“SHELBY.” Suddenly, Jake’s arms squeezed around me so tight, pulling me back against his strong chest. My words caught in my chest, and I stopped talking. For a brief moment, I let myself revel in what it must feel like being close to someone in this way. To have someone love me enough to want to hold me like this.
There was something so satisfying about getting a rile out of Jake. He was generally so good-natured it was too tempting to shake things up. Our entire childhood was spent living one-joke-too-far away from some sort of revenge or, at the very least,mild irritation. But it was always the fun kind. The kind that would result in a bet being raised or getting chased around the playground. The kind of thing that sets a person at ease being ridiculous in someone’s company.
“Alright, I got one. You ready?”
I motioned him onward with a flick of my hand.
“Why’d you come back to Eugene after playing college ball?”
I shrugged and tucked a runaway strand of hair behind my ear. “I’d been raised to be a basketball player my whole life. That was my plan. I was hoping to get into the WNBA, but then I finished four years of college without any offers.”
Jake held up a hand. “Hold on. I beat the girl who was almost WNBA quality?”
“You cheated. If that was a real game, you would have been thrown out and booed.”
“But at least we would have been making out afterward.”
“You’re the one always bringing up kissing,” I insisted, poking his arm and suddenly being back on my front porch, reliving the feel of Jake pulling me close. The sweet and fiery gaze as he did so. The image I’d had a hard time leaving behind. The image I needed to leave behind if I wanted an ounce of sanity left by the end of summer.
The jerk only laughed and told me to keep going.
I sighed, leaning forward to pet Jimmy’s mane. “I went through a bit of a quarter-life crisis after college.”
“You went bald and bought a Corvette?”
“More like lay on the couch for a week, eating donuts and wondering what to do with my life. I had always been one thing my whole life, and I wasn’t sure I could be anything else.
“So I tried out a few jobs, racked up some debt, and was on a hot-mess spiral before Eugene High offered me the coaching position for a year—which paid like crap, in case you’re wondering, but it brought me home. It gave me a purpose. I gotto be with my dad, and do his laundry, and make sure he ate his vitamins. And it was really nice for a while.”
“How’d your team do?”
I shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. “First year was a big learning curve. The second year”—I turned my head to look at Jake before I sighed dramatically—“we took state.”
He grinned. “I already knew that.”
I blinked. And suddenly…I was back in The Grub Shack, listening to Chad tell me how much Jake kept tabs on me when I was away.
“I can’t help but think about all the times growing up that I spent teaching you and running drills with you that you probably owe me?—“
Laughing, I pushed at his arm. “I ran drills withyou, Nancy. Any skills you have on the court are because of me.”
“Just remember where you got all your flirting skills from.”
“Yes, I’m a female version of Fabio now, thanks to you.”
“Okay, but what about?—“
“Nope!” I patted Jake’s knee in commiseration. “Stop. I know what you’re doing. Game over. It’s your turn.”
20
JAKE
I’d never fully comprehendedhow annoying Shelby was until this moment. Growing up, how many times had we talked in the treehouse or after a basketball game in front of my garage? She had a knack for pulling out more from me than I wanted to give her, but every time she did, I always felt…better. Though I never admitted that to her. Or worse, when just the feel of her at my side had a way of making things better.
Those thoughts were enough to drive me crazy.
It should have been the way her hair kept blowing into my face or the way her body fit snug against mine while riding Jimmy that drove me crazy. But no. I didn’t have anything bad to say about that.