More Than Enough (Enough #2) (6 page)

I look into Keller’s bright green eyes and think I could agree to about anything right now
for him, but friendship sounds like a good way to start things in the direction that I want anyway. I wish I didn’t feel so excited by him just talking and being nice, but I can’t seem to help my emotions or feelings where he’s concerned. I want to take whatever he’s willing to give. I’ve never been one to except scraps or half commitments from a guy before, but I want whatever I can get out of him. At least he’s honest about friendship being what he can give me, and I will just enjoy all the time that I can get from him.

We walk out after finishing breakfast, and
I just wait and pray that he’ll ask to walk me to my next class. But he just says, “Good to see you, Athena. Have a good day now.” Then he gives me the friendly shoulder pat and is on his way. I look down at my cleavage which is showing in my blue polka dot sun dress and wonder if he even glanced at it. He’s not one to be reached by flashes of cleavage or leg I’ve come to observe. The only way I’m going to gain any ground with him is by heart to heart talks and one on one time together. I have over four years of memories to compete with, and I’ve got to start trying to make new ones with him. If I don’t, he’ll never be able to feel anything more for me.

        Chapter 5

Keller

Walking to my biology class, I think about how nice Athena seems and how good she looks. Since Carter came into my life, I’ve never really noticed any other girls or wanted to, but Athena is just so stunning that I can’t help but admire how she looks. She seems to really like Carter too, which makes me happy because I would love for Carter to have some more close friends than just me and Brayden here at school. But I want to be able to trust who she hangs out with and trusts.

And just like that my thoughts are back focused on Carter again. I hope she likes her first design class, and that she found it okay
without me. I wanted to insist that I’d show her where it was, but I didn’t want to get into a fight with Brayden in front of quite a lot of the school. And I didn’t want to seem unreasonable to Athena, even though I already knew I’ve come across obsessed with Carter to her.

I get to my class and sit
in the back row. Brant, from the football team, walks in and waves and heads towards me. At least somebody I know is in this class so I’m not just mobbed by sleazy girls who just want to date or sleep with a football player. I can’t stand those fame whores who are just into guys for what they can get out of them but don’t really care about them as people.

“What’s up, man? Damn, I’m happy to see your face in here. I was scared I’d get mobbed by girls.” I chuckle at Brant and have to confide to him, “I was scared of the same thing. I always feel more vulnerable if they can surround me on either side.” He just nods gravely and says, “I know what you mean, but I’m also glad you’re here because I’ll need help with this class. You have the highest GPA on the football team, right.” I groan and say, “Yes, I do, but you are going to do your own work, Brant. I’ll help with what I can, but I’m not going to do anything for you.” He just pretends to look insulted that I’d even think that but I know that’s what he hoped would happen. “Of cours
e I’ll do my own work, Keller, just meaning that it was nice that you’re in this class if I need any help.”

I just give him a suspicious look and start to get my book out. He starts talking again. “That party at your condo was unbelievable, man. I can’t believe that place is yours. And your brother’s girlfriend is what fantasies are
fucking made of. I wouldn’t even know how to act with a girl as hot as that. Her tits—“I cleared my throat and said quietly, “Have to stop you there, Brant. If you talk about any part of Carter disrespectfully, I will kick your ass. She is my brother’s girlfriend and my stepsister. Do not cross any lines that you shouldn’t by speaking about her that way.”

I can tell that I made him nervous when I interrupted him. He was breathing hard and looked around nervously. I had to make it clear that I wouldn’t put up with anybody talking about Carter without doing something about it. Brant had a big mouth and would tell the rest of the team what I said. I was saving them some broken noses cause if Brayden caught any of their talk; he wouldn’t warn them before he started throwing punches or worse.

Brant finally got himself under control and said, “Sorry, man, forgot she was your stepsister too. She’s just beautiful. That’s all I was really saying. Didn’t mean to come across disrespectful to you, your brother, or her. Did you see that girl, Rachel that I hooked up with at the party?” I shook my head no, and he proceeded to describe all her body parts in rude detail until the teacher showed up.

After listening to Brant, I rethought being happy he was in this class. He talked and gossiped as much as a teenage girl. When the professor dismissed us, I
rushed out and gave a quick brisk bye to Brant and headed back to the dorm to get ready for football practice.

Brayden was already there getting ready when I walked in. “How was Carter’s first day?” He just looked at me and smiled, “I’m your baby brother, Keller. Not going to ask me how my first day went?” He’s such an asshole. I just sent him a glare, and he said, “Okay, okay. Her first day seemed good. We had two classes together, and she seemed to enjoy them both. Some girls did glare at her, and I had words with a few guys that tried to hit on her. But other than those minor things
, I think it went really well. She already left to go to volleyball practice, and then she has dance.”

I get ready
for football as he talks and then have to say. “Her schedule is pretty busy. Do you think she can do both volleyball and dance with all her classes?” He shrugs but looks a little concerned too. “She says she can, and I feel like we have to trust her to know what she’s capable of. She really wants to be on the dance team and part of our football games, and I can’t say that I don’t want her out there too.”

I want her out there sharing it with us as much as Brayden does, but I don’t think she can give everything she needs to volleyball with all of these
other focuses. I’m concerned but know that there isn’t really anything I can do about it. Brayden gets ready, and we head to practice together. We drive cause we don’t want to wear ourselves out before we even get there. Our coaches are hard and ride our asses the entire two hours of every practice.

We get there and split up after warmups because Brayden is the quarterback, and I’m a linebacker. I absolutely love making a hard tackle, and I feel like I can control a lot of the other team’s offense from my position. I love the challenge o
f reading a play and making a critical tackle.

Carter was only able to make it to two of my games last season, and when she watched I absolutely destroyed the other team’s offense. With her on the field every game, I’m excited about how many plays I’ll be making. She always gives me that extra little nudge of adrenaline that makes me take
things to the next level. I’m ready to break my record on tackles next week against the Citadel.

Just then the defensive Coach breaks into my thoughts when he pounds my helmet hard. “Keller, are you even paying attention to this next play. I’m about to blow the whistle, and you looked absolutely lost in thought. That’s a good way to get killed out here on the field. Pay attention to the plays, or you’ll wind up on the bench. I don’t care how good you were last year. Everyone has to give a hundred percent every practice to play. Got it?” I just nod and say, “Sorry, Coach.”

I hate when I get caught not concentrating out here, but I know Coach Philips is full of shit about me sitting the bench. They’ve built their defense around my speed and ability to read the plays. I know I’ve got a starting spot on this team, but I’m a firm believer in leading by example. So I need to be focused every second at practice so the rest of the players are too. I get through the rest of practice with some decent plays and a few hard tackles. Brayden is working with the head coach on a pass play, and he looks like he could be there for a while.

I feel guilty but get excited that I could have some time alone with Carter. So I run to the showers and don’t waste more than five minutes getting ready. I race to the gym and poke my head in to see the dance team just wrapping up. I see Carter dancing in the front with everyone positioned around her and have to smile. I’ve never seen her in any other position other than that. She’s always the center focal point with her perfect moves and
beautiful body. I smile as they wrap up their song with her doing a back flip into a split.

She jumps up quick and hustles over to me right away. She’s a little sweaty but looks even sexier with her skin glistening from it, and her yellow sports bra and black shorts with a matching yellow line fitting her like a second skin. “Hey, Kell, how’d practice go? Is Brayden getting the hand off pass better?” I smile at her understanding of our sport and inform her, “Not yet, it looks like it could be a while for him to get it the way Coach Tanner wants it done,
but he’ll get it. Coach just wants it to be like second nature to him. So when he’s in a high pressure game situation, he can pull it off even with the nerves.”

She pouts but responds, “I know, Bray is just so hard on himself though, and I hate that I
haven’t seen him hardly at all today.” I just give her a look to let her know that I know they got sometime in today, or Brayden wouldn’t have been smiling so much as he got ready for football practice. She looked back at me wide-eyed but not able to pull off innocent and was about to defend herself when Athena came bounding up.

She was wearing a hot pink sports bra and black shorts that made her tan long legs look unbelievable. Her red hair was in two braids down her back that somehow made her look even sexier than usual. I had to blink and make myself remember what Carter and I were talking about. Athena turned to Carter after giving me a flirty smile and says, “So you r
eady to go grab something to eat now? I know you said you were starved earlier since you had no time between volleyball and dance practice to eat.”

Carter responds eagerly, “Yes,
that sounds great; I’m absolutely starved.” Then she turns to me and asks, “Kell, you wanna tag along?” She gives me her sweetest smile, and I nod in agreement without even thinking about it. Athena chimes in, “Great, just let me grab my stuff.” I frown and Carter says, “Don’t be like that, Kell. She’s been really great to me, and I like her. She seems to not really have any family, and she kinda reminds me of me before I had you and Bray.” I just groan in frustration and accept that Athena is coming with us. Once Carter relates to somebody, I don’t have a chance of talking her out of including them.

I just promise myself to watch Athena and make sure that she’s not using Carter. That’s one thing I absolutely hate. People that want to use the three of us for our money or popularity. We’ve had a shitty deal in the parent department so I feel like we deserve some loyalty in our friends. But for right now
, I push my disappointment aside about not getting alone time with Carter, and just decide to make the best of Athena coming along. At least she’s really nice to look at.

We go to a local barbeque restaurant and all eat a ton of food. Athena talks and jokes around a lot but doesn’t say much about her parents or her background. She talks about her job as a waitress at a wings bar near the college, and we all laugh at all the things drunks have said to her on the job.

As we are laughing about a story she told about a guy that got so drunk he couldn’t find his car so he reported it stolen, but when the police found it in the parking lot, he was so embarrassed that he tried to drive off. The police then arrested him for drunk driving. As we were finishing up our food, Brayden walked into the restaurant. I was sitting by Carter and knew that he would want me to move so he could sit beside her. The part of me that was still resentful decided not to offer to move beside Athena. Carter jumped up and into his arms as soon as he reached the table. “Bray, how did practice go?” He just hugged her close and breathed her in for a minute, and I had to clench my fists and make a concerted effort to keep them by my side. He talked to her quietly as she was wrapped in his arms. For some reason watching them like this just immediately made me miserable and incensed.

I saw Athena shoot me a look of pity which just infuriated me further that I was so transparent with how I felt.
Before I could get myself together and pretend that I wasn’t about to jump on Brayden and beat him to a pulp, Carter says, “Kell, Bray and I want to see each other for a little bit before I have to go back to my dorm. Do you mind driving Athena home?” The mood that watching them had put me did not make me want to do Carter a favor, but somehow I still agreed to what she asked. I think that the habit of just saying yes to her was going to be really hard to break.

After Carter and Brayden left,
Athena just sat across from me in silence until I finally broke it by saying, “Sorry, Carter just up and left you like that. Anymore when she and Brayden get around each other; they fucking lose their minds.” Athena just gave me a calm smile and told me, “I’m glad you’re driving me home. I like to be around you, Keller.” Her statement eased the hurt just a little. Even if Carter dropped me as soon as Brayden showed up, at least this beautiful girl seemed to like being around me.