“You invited him to the party already?”

Millie slow-blinked at me. “Didn’t you invite Nic?”

“Um …”

“God, Sophie.” She scrunched her eyes and started to rub her temples. “Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that head of yours.”

“I hadn’t even thought about it,” I admitted.

“I hadn’t even thought about it,” she mimicked in the world’s worst attempt at my accent.

“I’m not from the South,” I pointed out.

“It’s on your birthday,” she countered, ignoring my jibe. “You should definitely invite him.”

“I will.” I tried not to feel nervous about the prospect of inviting Nic to a house party taking place on my birthday where a grand total of five people would actually acknowledge me.

“In the meantime, let’s hope Dom doesn’t lose all respect for me during this game.”

“It’s OK,” I soothed, retying my ponytail. “He’s already seen how bad you are.”

She shot me a withering look. “It’s bad enough he’s already seen me sweat. It must be over a hundred degrees today.”

Alex, Robbie, and Foxy joined us and started stretching again. They were so pumped it was almost laughable. “Just one more game, guys. We’ve nearly got this,” Alex said.

“We so don’t got this,” whispered Millie.

I nodded my head solemnly. “We are screwed.”

Alex turned his attention to us, his face awash with concern. We were loose cannons, and his awareness of that fact couldn’t have been more obvious. “OK, the Crimson Falcons are a man short, which means Foxy, Stenny, and I can take the strongest three. Millie and Sophie, you stay on the tallest guy.”

“I don’t want to mark Luca!” I wailed.

“Can I mark Dom?” Millie asked hopefully.

Alex raked his hands through his hair, sweaty strands flopping back around his eyes. “No. If Luca’s free to move around, he’ll throw our game off.”

Over Alex’s shoulder I could see the Priestly brothers taking up their positions on the court. Nic was passing the ball back and forth between his hands, his expression focused. Beside him, Luca was smirking like it was going out of fashion. I wondered if he even had a facial expression that didn’t read as “smug ass.”

“Earth to Sophie.”

“Huh?”

Alex was staring at me, his big blue eyes as wide as Millie’s. Sometimes it was eerie how similar their expressions made them. “Did you hear what I said?”

I shook my head dumbly. “Were you speaking?”

He released a sharp sigh and placed his hands on my shoulders, locking gazes with me. Ordinarily I would have been giddy if Millie’s hot older brother got this close to me, but my hyperawareness of Nic was distracting me. “I need you to keep Millie focused. I’ll take care of the rest. The Crimson Falcons are going down.”

“You have to stop calling them that. I can’t take you seriously.”

He pressed harder on my shoulders, as if to steady my resolve. I watched a stray bead of sweat slide down the side of his face and onto his neck. “Sophie, can you please focus?”

“Hey, man, I think she gets it.”

Alex withdrew his hands and I pulled back to find Nic standing right beside him. He was giving him that look again — that I-don’t-trust-you-and-maybe-I-want-to-kill-you look, but it was up close this time, and full of hostility.

“You’re so worried about losing that you have to eavesdrop on our huddle?” Alex returned.

Nic arched an eyebrow. “You’re so hyped up about this game that you’re going to freak her out about it? Give her a break.”

Alex squared up to Nic; they were almost the same height, but Nic had the advantage. “I like to win and so does she.”

“I bet Sophie likes to have fun, too. Have you heard of that concept?” Nic clenched his jaw. “Leave her alone.”

“Who the hell are you, anyway?” snapped Alex. “You don’t know either of us, so why don’t you get out of our business and worry about yourself?”

Nic didn’t move. They stood almost chest to chest, and I could see by the way Alex was flicking his gaze toward Robbie and Foxy that he was angling for backup. Not for the first time I registered Nic’s defensive stance, and understood his distrust of Alex was about me. By the way he was staring at him, it looked like Nic was trying to bore a hole through Alex’s forehead.

“Boys, chill out!” I squeezed myself into the space between them, pushing them apart with my hands. Alex fell away, but Nic didn’t budge as easily. I could practically feel the testosterone seeping through his pores. “Let’s just start this thing, OK?”

“Fine.” Alex’s teeth were gritted.

“Fine.” Nic turned on his heel and gestured to his brothers. They huddled up on the other side of the court.

Millie sidled over to me and dropped her voice. “I think Dom’s going to ask me out.”

Alex and Nic were getting into position for the jump ball.

“How do you know?”

A shout went up from somewhere behind us; the ball was in play and Nic had possession.

“He was flirting with me like crazy. And I thought I was shameless! I can tell he doesn’t want to wait until the party to hang out.”

Nic scored the first basket before I had time to reply.