Page 28 of Scoring Chances

“Uh…”

“This seat taken?” Cassidy asks, slipping into the seat next to me wearing pajamas and slippers. Cole takes the seat to her left in his own personal version of bedtime cozy.

“I thought you were with–”

“Keelan?” She shakes her head. “He’s okay without me.”

I try to hide the smile tugging at the corner of my lips.“You guys missed an epic Ice Age marathon,” I say, grabbing the remote and changing the streaming service. Behind me, Maddie and Parker are both snoring.

“So I heard,” Cassidy looks over at me.

I laugh. “Ready for some Initial D?”

She hands me my own bucket of popcorn. “Why does that sound super inappropriate?”

I smirk, “Do you want me to tell you what the D stands for? Or do you want to take a wild guess?”

She looks over at Cole who pretends to be busy on his phone before looking back at me. “No funny business, Joshua.”

He laughs and presses play on the movie. “There’s three of them, by the way.”

She shoots me a quick glance, “Come again?”

“Movies, there’s three of them. So… get cozy, Princess.”

She smiles when I call her that. And in that moment, I decide, that’s just what I’ll call her. Her family can call her Sid. She’s Princess to me.

We make it two movies in before we lose Cole to sleep as well.

“Should we call it a night?” I ask her.

She’s stifling a yawn next to me. “No way! I need to know what happens to Project D.”

I laugh. “Seriously? It’s almost midnight.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t take you for someone who couldn’t hang with the cool kids,” she teases.

I press play. “Oh, it’s on. I am the cool kid.”

“Something tells me Cole would beg to differ.”

I rub the back of my neck, “Yeah, me too.”

The movie starts but I can’t ignore the pull to talk to her. “How was the baby shower?”

She shrugs and adjusts herself in her seat, looking uncomfortable.

“Did something happen? Did Keelan do something?”

She shakes her head. “No. No. He was a perfect gentleman.”

“He better be, or I’ll beat his ass. Just say the word.”

I see the blush creep into her cheeks.

“I mean it.”

She looks at me. “I believe you,” she says softly.