Game On (19 page)

“Hi,” Maya managed. She met Jake's eyes. It was clear neither of them had made any move to share with anyone what went down last night. This wouldn't be the place to start.

“That bathing suit is definitely
bam
,” Travis said, putting his arm around her. By the looks Jake was sneaking, the feeling was shared. Maya didn't know what to do or how to act. But she needed to put the kibosh on any PDA before it got weird.

“I should put a T-shirt on,” Maya said. “The sun is so strong, I don't want skin cancer. …” She moved away from his arm and went to grab her top.

“Nah,” Travis said. “You just need more sunscreen. Here, I'll put some on you.” Travis got the bottle. “Lie down.”

Maya's eyes widened. “I heard too much sunscreen was bad for you, too,” she said in a panic.
Great
. And now she looked suspicious. “Ha,” Maya forced a laugh. “Just kidding.” No choice, she lay on her stomach. As Travis popped open the bottle and began putting more sunscreen on her, it officially went from awkward to beyond awkward.

Jake did his best to play it off, but this was obviously painful for him to watch.

“I'm surprised you can be so calm about it, Jake,” Nicole said. “After what happened yesterday.”

Jake looked at Nicole, completely rigid. “What are you talking about?”

Maya was even more rigid.

“Well, the Academy is being sued,” Nicole went on. “I heard Nails laid into you pretty bad.”

Jake turned to Travis and Maya. Travis immediately went on the defense.

“I didn't tell a soul,” Travis said.

“Me neither,” Maya said.

“I didn't hear it from them,” Nicole said. “Word travels fast, remember.”

“Wow. Yeah. Well.” It was all Jake could say.

“Things happen,” Travis said. “People get caught up in the moment. They do things.”

Was he talking about Nails? Jake? Or her and Jake?

“You learn from your mistakes and you move on,” Travis continued. “You hope to, anyway.”

“Of course,” Nicole said. “That quarterback will learn not to hold on to the ball so damn long.”

They all looked at her.

“Oh, whatever, you were all thinking it,” Nicole said. Then she held out a bottle to Jake. “I could use more sunscreen, too.” She lay down on the blanket.

Maya watched him awkwardly take the bottle.

“This is tanning lotion,” Jake said, hesitating. Maya could tell he didn't want to rub down Nicole in front of Maya any more than she wanted Travis to rub her down in front of him.

“Same diff,” Nicole replied. She untied her bikini strings and let them fall over her shoulders.

Seemingly against his will, Jake put lotion on Nicole. It was Maya's turn to squirm.

“Where did you go last night, Maya?” Travis asked. “I turned around in the office after that whole … thing … and you were gone.”

“Um,” Maya said. “It was a little intense in there. Like a family thing. I figured I should just kind of leave you to it.” Maya was pleased. She might have just made her first good lie.

“I called you,” Travis said. “You never called me back.”

“Uh …” Maya went blank. Her triumph was short-lived. She suddenly realized she hadn't seen her phone since last night.

“I found your phone,” Jake said. He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it back to her. “You dropped it.”

“Right,” Maya said, red-faced. “Thanks.” She took it back like contraband and shoved it in her bag. They both knew where she'd dropped it. She couldn't believe she could be so careless.

“Where did you drop it?” Travis asked.

“The field,” Maya said.

“The office,” Jake said at the exact same time.

“Between the field and the office,” Jake said. He was clearly better at lying than Maya was.

“Didn't we get to the office before Maya?” Travis asked his brother.

Maya's eyes darted back to Jake.

“I went back to the field after I left the office,” Jake said. “I needed to run drills, get that whole thing out of my system.”

Jake was better than she'd thought. Scarily better.

As quick as Jake was, though, Travis was quicker. He gave Jake a sideways glance. “Want to go for a walk?” Travis asked Maya.

“Sure,” she said. Travis helped her up. She and Jake exchanged a glance as Travis led her away.

Maya and Travis stood under the pier, the ocean lapping at their feet. There really was nothing more picture-perfect than the light reflecting off the water. But Travis was just looking at Maya.

“It's crazy the way things turn out,” he said finally. “I invited you to come watch my practice, and the day winds up like that. …”

If he only knew, Maya thought.

“I bet that poor quarterback is thinking the same thing,” she said. “It's so easy to get hurt at the Academy. Doing what we do.” She was talking about sports. At first, anyway. “It's so easy to hurt someone when … when that's the last thing you want to do.”

Maya wasn't sure who was getting hurt, Travis or Jake. Most likely all three of them.

Travis smiled. “You're amazing.”

If she was so amazing, why did she feel so completely dysfunctional?

“I know we haven't really talked about, you know, us,” he said. “Where we're at and stuff. But … I was hoping that where I sat you at practice might've given you a clue how I feel. What I want with you.”

She looked at him. Was he really going to say what she thought he was going to say? Of all the times, right here, right now?

“I want you to be my girlfriend,” he said. “I want to be your boyfriend. Just you and me. Exclusive.”

Her brain locked. She'd dreamed of this moment since the day she walked on campus. More like fantasized, because she never thought it could be physically possible. But here she was, this was happening. So why couldn't she open her mouth?

He pushed on.

“You've got everything,” he said. “You're gorgeous. You're sweet. People at the Academy look up to you. And we make a great team. It wouldn't just be the Academy we'd take over.”

She looked at him.
Take over?

“I've got plans, Maya,” he continued. “I know how this works. Just by linking up, we become a story for people. A soap opera to follow. They'll give us a nickname like Traya or Mavis. We'll start popping up on the Wall every day. We won't have to go where the paparazzi's at; they'll come to us. We'll transcend sports and crack the mainstream. We'll be celebrities. You think you can imagine what being part of an It couple is like, but you have no idea. Everyone is going to know who you are. Everyone. You won't experience a life you've only ever dreamed about. You'll experience one you never knew existed. All this, just by saying yes.”

Maya was overwhelmed.

“You're doing it again,” she was finally able to say.

“Doing what?” he asked.

“The grand-gesture thing.”

“Okay, sue me,” he said. “Maya, I want to give you the world.”

“Why,” she asked, “does it feel like you want to give me to the world?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Travis, it's just …” Maya struggled to find the words. “First you woo me without even knowing me and now you want to take this show on the road before we're even together. It's all a big performance with you, and I don't even know where I am in all of this. Me, Maya. You may someday have these big feelings for me, but …”

Travis's face was blank. The truth is, she didn't know what she was getting at, either. Not totally. But she had an answer to his original question. And when she said it, it felt like the words were coming out of someone else's lips.

“I think you're amazing, too,” Maya said. “And I do have feelings for you, but …” There was no other way to say it. “I have feelings for someone else, too.” She could feel Travis stiffen, but if she didn't get this out now she never would. “And the feelings I have for him are … They're too strong for me to make any kind of commitment to you. Not the one you're asking for. It wouldn't be fair. Not to him, and not to you.”

His face, always so pleasant and sure, darkened.

“Jake,” he said. “That's who you're talking about, who you have these feelings for. It's Jake.”

Her breath caught in her chest. All she could do … was nod.

“Unreal.” He repeated the word over and over, reality sinking in deeper and deeper each time. “You're telling me, right here, that you have a choice between me and Jake and you're picking Jake?”

“I'm not picking anyone. All I said was—”

“I'm the one you should be with,” he said, beginning to seethe. “Not him. I'm the one with the future. I'm the one with the heat.”

“Travis, nobody said …” But Maya wasn't getting any words out with Travis this intense. And he was more intense than she'd ever seen him.

“Maya, if you want to be a someone, you need to be
with
a someone. I'm a someone.” Travis met her eyes with a sharp focus. “No one is going to care if you're with Jake. I'm the one that people care about. I'm the one you should care about.”

This was a side of Travis she didn't know existed. A side that to this point he'd kept expertly hidden. He was an egomaniac. It wasn't a good look. Still, she could see he was hurt. And she was the one who'd hurt him. Finally, she said the only thing she could think to say.

“I'm sorry.” Maya moved closer, but Travis just walked off. “Travis!”

He was gone.

Before she could fully digest what had just happened, she saw someone nearby, watching from behind one of the columns of the pier.

“Jake.”

His face said … she didn't know what it said. And the fact that she couldn't figure it out undid her.

“How much … how much did you hear?” Maya asked.

“Everything,” he said. “The whole … everything.”

The fact that Jake wasn't rushing into her arms told Maya all she needed to know. There was something between them. But “something” and hearing a girl create a movie-worthy romance where there wasn't one was “something” else entirely. She felt like a fool.

“Okay,” she said, backpedaling. “I said I had feelings for you. And maybe I do. But that's all they are. Feelings. I don't expect anything from you. I know feelings aren't really your thing, at least with just one girl, and you certainly don't have to feel the same way about me. …”

This was where, if he did have any feelings for her, he would cut her off. He would put her out of her misery, sweep her up in his arms, and, as the music swelled and the cool water lapped at their feet, tell her he felt the same way she did. This is where that would happen. But he just stood there, silent.

“I'm sorry,” he said finally.

Oh no. This had just happened. This exact thing. Except she was Travis and Jake was her. And it sucked being on the Travis side of things.

“I'm just … blown away,” he said. “Seeing myself win out over Travis, for anything … I've just never been here before.” He wasn't rejecting her. He was stunned.

“You're … not freaked out?” she asked.

He smiled.

“I'm not freaked out at all,” he said. Then he stepped closer, grabbed her face, and kissed her. Hard.

“Would it freak you out if I gave you this?” he asked. He gripped his chain, where his dog tag hung.

“I've never seen you without that,” she said.

“First time for everything,” he replied. For all the grand gestures his brother threw at her, this small, simple thing landed with a boom.

“I may not be the smartest guy,” he said, “I may be a punk, I may not do the right thing all the time. But I don't lie. I don't say things to get away with anything or get my way. What I do and what I say, you can trust. So trust me right now. I'm scared as hell. But I know I want you to have this.”

He took her breath away. She thought that she knew Travis this whole time and that she didn't know Jake at all. But it was the other way around. From day one, she and Jake were real jerks with each other.
They were real.

She smiled. “No,” she said finally. “You giving me this wouldn't freak me out at all.”

He took his chain off, then put it around her neck. It was more valuable than anything she'd ever borrowed from Renee.

“Wow,” Maya said, taking it in. “A girl in a bikini and a dog tag … that's kind of hot.”

Jake nodded. “Yes, it is.”

Earlier, Maya had thought she wasn't ready to make a commitment under that pier, but she was wrong. She was ready to make one after all.

“So what's our couple name?” Maya asked. “Make? Jaya?”

“ ‘Couple name'? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life.” He laughed. So did she.

They went back to kissing and didn't stop, even after Nicole packed up the car and left.

Maya went for a quick morning run around the Academy. That was the intention, anyway, but since it took her forever now to get ready in the mornings, it wound up being a few laps around the parking lot. Far less impressive, but she looked great doing it.

Throughout her laps, Jake's dog tag kept bouncing up and hitting her in the face. But she suffered it gladly. It was her favorite accessory. Maya had always wondered what type of guy she'd end up with, and Jake was light-years away from who she'd imagined: a rich kid with anger issues, a car with a thunderbird on the hood, and the kind of mouth you wanted to wash out with soap, after giving it a good slap. And she loved it.

Wait. Did she love him? Was that the same? Was she
in love
with him? How would she know?

Her mind was racing when she arrived back at the villa … and found Jake waiting for her on the front steps.