Mekena smiled as she shut the book she had begun reading. “I can tell.”

“Oh well, I’ll get used to it. One day.” She let out a long breath and then pointed to Mekena’s book. “What are you reading?”

“Atonement,” she said with a shy smile. “Markus and I are reading it together this road trip.”

Brie made a face, not one of being impressed either. “Wow. That’s amazing.”

Mekena laughed. “I’ll probably be the only one reading, since it looks like—” She sat up in her seat, looking back to where Markus was sitting with Vaughn, with headphones on as they both laughed. “He is watching something with Vaughn.”

Just his name made Brie roll her eyes. “Yeah, if you want him to do anything, get him away from JoHo— Er…I mean JoJo.”

Mekena snorted with laughter as Brie let out a sigh, opening her notebook that was full of little doodles and writings. “So you don’t like Vaughn, I take it?”

Brie feigned innocence. “Me? I love everyone.”

Still laughing, Mekena nodded. “Sure.”

“Sure,” Brie agreed as she turned the page in her notebook. Mekena waited and then realized Brie wasn’t going to give anything up.

“If we’re friends, aren’t you supposed to be honest?”

Brie looked over at her, a grin pulling at her lips as she leaned in, lowering her voice. “He’s an egotistical asshole. I don’t know what I did to him, but he has treated me like shit since the moment I met him. He ruins my interviews, and he’s a douche. He acts like he is the star of this team, when let’s be honest, there’s better. Sinclair, King, Thomas, hell, Anderson, to name a few. We are stacked with talent, and he acts as if he owns the team. He makes me itch.”

“Wow. That was a lot of word vomit,” Mekena commented and Brie nodded. “And all that translated into is you are attracted to him, and you hate it.”

Brie nodded. “That too.”

When they both started laughing, Brie exclaimed, “It’s just so frustrating! Like, why is he so hot?”

Mekena shook her head. “You know, I was taking pictures of him the other day, shaking his hair out before he put on his helmet, and I thought ‘Why is it sexy when he does that?’”

Brie threw her hands up. “Exactly! Have you seen him without pants? I mean, come on, I know what a cup looks like, and he wasn’t wearing a cup. He was all na-tu-ral, which translates into a huge dick. And I’m supposed to be professional through that?”

Both women snorted with laughter as Coach looked over and glared. “Now listen here, you clucky chickens, I won’t listen to your giggling this whole trip. We have planning to do, hockey games to win.”

Mekena froze, her stomach dropping. But Brie laughed before eyeing him. “I think I can sue you for sexual harassment for calling me a clucky chicken. I’m writing it down to ask HR later.”

Coach’s eyes widened as he quickly looked away while everyone around them laughed and razzed him. Meanwhile, Mekena was sure she had a heart attack, came back to life, and died again.

That is, until Brie looked over at her, giggling. “He’s got a whole lotta bite, but he’s such a sweetie.”

“Oh. Good to know.”

“So any kids?”

Mekena choked on her spit. “I’m only twenty! Almost twenty-one.”

“Oh, so? My mom had me when she was fourteen.”

Mekena’s eyes widened in shock. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.”

Brie laughed. “I’m just kidding. I was trying to distract from the fact that you look older than twenty and act it. You aren’t annoying as fuck.”

Mekena cracked up as she nodded. “I get that a lot, but put me with Markus and my age shows. He’s a nerd.”

“He is sweet, though. Have you see him with the kids at Vanderbilt, when he goes to visit the darling little ones fighting cancer? He loves them, which is nice.”

“It is,” Mekena said with a grin as Brie looked down to her journal. She turned the page to a picture of a young man. With just one look, Mekena knew he had Down’s syndrome, but even with the distinctive facial features of his genetic disorder, she could see he had Brie’s eyes. “Your brother?”

Brie looked up with a smile on her face. “Yeah, Rodney. He goes by Rod, though, ’cause he’s a man.”

Mekena grinned. “He looks very happy.”

“Yeah, he just won the gold in Track and Field at the Special Olympics. He’s a great runner.”

He looked so young. “How old is he?”

“Eighteen. We’re almost twelve years apart, Rod and me, but you can never tell when we’re together. Either I get younger, or he gets older. One of the two,” she said, running her finger down his face in the photo.

“He is handsome.”

“He is full of himself,” she laughed, rolling her eyes. “He’s my baby brother, though, and boy, he hates when I go on trips. I hate leaving him, but I gotta bring home the bacon.”

“He lives with you?”

“Nope. Since I leave so much, I have him in an assisted living group home, but I see him every day. I just can’t afford private care.”

Mekena’s heart broke for Brie. She looked so stricken. Gone were the grin and playfulness, and they’d been replaced by worry. She loved her brother, Mekena could see that loud and clear, and she couldn’t imagine having to put her sibling in a home. Well, if she liked her sibling and cared if she had to live in a home. Which was a lie. She might not like Skylar at that moment, but she wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to the point where she would need to be under medical care. Clearing her throat, she said, “Oh, that blows.”

“Yeah, it does. I hate it. But one day, I’ll have enough money to do it. That’s my plan anyway,” Brie said with a smile. “We’ll have a nice house, and when I leave, people will come and stay with him. It will be perfect.”

“Can he not travel with you? If you had someone to care for him when you were working?”

Brie shook her head sadly. “He has a heart condition. He can’t leave the state on trips, and if we do, it costs a ton because we have to bring so much stuff with us, along with a trained nurse. It’s hell, and I hate it because I want to take him to Harry Potter World. My mom never got to take him before she died, and I promised I would. But every time we try, he gets sick.”