Page 29 of Pucked Together

"Balinger!" I call down the hall. "Balinger, what the hell happened last nig—?"

The words stay caught in my throat as a fully dressed Ryker drops his coffee mug to the floor, sending brown liquid up into the air and all over him just as my brother turns to look at me from the kitchen island.

Keelan falls off the stool he's sitting on the instant he sees me, trying to cover his eyes.

"Jesus, Izzy!" He shouts from the floor.

Occupying two other seats at the kitchen island are Fergie and Hicks. Both are staring at me with wide eyes and jaws dropped open.

Why are they here? They were supposed to be staying at the hotel near the bar?! They were all talking about it last night.

My hands shoot to my privates in a measly attempt to cover my dripping wet body just as Ryker marches over to the couch and grabs a throw, tossing it at me.

He looks pissed.

"Damn, Balinger," I hear Fergie say as I run back to my room and slam the door.

I just made the biggest fool of myself in front of my brother and three of his teammates—all of whom I work with.

Oh. My gawd.

My head is spinning as I drop to the bed and cover my head with a pillow.

My mind is crazy with questions. And I wish that I could erase whatever mistakes I had made in the last twelve-plus hours. Nope. There's no recovering from this. It will be the talk of the locker room for the next few months. Guaranteed.

I'm already trying to figure out how to mitigate the noise about this when there's a soft knock on the door that brings me back to the very real present.

"Iz, it's me. Are you decent?"

Ugh. Keelan. I can't show my face. I can never again face my older brother. I'll move away. Find a different career that doesn't require me to face the four men I just saw on a daily basis. Yes, that's it. I'll move to India. I hear cricket is nice. I like warm weather.

Another knock on the door.

"What do you want?" I cry out, muffled by the pillow I'm buried under.

"Ryker washed your clothes. And I have Advil here for you."

Why would Ryker do that?

I groan in response.

"I understand if you don't wanna talk about it. I'll just leave them here, ok?... Iz?"

"Please go away," hot tears stream down my cheeks.

I'm such an idiot. An idiot to give Trevor access to my heart. An idiot for drowning my sorrows in alcohol and winding up in another player's bed. Then I go and humiliate myself even more in front of more of the Heatwave. There's no way I can ever show up to a game now.

Bye, Rina. Thanks for the opportunity, but I'm pretty sure my career is over.

I can see Keelan's shadow from under the door and wait until I hear his footsteps fall away, and decide the only way out of this mess is to put on the clothes and run out the door without looking back. I'll work out the details of my disappearance once I'm very far away from here.

I roll out of the bed and wrap the throw tightly around me as I open the door to a perfectly folded stack of clothes. I snatch them up without sticking my head out and slam the door shut.

"They're all gone." A gravelly voice says from the other side. "You forgot the Advil."

I reach for my drawers and opt for a set of joggers and an oversized Heatwave t-shirt that's on my bed. I catch a whiff of something vile.

"Why on earth would you come out wet and naked, Izzy?"