The Game You Play (Rixon Raiders 2)

“Dude needs to get laid,” someone said, causing our table to break out in laughter.

“He really doesn’t like you, does he?” Mackey asked.

I shrugged. He didn’t like me, but it didn’t matter. Soon the season would be over and then he couldn’t touch me.

Grady threw me a look, but I shook it off. I wasn’t about to do anything stupid, anything to jeopardize the team’s shot at the Championship. But after that, Thatcher was mine. All I had to do was keep my cool and refuse to be drawn any further into his games.

Jenna swept her hair off her shoulder and dipped her mouth to my ear. “I want you, let’s sneak off to the locker room.”

It would have been so easy to say yes.

So easy to let her drop to her knees and help me forget all the bullshit.

“Jason, what do you say? Shall we get out of here?” She nipped my ear, but I was too busy watching Felicity.

Watching her watch me.

“Maybe later, yeah?” I gave Jenna an easy smile, sliding my eyes back to Felicity.

But she was gone.

Felicity

“Okay, well thanks for getting back to me. Please keep me in mind if anything comes up.” I hung up, rubbing a hand down my face.

“No luck?” Mya dropped down beside me.

“No. I called every veterinary clinic within a fifteen-mile radius.”

“Well, that sucks. What about pounds?”

“There’s only two locally. One does offer volunteer positions, but they have no vacancies and the other one is undergoing a restructure so they’re not taking on new staff at the moment.”

“You could widen the radius.”

“I could but anything further and my parents will get suspicious.”

Mya nudged my shoulder. “You could always just tell them.”

“I could but I want to be sure first. If I tell them and it doesn’t work out, I’ll be causing a lot of heartache for nothing.”

“You really think they’ll be that upset? Veterinary school is a solid plan.”

“But it isn’t their plan and it’s at least eight years in school.”

“But do you want it?”

“I think so. I mean, I’ve taken all the right courses and I love animals. But I’ll need to talk to Miss Hampstead about changing my application and I’ll definitely need to find some hands-on experience.”

“Ooh, you could do some dog walking for your neighbors or run a doggie day care service on the weekend.”

“Oh yeah, my anti-pet parents would love that while they overreacted every day that I was going to get Tetanus, or the house invaded with fleas, or the neighbors complain about barking.”

“Okay I get it, over-cautious parent alert. There must be a vacancy somewhere for you.”

“Hey, what are you two doing out here?” Hailee’s brows bunched. “I went to study hall but you weren’t there.”

“I wanted to get a head start on calling local veterinary clinics and Mya found me out here.”