Ready or Not (The Love Game Book 4) by Elizabeth Hayley (pdf ebook reader .txt) 📕

workouts were for my own benefit and not for the sake of the game. Two knee injuries had crushed my dream of playing professionally before I had a chance to make it a reality. But still, I had plenty to be grateful for.

“Oh, cool.” Brody finished the last two sets of his leg presses before moving on to the machine next to him. He studied it for a second before turning to me. “You wanna work out together?”

“Sure. I mean, if you don’t mind following my routine. I can walk you through it as we go.”

Brody was in good shape, which, considering the way he ate and drank—and the fact that he didn’t seem to know his way around a gym—probably had more to do with genetics than it did any sort of training regimen or diet.

I kind of envied him. I’d worked hard to get into the shape I was in, and I worked just as hard to keep it. There was so much in life that wasn’t determined by our actions. I at least wanted to control what I could, so I’d made my health a priority.

“Sure, man. I’ll do my best, but I’m sure I won’t be able to keep up with what you’re doing.”

I shrugged that off, and we got started. For the next twenty minutes or so, I led him through a series of mobility exercises before moving on to some back squats. Surprisingly, Brody’s form wasn’t too bad. He definitely had more body awareness than some other people I’d seen in gyms who worked out more frequently than Brody did.

“Did you play sports in high school?”

“Baseball,” he said. “That’s all, though. What about you? Anything other than football?”

“Baseball and basketball. I swam a few years too.”

“I feel seriously inferior right now.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Don’t. I wasn’t very good at anything other than football. Considering I was almost this tall as a sophomore, I should’ve been a ringer in basketball, but there were a lot of guys who were much better than me and were almost a foot shorter. I really just played the other sports for the fun of it.” I also did anything that kept me busy, and sports were always a great way to make friends, especially in new places. But I didn’t tell him any of that.

“That makes me feel a little better. But not much,” Brody admitted with a smirk. “Where’d you grow up? I don’t think I ever asked you.”

Even though Brody’s question had been a typical one, it wasn’t one I was comfortable answering. At least not with full disclosure. I liked Brody. And I trusted him as much as I was capable of trusting anyone I’d met since I moved here a few months ago.

But my childhood wasn’t something I shared openly. “Moved around a good bit,” I said because it wasn’t a lie. I’d also been careful not to say it was only me who’d moved. That would’ve opened up a barrage of questions I had no interest in answering. Instead, I just added, “But I went to high school in Georgia, pretty close to Florida.”

“Oh, nice!”

It wasn’t.

“You could’ve been part of the band.” And because Brody probably knew much of what he said only made sense to himself, he explained further. “Florida Georgia Line.”

“Oh, yeah.” I was thankful for the levity Brody’s suggestion provided. “You think they’d be up for another member with absolutely no musical talent?”

“Never know.” Brody shrugged before taking a drink from his water bottle. “And I knew I detected a hint of a southern twang.”

“No way,” I told him. “Impossible.”

“Totally possible. I’m like the Rain Man of accents.”

I finished out the last few reps of my current set. “That’s a very odd skill that I don’t believe for a second you have.”

“See! Did you hear the way you said, ‘you have’? It was more like ‘ya’ve.’”

“Nope.”

Brody rolled his eyes but thankfully changed the subject. “Got any big plans for tonight?”

“Not really.”

“Oh, okay. Well, if you wanna hang out, the gang’s coming to the Yard around ten or so. There’s a good band playing tonight.”

“Cool. Thanks for the invite,” I said, careful not to say whether I was going.

“So can we count you in?”

“Umm…probably not, actually. I have a party I have to go to later on.”

Brody looked understandably confused. “But you just said you didn’t have anything?”

“Not anything worth mentioning.” I tried to focus on my workout, hoping he wouldn’t recognize my lack of eye contact as my hesitance to talk about this. Which was exactly what it was.

“Uh, a party’s definitely worth mentioning.”

“Not this one. It’s more of a…work thing.”

“You work at a kids’ sports camp. Are you spending your Friday night with a bunch of little kids? Because that’s…weird. And maybe illegal. Make sure you don’t buy them any alcohol. Drew and I almost got in some serious trouble when we accidentally delivered beer to some underage frat guys when we had our Nite Bites business.”

“I’m not buying anyone alcohol. It’s more of a…” I tried to think of any way to explain the party without disclosing my actual role there. I hated lying, even lying by omission, and I’d already had to do that once with Brody today. But that was serious. This was just…potentially embarrassing? Though I didn’t think Brody was the type of dude to judge other people’s choices, especially considering the ones he’d made during his life.

“A what?” he asked, making me remember I hadn’t finished my sentence.

The more I thought about it, the more I was fine with telling Brody about my other job. But then he’d probably tell Aamee, which was pretty much like replying to everyone on a company email when you’d only meant for it to be seen by one person. And I didn’t want the whole crew finding out because I was still a relatively new addition to it.

“The party’s more of a what?” Brody said again. “You’re making me nervous.”

Screw it. Brody was my boy. If I