely did. So when he started stalking toward me, I braced myself for whatever shit was about to come out of his mouth.

“Hey,” he said.

“What’s up?” I tipped my head. Since I could remember, the two of us had been inseparable, but now it felt like there was an entire football field between us.

“It didn’t feel right out there tonight.” Jase looked over at me, his hair falling over his eyes slightly.

“You got the win; that’s all that matters, right?” I hadn’t meant for it to sound like a dig, but he flinched.

“Come on, bro, it’s not… Look, I screwed up, I get it.” His expression didn’t match the Jason I knew—the guy who was one step closer to State. “But you didn’t tell me, you didn’t—”

“You didn’t want to hear it.” My eyes shuttered. “You’re not like the rest of us, Jase. You’re so focused on football, on the future…”

“But this is different. I would’ve…” He let out a heavy sigh “How is she?”

“She’s doing okay but they won’t know if she needs radiotherapy yet.” Doctor Kravis was remaining optimistic that he’d gotten all the tumor cells, but since it was a grade two meningioma there was still a chance it could come back.

“Fuck,” Jase hissed out. “I’m so fucking sorry, man.”

“She’s alive and they got it, that’s what we’re focusing on right now.”

The wait for her to get out of surgery was something I never wanted to experience again. Those six hours had been excruciating. If hadn’t been for Xander’s incessant questions and having Hailee right there beside me, I think I would have lost it.

Jase rubbed the back of his neck. He wanted to say something, I could see it in his eyes. “What?” I asked.

“Nah, it doesn’t matter.”

“Go on, say it.”

“Do you think you’ll come back to the team… now she’s okay?”