Read Online Hooped #3 (The Hooped Interracial Romance Series, Book #3) by Claire Adams - Free Book Online Page A

and my worries seemed to both dissolve and deepen at the same time. I smiled at the players who I’d met at the
frat as they came through; the journalists hanging out around the entry to the
lockers were asking questions I didn’t quite understand—but none of the players
were commenting, except to say that they’d had a great game, and they were
going to wait and see about the tournament. I fidgeted, looking around
constantly, wishing I had some idea—any idea—of where Devon was inside of the
lockers, and what he was doing. Surely it wasn’t taking him this long to shower
and change. I couldn’t help feeling like something had to have gone wrong, and
I thought back to the last time I’d waited for Devon, when I’d ended up seeing
him wrapped in Kelly’s arms, though I hadn’t known it was Kelly.
    The basketball groupies started to filter away, some
of them wandering towards the exits with the players who came out. I tried not
to feel the panic that was rising up inside of me, the worry that was growing
deeper and deeper as I waited longer and longer for Devon to appear. I
swallowed against the lump in my throat, counting the number of players who
came out, trying to do the mental math to figure out who was missing. Evans
talked to me for a few minutes, stopping short. “Hey, Jenn, how’s it going?” he
asked, giving me a polite little smile.
    “Pretty good,” I said. I remembered that Evans had
been one of the guys playing video games in the living room when I’d visited
the Phi Kappa house before. “Is—is Devon okay?” I glanced around, lowering my
voice so that none of the few journalists and fan-girls hanging around would
hear me. Evans glanced sideways, making a face before he met my gaze once more.
    “Yeah, he’s okay. Should be out soon.” The expression
on his face—that little flicker of uncertainty—made me think that I wouldn’t
like what would happen when Devon came out. Oh
god. Oh god. He’s with some girl in there, just like Kelly said—just like everyone
said.
    “Heading back to the frat?” I asked, keeping my voice
as light as possible. Evans nodded.
    “Yeah—yeah, I’ll probably see you there.” He patted my
shoulder and sauntered away after giving me another friendly smile.
    After a few more minutes, the coach came out looking at the journalists. “I’m going to need you all to
head out,” the coach said, keeping his voice carefully level. “No one has
anything to say about the game you haven’t heard already.”
    “Can we get a comment from Devon Sealy?” someone
asked.
    “No ma’am,” the coach told the reporter. “I’d
appreciate it if you guys would hit the road. I’ll be sending out a press
release about the game tomorrow morning.” I frowned to myself; there was more
and more about the situation that I didn’t like, although I didn’t know enough
about what was going on to know what it was. Of course the reporters wanted to
talk to Devon; he had been the star of the game. Why would the coach get
between Devon and the reporters, then?
    The coach brushed past without even seeing me, and the
last few players came out as well, pairing off with the girls who had stayed
behind. The reporters started to decamp, and I felt pathetic, standing there
waiting, wondering if Devon was even in the locker room. If there was something
wrong—had someone smuggled Devon out of the locker rooms before the press had arrived, before I had gotten there? I took a
deep breath. If he didn’t come out in a few minutes, I would text him and see
what was going on.
    There couldn’t possibly be anyone else in the locker
room, I thought, counting in my mind. All of the other players had come out,
the coaches, the support staff; before I knew it, I would be all alone in the
arena except for the cleanup crew. They’d throw me out. I was starting to think
that I would have to text Devon—starting to think that I should check on him in
the locker room. I took a deep breath,