“Fine. Thanks anyway.”
“Of course,” she says as she falls back on her bed. I turn on my computer and wait for it to load. “Am I doing your hair?”
I nod without looking at her. “Yeah, if you don’t mind.”
She smiles. “As long as you get out of my brother’s lap so I can do it, then I don’t mind.”
Ryan glares, and I laugh. “No problem.”
His arms tighten around my waist as I bring up my sponsorship PDFs. I go to the page he told me about, and sure as shit, there is a bonus. “Wow, there is.”
“I wonder how much it is,” he says, and I shrug.
“It doesn’t say.”
“What?” Amelia asks, and I look over at her as I set my computer back down.
“I get a bonus from my sponsorship if I keep a 4.0.”
“That’s supercool. Can you do that?”
“Yeah, I can,” I say. Though, I’m not completely confident about it.
“You can,” Ryan says in my ear. “I’ll help you.”
I look over to him, bringing my lip in between my teeth. I want to ask what will happen when he leaves, but I don’t see the point. It’s stupid. It’s all just stupid and unfair. Ignoring my negative thoughts, I ask, “When does your mom and Elli’s plane land?”
He looks at his watch. “In about forty-five minutes. I should probably head out.”
I groan. “But I only got ten minutes with you.”
He kisses my jaw. “Twenty-three, and I’ll see you after the meet, remember?”
He lifts me with ease, sitting me on the bed.
“Yeah, I guess.”
He chuckles as he stands, flicking me playfully on the nose. “I should make the meet right on time, depending on traffic.”
“Okay,” I say softly, looking up at him.
“You’ll win for me?”
“Yeah,” I say with a grin as he leans down, pressing his lips to mine.
“Damn right, you will. And maybe—” his voice drops even lower “—I’ll let you ride my face again.” He winks, and my body burns for him.
“You don’t let me do anything,” I throw back at him. “I take what I want.”
His eyes close as he shakes his head. “Evil ass. I’ll see you in a bit.”
He flashes me a grin before pulling on Amelia’s ponytail. She cries out before smacking him as he rushes out of the room, leaving us with only the trailing sound of his laughter. As the door shuts, I let out a sigh.
“You’re not putting space between the two of you at all,” Amelia sings, and I lie down, cuddling the pillow to my chest.
“Nope.”
“And you’re not going to?”
“Nope,” I say once more as I turn with my back to her. “I can’t.”
“You need to. From what I heard, he has a meeting with the Hawks next week.”
I know this, and I also know he has meetings with four other teams. His agent has been working hard, and it’s gotten Ryan very excited. All it’s done for me is bum me the fuck out.
“I know.”
“Awesome. Great talk.”
“Yup.”
I dig my face into my pillow. I want so much to scream in frustration, but I don’t want Amelia to hear me. Closing my eyes, I push everything out of my mind. I can’t worry about a 4.0 or Amelia’s concerns. Or the fact that I only have four more months with Ryan before he graduates and we find out where he is going.
I can’t. I have a meet today.
And I want to win.