He answers on the third ring. “Fuck you for calling me this late, asshole.”
“What’s going on?”
“We have a meeting at fuck you o’clock in the morning, and a game tomorrow, night, and you’re calling to ask me what’s going on? Screw you, Balls. You’ll find out in the morning.” I get dead air.
I’d call him back, but he sounds pissed. Miller’s usually a level guy. He wasn’t exactly happy about me swinging by Guelph to visit Lily. He didn’t so much say it as I could tell by his attitude.
I check my messages again, even though my phone hasn’t beeped. Lily’s definitely asleep. I’m sure I wore her out this weekend. She kept up, though. It’s hard to find someone who can manage my sexual appetite. I kinda wish she lived closer.
Since there’s so much time between seeing each other, I should be able to stretch things out a little longer than usual with her. Which is fantastic since the sex is out of this world. Plus she’s not clingy. Usually after a marathon sex-fest like the one we had, the girl is texting me nonstop, asking about the next hook-up. Lily’s not like that. I appreciate it, and I don’t. Her lack of communication makes me second-guess how well things went and how she’s feeling about it.
I scrub my hands over my face and vow to stop fixating on Lily and start wondering what I missed at our training session this afternoon. I’m probably in trouble for that, but I’m sure Coach’ll understand my flight delay—which didn’t actually happen, but I’m pretending did.
I give Lance a try, but I get his voice mail. I don’t leave a message. I try one last person. I hit the call button and regret it immediately. Waters and I aren’t all that tight yet, but he seems to like me well enough. As the team captain, he might be willing to give me the information Miller isn’t.
I’ll be lucky if I’m not waking him up. I second-guess myself and am about to end the call when someone picks up. “Horny Nut Sac, why are you calling my fiancé’s phone at this hour?” It’s Violet. I’m not sure whether I should be relieved.
“I’m sorry.”
“You’ve been inside a Canadian haven’t you?” she asks.
“What?”
“You’re apologizing, and you don’t even know for what. You’ve definitely been inside a Canadian.”
“I don’t—”
“If you tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m going to kick your ass.”
I decide there isn’t any reason to lie about this situation. Also, there’s no way Violet can kick my ass. “Miller left me a message and said some shit had gone down. He’s not answering his phone right now, and I don’t want to go into tomorrow’s meeting blind.”
“You boned Lily.”
I have no clue why this matters to Violet. She’s not close with Lily, at least not that I know of.
“I don’t see how that—”
“Matters?” She doesn’t wait for me to answer. “You don’t see the importance of you banging your bestie’s girlfriend’s bestie? Seriously, Balls, I thought you were smarter than that.”
“Smarter than what? How do you even have this information?”
“Honestly? I live with Alex. Sunny’s his sister, and we’re girls. We talk. In detail. Sometimes too much.”
“It’s not a big deal. I’m a rebound. Me and Lily are having some fun.”
“If you say so, Balls. Anyway, if you want to know what the real issue is here, you should probably talk to Romero or Tash, but I doubt either of them is answering the phone right now.”
“What happened with Lance and Tash?”
“Nothing good. You’ll get the full report in the morning. I’m tired, and my fiancé is already passed out, so I’m gonna go snuggle up to him and get some sleep. Good luck tomorrow.”
***
I’m ten minutes early for the morning meeting. I’m tired and on edge because I don’t know what’s going on. Most of the team is already there, and I find Miller sitting beside Waters. They’re deep in conversation, both of their knees bouncing hard. I drop down on the bench beside Miller.
“Nice of you to show up, Balls.”
I ignore the shot. “What’s going on? Where’s Lance?”
“He better get here soon,” Waters says. He’s in a foul mood. Most of the time he’s not bad to deal with. But when he’s pissed it’s advisable to stay out of his way.
“I think he’s fucked either way already,” Miller mumbles.
“I told him to watch himself, but he didn’t. Now he’s screwed the entire team,” Alex replies.
“What happ—”
A whistle blows, and everyone stops talking. Coach stands in the middle of the room with Lance and some new guy. Coach tells Lance to take a seat, and he drops down on the end of a bench. He rests his elbows on his knees and clasps his hands together, keeping his eyes down.