“I don’t ask because I don’t wanna know, all right?” Alex snapped suddenly, officially sounding as agitated as Angel felt. “Now shut off the lights and get your ass in bed. Tomorrow’s gonna be a long enough day as it is.”

The screen on Angel’s phone went black, and he sat down on the bed. Sarah had texted him once hours ago to say goodnight. He hadn’t even called her like he said he would. The whole time at the damn party he kept saying he’d wait until he got back to the quiet of his hotel room—no way was he calling her from the party—but he never got the chance.

Tossing and turning for a while, Angel thought about everything he’d be dealing with the next day: trying to get a hold of Sarah in the morning before anyone else did, the big game, and the drills until they puked. He wondered if he’d ever get to sleep.

~~~

“Get up!”

The whole bed shook violently as Angel’s eyes flew open. Alex had kicked the bed with his knee as he rushed past it and off toward the restroom.

“We slept in late,” he said. “Bus leaves in fifteen.”

Angel jumped out of bed and threw on his warm ups. Alex rushed back out of the restroom, and Angel went in after him. They brushed their teeth, grabbed their stuff, and rushed out of the room. They didn’t even wait for the elevator. Since they were only on the third floor, they ran down the stairs. It wasn’t until they were down in the lobby with the rest of the groggy team that Angel realized he’d left his phone plugged into the charger on the nightstand. Clenching his teeth, he turned to Alex, holding in the myriad of curse words that came to him. “Did you bring your phone?”

Alex patted the pocket on his sweatshirt then checked his bag, frowning. “I left it in the room.”

Gadamnit!

“You think I have time to run up and get mine?”

The coach walked out into the lobby, holding a coffee cup in one hand and a clipboard in the other. He pointed to the door with the clipboard. “Your asses should’ve been on the bus already. Let’s go.”

They all followed him out, and Angel could only imagine the amount of ass he’d be kissing tonight when he finally got back to the room after not calling Sarah last night then keeping her in the dark all day. He’d finally be able to explain last night. She wasn’t the type who would make him kiss her ass, but he had every intention of doing so anyway.

~*~

Sarah

The French toast Sarah’s mom made her in a hurry that morning before rushing off to meet Aunt Norma was good. It was just as she remembered it when she was growing up. She should have cherished one of her mom’s favorite meals, but there was something off. All Sarah kept thinking was this wasn’t the French toast Angel made her with so much thought and love.

She still had that ugly feeling at the pit of her stomach too, and that likely had a lot to do with it. She’d texted Angel goodnight last night when she hadn’t heard from him and was ready to knock out. She waited a good hour, reading in bed in hopes of hearing her phone ding with a text from him but nothing.

After the unsatisfying breakfast, she walked back into her room, determined to not obsess about checking her phone all day. He had a big game today, and there were probably a lot of events going on that would keep him busy for the better part of the day.

Her heart did a little flutter when she saw the light blinking on her phone anyway. She clicked on it only to see it was a FaceTime request from Leonardo. She checked the time and saw it was sent less than five minutes ago. Since her laptop was already open, she clicked on it and saw he was on. She responded to the connect request, and the screen popped up to show him looking through his phone.

“Hey!” she said then laughed when his head jerked up in surprise.

“Hey, baby girl!” he said, laughing and holding his hand to his chest. “For a second there, I forgot I’d dialed anyone.”

It was the first time he’d called her that, and though it felt weird, she didn’t know how to respond to it, so she didn’t. Instead, she asked. “What’s up?”

“You look cute,” he said, smiling big, and it wasn’t until then she realized she was still in her pajama top and her hair was all crazy from having just gotten out of bed not long ago.

She smoothed her hair down a little and tried to come up with a witty response when her phone beeped and she grabbed it. She frowned when she saw it was a text from Valerie.

I’m curious. What’s his explanation? Because I won’t hold my breath to hear from Alex until he gets back. IF I’m lucky. Even then I seriously doubt he’ll be offering any explanations and I won’t be asking.

Confused, but a little nervous because she still had that bad feeling in her stomach, Sarah started to text back. She didn’t want to get caught up in Alex and Valerie’s drama, so she responded with nothing more than a question mark.

“Is that Angel?” Leonardo asked.

“No,” she shook her head, smiling and looking back up at the screen. “It’s my cousin, Valerie.”

“The one going to Havasu this weekend? Is she there already?

Sarah thought about it. Good question. Valerie hadn’t said when she was leaving. “I dunno. She didn’t say, but I’m pretty sure she’s still going if she’s not already there.”

Just then her phone dinged again, making Sarah’s stomach tighten a little.

You haven’t talked to Angel? So you don’t know about last night?