Page 239 of ClickBack

“I’m over here minding mine.”

“Loud as hell.”

Cole takes the ball to the sideline. Ronan wants to argue about whose possession it is. We play another game, and another, until somebody points at the clock and remembers a place he has to be.

I check my phone after we finish. Giselle has sent a picture of three drinks on a table. Her hand is around one, Nina’s bracelets are beside another, and Bellamy is reaching into the frame for the third.

We’re still out. Don’t come looking for me yet.

Von drops onto the bench beside me.

“She good?”

“Yeah.”

He leans back against the locker. “You staying for treatment?”

“For a little while.”

“Good. I want to show you something from that second game.”

I put the phone away and take the tablet he holds out. He rewinds the play where he got past me, already grinning.

“Show me the next one, too,” I tell him.

Chapter 40

Giselle

Nina has three small cups lined up on the table when Bellamy arrives. She sits without taking off her sunglasses and reaches for the one closest to her.

“Wait,” Nina says. “I need you to taste them in order.”

Bellamy puts it down. “I thought we were having lunch.”

“We are. After you help me with something.”

“You hear that?” Bellamy asks me. “That’s how she gets you.”

Nina ignores her and slides the first cup toward us. She is considering a new iced coffee for the menu. The recipes are written on the backs of index cards, which she keeps turned away from us because she says people become difficult when they know what they are supposed to taste.

“People meaning Bellamy,” I say.

“I have a good palate,” Bellamy tells me.

“You asked me why the ginger lemonade had ginger in it,” Nina says.

“It had a lot.”

I taste the first coffee. Then the second. I go back to the first.

“No,” Nina says. “Forward.”

“I’m comparing.”

“You’re mixing up the cups.”

Bellamy laughs and removes her sunglasses. “She invited us here to tell us how to drink.”