Page 75 of Last Fall

19

ERIK

Should I Pull Out the Pillows andCookies?

Wakingup from my nap was like taking a sledgehammer to the skull, but having dinner with Zoe more than made up for it. I made my favorite pre-game dinner of Spaghetti Bolognese along with a pretty spectacular salad, if I do say somyself.

I left her with dessert and an array of snacks to keep her fueled for her night of work. It was pretty incredible to leave knowing when I came home she’d be inmybed.

When I got to the stadium I was not expecting abeatdown.

But Wes sure was ready toprovideone.

“I hear you slept with Zoe last night. Please tell me I don’t have tokillyou.”

How in the hell?“Why would you have to kill me?” I thought we were past this idiotic big brotherroutine.

“Is everything good? You treat herright?”

“For fucks sake. It is none of your business.” I threw my bag into my locker. “What do you think you knowanyway?”

“Eve saw you leave the house thismorning.”

Shit.It was definitely a complication having them next door. I didn’t even think about Jake or Eve seeing us because I was more worried about June andRoman.

“I stayed over but I didn’t sleep with her. Yet. It’s happening though.” I stabbed him in the chest. “All of this is happening. She’s with me now so you can lay off. You are officially relievedofduty.”

“I’m never off duty,” he scoffed. “What do you mean she’s withyounow?”

Was I going to have to write this down in small words he could understand? “I mean right now she’s inmybed writing. And after the game she’ll still be there. And tomorrow night it will be the samething.”

Whether it was my bed or hers, we were going to spend every night together. I couldn’t stand the idea of sleeping alone in a bed again until it was in a hotel ontheroad.

“Yeah?”

“Yes!”

I barely got the whole word out before I got a hug that crushed my ribs and forced all the air out of my lungs. “I’m so happy right now. Congrats, man.” I pounded his back kind of hoping to be able to breathe again, but he took it as an invitation to kill me faster. “Welcome to thefamily.”

He finally let me go. After a few deep breaths I was able to speak again. “If being family with you means being hugged, I’ll take that trade offer moreseriously.”

“What?”

Fuck. Shouldn’t have said that. “Nothing. It was a joke. Because being hugged by you ispainful.”

He didn’t buy it. “Who’s lookingatyou?”

Well, there was no sense lying about it now. “Lowenstein put out a feeler. I shut it down. Well, actually Marie shut it down before she even spoke to me, but we were on thesamepage.”

I was ninety-nine percent cool with it. Especially now that Zoe and I were more than a theory. There was no way I was leaving a team I loved and the woman I was pretty sure I was falling in love with for a chance to work with my dream manager. It wasn’t worth it. But it didn’t stop the twenty-year-old kid in me, the one who dreamed of playing ball for Lowenstein, from having a minor heartattack.

Wes let out a low whistle. “No shit. Wow.Yousure?”

“Damn sure. Now, don’t we have a game we’re supposed to be getting ready for? Or should I pull out the pillows andcookies?”

“Fuckoff.”

Wes left me alone after that. Actually, he was nicer than usual, which was weird. The game went by in a blur but we won pretty handily. Statistically it was our standard this season. We won most of our first games, lost the second, and won the third. We were trying like hell to figure out the game-two slump but so far nothing we tried made much of a difference. I think it came down to simple team rhythm and game two was our down rhythm. But hey, winning two out of three on the regular? Not tooshabby.