around my shoulders, brushing off her blue Gucci pantsuit with the other arm. “I know this is a tough day for you, but we’re all here together. As a family.”
Kumbaya.
“I know, Mom.” I turn to her and force a smile. “I’ll be okay. Where’s Noah?”
“With press people, I think.” She glances off, gesturing vaguely around the sideline area. “He’s been running around like a bat out of hell all day. I think Riders executive manager is the best job position he’s ever had.”
“It definitely fits him,” I say.
Jayson walks up to us, shoving his way right between my mom and me. “Don’t tell Ethan, but I just threw twenty grand on the Riders.”
My mom holds her palm to her forehead. “Good God, Jay…”
“Twenty grand?” I arch a brow. “I’d have thrown a hundred.”
Jayson steps back, his eyes widening in surprise. “You really think they’re gonna win?”
“Yeah,” I say quietly as a breeze blows my hair up around my face. “Their quarterback has ice in his veins.”
Jayson sighs sympathetically. “I’m gonna find Dad.”
I wish I could work. I wish I could run. I wish I could hop on the jet and fly to anywhere, anywhere on the planet that isn’t here.
My heart is heavy, and my mind is exhausted and drained, and all I want is for the freaking Super Bowl to be over so I can hopefully never have to look at Matt McKenzie again.
After all the introductions and ceremony and national anthem, it’s finally time for kickoff. All my brothers and my dad have made it back to our private sideline seats behind the Riders team area.
I decide to conveniently have to pee when the players are running out of the tunnel right in front of us, just to delay the first Matt sighting another minute or so.
But I can’t hide forever.
“Beautiful day for a game, isn’t it?” my dad remarks, giving me a fake-looking grin.
I turn and glance at him, feeling a wave of anger and disgust and that gnawing suspicion that he meddled in this a bit too much, and that’s what pushed Matt away. Paul Richardson is a snake, and my dad knows it. But, then again, Matt hasn’t returned a single text or call…
The thought makes me ache.
As we sit through the first quarter, I watch and cheer and even laugh a little with Mom and Noah when the Riders are on defense. Andre Smoke is an absolute animal, and he already has two interceptions before the first quarter ends.
Even with his defensive dominance, the Riders don’t exactly look hot. Matt’s thrown a couple of terrible picks, and I feel only a little guilty about the voice in my head that’s saying it’s because he’s upset about me.
Even though I know that’s not the reason. He obviously doesn’t care enough for it to affect his game.
“The boys are struggling a little,” Ethan says with a confident nod. “I ran the odds, though. The Riders still aren’t favored, but they look like they could have a really decent shot. Assuming McKenzie figures his shit out in the next three quarters.”
I swallow and stay quiet.
“The odds, huh?” Jayson elbows him and sips a beer. “You gambling on this, bro?”
“No, but I’m sure you are.”
Jayson grins. “Twenty to win eighty-three.”
“You only bet twenty dollars?” Clay asks with a shocked laugh.
Ethan exhales slowly. “He means twenty thousand.”
“True that.”
I use my brothers’ banter to try to distract myself from the twisting knife in my chest that comes when I have to watch Matt out on the field, right freaking in front of me.
He’s insanely focused. He hasn’t even so much as glanced in my direction, even though I’m sure he knows exactly where we’re sitting.
The second quarter starts up, and he can’t do shit on offense. The Patriots start to really run the field, getting another touchdown, making the score twenty-one to seven.
“Shit,” Noah grumbles through a clenched jaw. “McKenzie looks weak. Sorry, Ellie,” he adds absent-mindedly.
“He is weak,” I whisper.
“There’s still time.” Jayson rubs his hands together eagerly. “We’re only just closing in on the half. A lot can change in the second half.”
It’s not that I want the Riders to lose the Super Bowl. I’m not evil. All I want is for Matt to feel the pain and hurt and frustration that are coursing through me while I sit through this painfully endless football game.
I can’t stand how hot he is. I can’t stand the way he hypes up the team and plays with everything he’s got. I