I Hate Football Players 3 | 18+

Chapter 124: Ellie

Grace cashed out her slot machine winnings and accepted six free prime rib dinner coupons for every night over the duration of her stay at Mandalay Bay. Grace, Brody, Mom, and I followed the aquarium's directional signs towards cobblestone floors in the hotel. After we passed a restaurant and actual wedding chapel, we stood right in front of Shark Reef Aquarium's entrance.

"Ohh..." In the very first tank, Grace cooed at a long, bright yellow eel that bared its teeth between two pieces of coral. "Brody, this is what you look like when I wake you up in the mornings."

"Hilarious," he deadpanned, moved one tank over, and put a five-foot distance between himself and the rest of the group.

"If that one's Brody, then this one screams Harper." Mr. Reynolds flashed her a smile and pointed at another one in the same tank that looked dead to the world.

"I'm with Dimples." She just shook her head, then groaned quietly when her dad took Grace's hand.

In a moment of irony since we just passed a chapel, we also witnessed a wedding proposal within the aquarium's main attraction, a gigantic shark tank walkway. While the white underbellies of gray tiger sharks and manta rays swam overhead, a black-clad scuba diver approached the tank and held an engagement ring box up to a woman. By the time she turned towards the guy who stood behind her, he'd dropped down onto one knee.

"Aww..." I cooed softly, clasped my hands in front of me, and stood back so the couple kept a small sphere of privacy.

"You're so sappy," Brody teased me with a slight elbow nudge into my left side which, with our height difference, was right near my armpit.

"Find the right girl and you'll be in the same position," I threw back at him.

Brody just laughed quietly, then slipped around the couple once the girl flung herself onto the guy and kissed him roughly. Still, a thread of sympathy pulled through my heart when I caught his muttered admission, "Just trying to talk to one without choking up."

My favorite tank was the cylindrical jellyfish tank in the middle of a circular room surrounded with other tanks. With the dim lighting, the jellyfish glowed neon yellows, blues, and pinks as their pillow-like heads bobbed and tentacles delicately swirled after them. Their swimming movements left me mesmerized and oddly relaxed.

"Guys aren't the only species without a brain," Harper mused next to me and pressed her palms on the cylindrical glass.

My lips pulled into one side of my cheek while my eyes roamed around the tank. "They're not all bad, you know."

"Right." Her lips pursed for a moment while our eyes tracked random movements of jellyfish in front of us. Her hands cupped around her elbows, her chin dipped down, and she pushed a soft sigh out between both of her lips. "Hey, I'm... sorry Ellie. I didn't mean to ruin your vacation with our stupid shit."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, you didn't ruin it," I assured her with a humorless smile because, in hindsight, I wished the four of us had done more together as a group rather than split off by pairs who did separate activities. "Although you should apologize to Jake, not me."

While I'd tentatively approached the subject of Harper using different angles with Jake, he'd shut down any and all direct or indirect references to her. I hated that I was pulled slightly between them, although if asked, I definitely sided with my ego-bruised brother in this situation. Also, while I hoped that they regressed back to their normal insult-wars within a few weeks, I had a nagging suspicion that, this time, Harper had pushed Jake too far.

Lord knows he's not perfect either but she bit hardest.

"Probably forgot all about me as soon as he buried himself in the next warm hole," she muttered and squeezed her arms tightly.