Page 54 of Flagrant Foul (Totally Pucked #3)

Teddy “T-Dog” O’Reilly

“N-Nate,” I stammer. “You’re here.”

Talk about stating the obvious, but I’m in a deep state of shock, and I’m kind of impressed I managed to come up with that.

Nate’s in my doorway. Beaming, with a subtle glow of smugness lighting the line of his jaw.

His hair is longer than it was the last time I saw him, and he’s shaved the scruff he’s been sporting for the last couple of years.

He looks different like this. Mature but fresh-faced, almost like the old days.

Both hands are raised up near his head, fingers extended in keeping with the happy surprise he believes himself to be delivering.

“Surprise!” he says again. “Did I get you? I got you, didn’t I? I got you good .”

“Um, yeah,” I reply faintly. “You got me.”

He spreads his arms to their full wingspan and takes me in. His lips press together, tipping down at the corners. He holds that pose for a beat, and then cracks into a smile. His face transforms into an old, familiar picture. A picture meant only for me.

“Get over here,” he says, flicking his head to invite me into his arms.

I take the two wobbly steps required to get to him and let him embrace me. His grip is firm, like it always is, arms wrapping around the middle of my back and squeezing the breath out of me.

Nate’s one of those people who hugs hard. Hard, so you know he means it. Hard, so you feel his love, even if you’re not feeling particularly lovable.

He releases me, checking my face for signs of things that upset or worry me. When, by some miracle, he finds none, he ruffles my hair.

I bat him off like I always do when he does it, and he laughs like he always does.

He hugs me again, softer and longer this time because this time it isn’t for me. It’s for him. “Missed you,” he whispers.

My heart beats like a big bag of marbles that has been dropped from a great height. Skittish and disordered. Fast and irregular. Anxiety slithers into my lungs and steals my oxygen.

Panic chokes me, and the only thing I can think is, I’m wearing Sev’s jacket .

Nate moves me to the side, keeping a hand curled around my neck, and pulls Sev in for an embrace of his own. Sev’s movements are wooden, his body stiff with tension where it touches mine.

Nate doesn’t seem to notice. “Missed you too, bud,” he says, clapping a hand on Sev’s back.

He releases both of us and we step back into the apartment, Sev and I scuttling away from each other as though we think it might help mitigate the mess we’ve found ourselves in.

Nate follows, dragging his bags in with him and depositing them next to Ragnar’s tank.

The front door swings shut and a slight lull follows.

It’s only a few seconds, but the quiet is loud and sharp.

It’s a moment that should be nothing. It should be filled with easy conversation. Casual banter between blood brothers and chosen brothers.

Silence drags out, growing louder and sharper.

Nate looks at Sev, then me, and back to Sev again. He blinks slightly harder than usual. His eyes are bright and clear before he does it. Relaxed and happy. They’re a little more focused when he opens them.

My jaw works, but no sound comes out.

Sev is looking down, the tendons in his neck engaged. He’s trying to swallow or speak, but the tendons in his neck are pulled too tightly to allow it. He’s nervous, and it shows. No, not nervous. Guilty. It’s written across his features as surely as if it were imprinted in stone.

Nate’s chest rises and falls. His brows sink down low and his lips gradually become absorbed into a thin line.

No one speaks for so long, I start babbling.

“Steak and potatoes…dinner. We were thinking about going out to dinner before you got here, and you know what? We should all go. It was just going to be a casual Wednesday night meal, but now it can be a-a celebration because you’re here and, and we’re so surprised.

I mean, we’re not so surprised. I’m surprised, and Sev is… separately surprised.”

Nate doesn’t blink. He meets my gaze, and my eyes skid off his, unwilling, unable, to face what I see there.

He steps toward me.

“Why are you wearing this?” he asks, flicking the collar of Sev’s jacket with two fingers.

“I, um…”

I watch, heart in throat, as he pieces it together. His face changes in distinctive stages, growing harder and harsher as the realization materializes into something concrete.

He blinks rapidly and expels a punched breath when it’s done.

He knows .

His nostrils flare, teeth glinting with anger that quickly turns into rage.

He spins, turning to face Sev head-on. “Are you for real? Is this happening? Are you fucking my brother?” Sev opens his mouth to reply, but Nate doesn’t wait to hear what he has to say.

“You are, aren’t you? Jesus fucking Christ, you’ve got to be kidding me.

Are you fucking kidding me with this shit? ”

Nate’s arm extends, flat hand making contact with Sev’s chest hard enough to force him back half a pace.

Sev’s jaw tenses, but he doesn’t react otherwise.

His lips are pinched together tightly, and though Nate didn’t push him hard, Sev looks like he’s hurt.

Like he’s in pain. Like his ribs are cracked.

“Teddy, go to your room,” Nate says, not taking his eyes off Sev.

He’s never sounded like this before, voice so harsh and tight it could cut ice. I have no idea what to do. Ordinarily, I’d be annoyed with him for talking to me like this. Talking down to me. Telling me what to do. Right now, my reactions are a little slowed up.

“Go to your room!” This time, he doesn’t say it. He roars it.

My feet carry me backward, out of the blast.

Sev moves fast. Soundlessly. Silently. A streak of inky black hair flows behind him like water as he steps between Nate and me. He moves like a warrior. A wolf that’s wide awake. A pack animal that’s prepared to take the lone road.

He moves like something I have seen before. Something I know well.

Something I love.

“Don’t talk to him like that,” Sev says quietly.

Nate’s eyes fly open, flashing with fury. “What did you just say to me?”

“You heard me. I said, don’t talk to him like that. No one talks to Teddy like that.” Sev pauses to snatch a ragged breath. He swallows carefully, sad but certain. “Not even you.”

Nate is breathing hard and his fists are clenched at his sides. He’s leaning forward the way he does on the ice before he comes to blows with someone.

“In all the time I’ve known you, I asked for one thing, Sev. One thing . I asked more than once, and I was fucking clear about it: Don’t fuck my brother.” He spits the last four words at Sev, punctuating each with an aggressive hiss of spittle.

“Why don’t we all take a minute?” I suggest.

Sev and Nate don’t react or answer.

“I trusted you.” Nate’s chin shakes as rage morphs into something else. Something worse. Betrayal. “And you fucked him anyway. You knew what this would do to me. To him. To us. And you fucked him anyway.”

He runs a hand through his hair, tugging roughly when he gets to the back of his neck.

He releases his hair and drops his arm, flicking his hand as though he’s flicking something unpleasant off it.

“You’re a piece of shit, d’you know that?

” he says to Sev. “You could have anyone. Anyone. You’re not even limited by gender.

You could literally have anyone you want.

There are eight billion people on this planet, and you could have any one of them, and what, it has to be my brother? ”

“Yes!” Sev’s voice is also different from anything I’ve heard before.

It’s louder for one thing, and it’s raw.

Stripped back to bone. It’s breaking, cracking, as it thunders from his core.

“ It has to be him! That’s what I’m saying.

Out of eight billion people, it has to be him.

It is him. It’s been him for years, and I can’t fight it anymore.

I can’t, I don’t want to…and it’s not fucking either.

I’m not fucking your brother. I’m in love with him. ”

Sev’s chest caves, winded, and he raises his hands to Nate, palms open.

His shoulders rise and fall and his hands drop limply to his sides.

“You know I love you, Nate.” He speaks softly now.

His eyes are soft too, but there’s a certainty in them, a steel that wasn’t there before.

“I’ve loved you for a long time, and no matter what happens…

I’ll always love you. I hope you won’t make me choose between you.

” He pauses, composing himself and finding the right words. “But if you do…I’ll choose him.”

Nate visibly winces, crossing his arms over his chest as he flicks through various expressions in rapid succession. Big emotions like anger and pain give way to smaller, milder ones. He lands on something that curls his top lip and looks like disgruntlement. “You love him?”

Sev straightens, shoulders broad, chest out. “I do.”

“A lot?”

“Yeah.”

“More than anything?”

“More than anything. More than anyone.” Sev turns his head, moving his attention from Nate to me. “More than reason.”

My heart throbs once in shock and three times in unbridled joy.

It swells so hard and fast that it becomes too big for my chest, and I’m left with my eyes welling up and a hand clamped over my mouth.

It’s not just the words. It’s not even the way he said them.

It’s the way he looked when he spoke. Absolute. Unshakable. Sure beyond any doubt.

Sure of me like I’ve always been sure of him .

Nate pauses, flicking his head back and forth between us, lips pulling in discontent, and then kicks his duffel bag. It’s a strange kick. A little one that makes a point but lacks heat. He glares at both of us and shakes his head slowly from side to side.

I expect him to leave, but he doesn’t. Instead, he weaves past us and stalks toward the kitchen, muttering to himself about what a pair of assholes Sev and I are. That too lacks heat.