Series Starter Firsts in Series Collection - Kaylee Ryan Page 0,385

spend time with his folks and her gran. We stay in the kitchen longer than necessary, giving them all time to visit.

“So, how you feeling about the draft?” Aiden asks me later.

I shrug. “I’m nervous, man. How about you? Nervous?”

He nods. “Yeah, I am. I mean, coach says you and I are in line for first round picks. It would be bad ass if we could go to the same team.”

I laugh. “Hell, yeah, it would, but the chances of that happening are slim and none.”

Aiden clears his throat. “So, what about you and Allison?”

“What about us? I love her, man. You know this,” I reply defensively.

“That’s obvious, dude. You’re different with her. What I meant is how do you think the two of you will do with the long-distance thing?” he questions.

I’m shaking my head no before he even finishes his sentence. “I don’t want to do it. I can’t be away from her for that long.” I hesitate before telling him more, but he is my best friend, who just happens to have been her best friend first. If anyone can tell me how they think she’ll take my suggestion, it would be Aiden. “I want her to come with me.” I hold my hand up to him to keep him from talking. “I know it would be a lot to ask, but fuck, man, she’s like the air I breathe. I would support her and help her finish school, or not, she can just travel with me. She can do whatever she wants, just as long as I get to come home to her every night and wake up with her every morning.”

Aiden raises his eyebrow at me. “Wow,” is all he says. Maybe it’s all he can say. In the four years we’ve been friends, I’ve never talked about a girl and forever.

“Do you think she’ll come with me?” I ask him so softly I’m surprised he heard me.

“She loves you, but it’ll be hard for her to be that far away from her gran,” he tells me.

“I know, man, I thought about that. I want Gran to come with us. I want Allison with me always, and Gran is her family, I want them both to come with me.” This is something I’d decided earlier today when Gran gave me her blessing to love Allison with everything in me. She deserves the same, and I would give those two the world if I could.

Aiden nods his head. “Then, yeah, I think she’ll go with you.” He curses under his breath. “We better get drafted to the same damn team. I’m losing both my best friends.” He hesitates then he says, “Uh—what about Hales?”

“What about her? I assume she’ll stay at UNC and finish out her degree.”

Our conversation is cut short when Allison and Hailey come walking into the kitchen. I can tell something is off by the look in her eyes. She walks toward me, and I open my arms wide for her, welcoming her into my embrace. “What’s wrong, baby?” I ask her.

“It’s time for us to go, but I hate leaving her,” she speaks so low I can barely hear her.

I hug her tighter. It takes all the willpower I can muster not to tell her when I’m drafted she and Gran can come with me and be together all the time. I know now isn’t the time, but seeing her sad is tearing me up inside.

Chapter 29

Allison

Saying goodbye and leaving Gran always causes an ache deep in my chest. She insisted I go to college and experience life. I never really wanted to go to college. My parents’ life insurance left me enough money that I never have to work. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be some spoiled princess blowing through money, never having a job or responsibilities. I have dreams for my future, just not the same as other nineteen-year-old girls. I want a family of my own. My dream is to be a wife and a mother surrounded with family and love. All the things I lost at the young age of ten. Gran did the best she could, but growing up with your ill, elderly grandmother as your only family, well, it’s lonely.

When we arrive back at Liam and Aiden’s apartment, Hailey immediately crashes on her futon, Aiden crashes on the couch, and Liam and I stumble to his room. We go through our routine of brushing our teeth and changing for bed. I, of course,