Page 24 of Cross Check Daddies (Miami Icemen #3)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Tanner

I’m still sore from last night’s game, sprawled on the couch with an ice pack on my shoulder, when I hear the front door open.

Cam’s steps echo down the hall. He tosses his keys into the bowl and pauses in the kitchen like he’s deciding if I’m worth acknowledging today.

Then he walks over, stands just inside the living room, arms crossed over his chest. “Good game.”

I sit up and drop the ice pack on the table. “Thanks.”

He nods. The silence stretches. Then he rubs his jaw like it itches, which means there’s something on his mind.

“Can we talk?”

I exhale, nod, and pat the spot beside me on the couch. He doesn’t sit. Just stands, eyes fixed on the floor like the woodgrain’s about to spell out what he wants to say.

“I’m not going to pretend this is easy,” he starts. “It’s not.”

I brace myself. My throat’s dry, but I keep my tone even. “I know.”

“She was mine once. Or I thought she was. That shit doesn’t just vanish.”

I nod. “I’m not trying to erase anything.”

He finally sits, elbows on his knees, palms clasped like he’s praying. “But I see the way she looks at you. That’s real. And I’m not going to make her feel guilty for it. I don’t want to lose her. But I’m not going to lose my brother either.”

That hits harder. I look at him. His face is worn, tired around the eyes. Not from sleep. From fighting something he hasn’t said out loud until now.

“I love her,” I say, quiet but certain. “And if she picks you, I’ll walk away. You’ll never have to question that.”

He swallows hard, then nods.

“And if she picks you,” he replies, “I’ll do the same.”

“Do you think she will eventually pick one of us?”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” I say. “I kind of think, Coach has a thing for her too.”

“What?”

I look at my brother and smile. “Just a hunch. I have seen him around her, like at the rink…and I think he, too, might have a little crush on Brooke.”

“I wouldn’t blame him.”

The silence after that feels cleaner. Not solved. Just cleared. Like the space between us finally aired out something rotting.

He stands, pats my shoulder.

“You don’t have to move out.”

I blink. “You sure?”

He nods once. “We’re still brothers.”

I smile, the tension finally lifting between us just enough to let the room breathe.

“Cam,” I say before he leaves.

He looks back.

“Thanks. For saying that.”

He gives a short nod and disappears into the hallway.

I leave the apartment without a destination in mind. The street air is heavy with the promise of rain, but the sky hasn’t opened up yet.

My hands stay jammed in my jacket pockets as I walk without purpose, letting the conversation with Cam sit where it landed.

I pull out my phone and stare at her name for a second too long before I finally call.

She picks up after two rings. “T?”

“Yeah,” I say, exhaling. “You at the office?”

“I am. Why?”

“No reason,” I say. “Okay.”

She laughs quietly. “Tanner, what are you up to?”

I smile despite myself. “I’ll see you later.”

I hang up before she can ask again and cut across the street to the bakery on the corner. The windows are fogged from fresh bread and heat.

Inside, the smell is lethal—sugar, butter, and vanilla. I don’t need a reason for what I’m doing. I just need something that tells her I see her. Even if she doesn’t pick me. Even if this thing ends with me sitting in my apartment alone, wondering what might’ve happened if I’d done more sooner.

I step up to the counter, tap the glass.

“That one,” I tell the girl behind it. “With the raspberries. And whatever frosting that is.”

“Cream cheese,” she says with a grin. “Good choice.”

“Yeah,” I murmur, smiling faintly. “She’ll like that.”

Brooke’s always spoken about GameHatch like it’s her sanctuary, her second skin. Being inside it feels like stepping through a version of her I haven’t seen yet.

The girl at the front desk points me to her office.

Her door is cracked when I reach it. She’s behind her desk, fingers flying across the keyboard, brows pinched, a stylus tucked behind her ear like she forgot it was there. She looks up, startled when I knock gently against the frame.

“Tanner?”

“You eat yet?”

She blinks, then leans back. “No. Why?”

I hold up the white box, tied with red twine. “I figured we’d do this right.”

She lifts a brow. “Right as in...?”

“Dessert before food.”

That gets me a smile. I step in, set the box down, and pop the lid open. Her lips part when she sees it—white cake, layered thick with cream cheese frosting, fresh raspberries folded in the middle. Her smile widens.

“You remembered.”

I grab two forks from the coffee table and sit on the edge of her desk. She comes around, perches beside me, and we dig in. It’s sweet, almost too sweet, but she hums like it’s heaven.

“I need to talk to you,” she says after the second bite, licking frosting off her thumb.

I nod, licking mine too. “I know. I wanted to come to you first.”

“I talked to Cam,” she says softly.

“I know,” I say. “And it’s okay. Between us. He and I... we’re alright.”

She stares at me, eyes flickering. There’s that smile again. Sad and grateful at once.

“And what about Ace?”

I choke. “Like... Coach?”

“Yeah,” she says, almost laughing. “You didn’t notice?”

I did, and that explains why he was hanging with her kid at the game yesterday. Damn!

“I’m not blind,” I mutter. “But damn. That’s a lot of strong personalities circling the same fire.”

She shrugs. “I didn’t plan this.”

“I don’t think anyone could.”

She sets her fork down, and her energy shifts. “I want to be honest with everyone. I don’t want this to get ugly.”

I nod, wiping the corner of her mouth with my thumb. “It won’t. Not if we keep doing this. We have to be open. No backdoors.”

She leans into my hand, eyes closing for a second. Then she sits back and exhales.

“So, what are you doing here, really?”

“I wanted to see you. And... maybe steal you for a bit.”

“Where?”

“You trust me?”

She hesitates, then grins. “Let’s find out.”

She’s never been on a bike before. That’s clear the second she sees mine, and her eyes go round.

“Let’s take my car.”

“Nope. This is on your list, baby!”

“But Tanner…”

I swing my leg over and hand her the spare helmet. “You’re gonna love it.”

Ten minutes later, she’s clinging to me on the back of the bike, legs tight around mine, her laughter echoing in my helmet as we fly down the side roads away from the city, taking the back way through Palmetto Bay. Her hands tighten around my waist every time I lean into a curve.

I take her to a bluff I found years ago when I needed to be alone. It’s hidden behind a line of mangroves, with a view that cracks open over the water, glittering and wild. We dismount. She pulls off the helmet and shakes out her hair, wide-eyed.

“Okay, this is... a view.”

I nod, grin. “I’m just winning points.”

She laughs, turning to face me, chest rising and falling, eyes dark now. I step into her space. Her fingers curl into my shirt without asking. My hands grip her waist.

She leans in first, lips brushing mine. The kiss starts soft—barely-there kisses stacked like breaths—but then I deepen it, and she moans into my mouth like she’s waited too long to be this close.

I walk her backward until her back hits a tree, my hands already under her shirt. I kiss down her throat, drag my teeth lightly across her collarbone. She gasps, and it spurs me on.

Her hands are tugging my belt loose, and mine are under her skirt, pushing panties aside. She’s wet, slick with want, and I curse under my breath when she wraps her hand around my cock and strokes slowly. I reach into my wallet, pull out the condom, and roll it on fast.

I lift her, her legs lock around my waist, and I slide into her. Her breath hitches, eyes fluttering shut, back arching as her nails drag down my back.

We move together, grinding in a rhythm that feels like an apology and a promise. I kiss her through the moans, the whispers, the bite of her teeth against my neck. The wind picks up around us, and still, she clings to me like I’m the only thing real.

She comes first, biting my shoulder to stifle the cry, and I follow, muffling a groan into her throat as I spill into the condom.

We stay there a while, breathless, pressed together, bodies humming from the high.

“Okay,” she whispers, dazed. “That... was a lot of points.”

I kiss her again and don’t let go.