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JJ planted his elbow on the table and his cheek in his hand, turning toward Myles. “You look like you hit the gym hard last summer.” He squeezed Myles’s biceps. “Damn, look at you? Can you give me some pointers?” He wagged his brows at Myles.

With his cheeks pinking, Myles said, “Thanks. I’ve been eating a lot more protein. I think it’s helping.” As a smile dimpled his cheeks, he dipped his head.

My gaze flicked from Myles to JJ and back again. Could they be any more obvious? How did they get their signals crossed last year? My gut tightened, and I shifted in my seat. “Let’s order a pitcher.” I flagged down a waiter and ordered.

“So, are they putting you on first string this year?” JJ edged toward Myles and uncurled his arm on the back of the booth behind him.

“I don’t know yet. We’ll see.” Myles freed a long breath. “I’m sure you’re the starter again this year?” His gaze darted to mine, centered on my lips, and then swept to JJ.

Narrowing my eyes, I watched them. They seemed…awkward? I thought JJ had game? Could I help them out? “So, JJ, Myles tells me there’s a gay bar somewhere on this street. Have you been?”

The waiter dropped off our beer and I poured a glass for each of us. Why had I brought that up? Because it was something to talk about besides sports?

“Yeah, I know about the place. The Club on Mill.” JJ twisted his lips and drank some beer. “I’ve only been there once.” He turned his beer on the table.

“What’s the matter? Didn’t you like it?” Myles angled toward him.

“I don’t know if gay bars are my scene. Everyone’s trying to hook up and shit.” As he parted his lips, his gaze cut to Myles. “There’s nothing wrong with that, if it’s what you’re into.”

Was Myles the type of guy who hooked up at gay bars? He’d always seemed too mild-mannered for that. “I’m sure Myles?—”

“You’re right. There’s nothing wrong with it.” Myles pursed his lips and took a few gulps of beer. “Sometimes a good fucking by a stranger is perfect for taking the edge off.”

I spat my beer into my glass as a laugh erupted from my throat. “What?” I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. No way Myles had said that.

With a hearty chuckle and shaking his head, JJ said, “You hockey players are something else.” He dropped his arm around Myles’ shoulders. “You are full of surprises. ”

Myles eyed JJ’s hand as it rested by his neck and he leaned in, a coy grin on his mouth. “I can probably show you a thing or two.” He arched a brow.

“Can you now?” JJ came in closer, fixating on Myles’s lips.

Heat prickled inside me. That was fucking fast. Why were they going so fast? “Hey, uh, people?” I waved my arm around at the tables filling with students.

They both stared at me, Myles saying, “So? Nobody’s homophobic around here, from what I’ve seen.” He tucked himself into JJ’s side.

A knot wound in my gut. “Yeah, but…” But what? Wasn’t this what I’d wanted? But it was so fast. “Don’t make me the third wheel.” With a faltering chuckle, I drank my beer.

“Yeah, okay.” JJ unwound his arm from Myles’s shoulder and straightened, facing me. “We aren’t making you uncomfortable, are we, Coop?” He eyed me.

I forced a grin. “N-no, why would you hitting on each other make me uncomfortable?” I couldn’t have Myles thinking I was homophobic. I was almost queer, for fuck’s sake.

JJ cocked his head, his gaze roaming over me. “So, uh, tell me what you did last summer, Myles?” He shifted his focus on Myles.

“I hung out with my buddy Tyler and his new boyfriend, Rowan, a lot. They both got signed with the Blackhawks, eh.” His grin faded.

“Why do you not look all that happy about it?” JJ studied him. “If one of my friends ended up with the Bears, I’d be fucking ecstatic.” He sipped his beer.

Rubbing his index finger on the table, Myles said, “Oh, I am. I just miss them. Out of all the guys in the squad house, I was closest to Tyler.”

“But you said the goalie is still living with you?” Reaching across the table, I covered his hand with mine.

“And two of your old friends are still here, right?” I leaned in.

I didn’t want to see him so gloomy. He’d always been a happy-go-lucky guy, except there were times, like now, when the light faded from his eyes.

His gaze snapped to our hands, and his jaw opened.

JJ pushed my hand away and grabbed Myles’s hand in his own. “Dude, your college teammates will always be by your side. Even when they’re thousands of miles away, you know they’re still there for you. You all have an unbreakable bond, and especially because they’re family .”

Myles’s gaze locked on JJ’s and widened. “You know? You’re right.” The ghost of a grin crept over his lips. “It’s going to be a good year, eh?”

I wanted to be family . But I couldn’t tell Myles yet what I’d discovered about myself. I wasn’t ready. “And you know I’m here for you, too.”

As his eyes grew glassy, Myles said, “Thanks, guys. I’ll try to get you some prime seats for Friday home game?” He hooked a brow.

“Hell yes. I’ll even wear your jersey.” JJ barked out a laugh. “Can you imagine what people would say?”

I gaped. What, JJ already thought they were boyfriends? “Come on, man.” I snickered, shook my head, and drank my beer.

With a shrug, Myles said, “Sure, why not?” He beamed at JJ. “I have a smaller one that would fit you.”

“Ooh, ouch.” JJ tsked. “But yeah, I’m not as broad in the shoulders as you are. Just taller.” With a swift grin, he squeezed Myles’s hand.

This was weird. Were they serious right now or fucking with me? Leaning back in my seat, I eyed them. “So, why did you two stop talking over the summer?” I covered my mouth with my hand. Why had I blurted that out? Was I testing them?

JJ and Myles’s gazes locked.

Furrowing his brows, Myles slowly turned his gaze on me. “I don’t know, just got busy? ”

“Were you busy going to gay bars in Chicago and hooking up?” With a light laugh, JJ bumped his shoulder into Myles’s.

“I did some of that.” He peeked at JJ from over the lip of his beer glass as he took a sip.

“How often do you hook up at the gay bar?” And was that safe? Heat swirled in my chest. An image of JJ and Myles, naked and dancing, flashed through my brain. I shook it off. This whole situation was messing with my head.

Myles gulped his beer down and set the empty glass on the table, a smirk growing on his generous lips. “A lady never tells.” His gaze slid to mine and held it for a beat, then he poured himself more beer.

JJ snorted. “A lady. That’s a good one. You’re a hockey player.”

“I was Wonder Woman last year for Halloween.” Myles brushed his blond bangs off his brow with a flourish. “And boy, did I attract a lot of attention.” With a giggle, his face flushed all the way to his ears.

“You didn’t.” JJ looked him up and down. “That could be kind of kinky. You still have that outfit?”

Holding my palm up to them, I said, “Okay. Stop.” I fought against a hard ball rolling around in my gut. Why was this bothering me so much? I clenched my teeth.

Both their gazes snapped to me.

Myles cocked his head. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, sorry.” Rubbing my brow, I sipped my beer. I had to get out of this. Meeting Myles’s gaze, I said, “Hey, you remember that time a couple of us ditched class to go sledding after a blizzard?” I tugged my lips into a grin.

Myles leaned in. “You almost hit a tree taking that jump at the bottom of the hill.”

JJ furrowed his brows. “I only went sledding once up in Flag. My mom took me and my brother when we were little. I barely remember it.”

“Sledding was a blast. The best sleds are those red plastic things. We used to play a game where a bunch of us would hold a rope and go down at once. Whoever let go was the loser.” Myles’s face lit up.

With my grin widening, I said, “Yeah, and we’d build these killer jumps down at the bottom?—”

“But you’d have to bail after the jump because there was a forest and rocks at the bottom, or you might slam into a tree trunk.” Myles giggled. “Cooper always hit those things the hardest and flew the highest.”

“We had competitions.” With my heart lightening, I drank more beer and sunk into my seat. Now, this conversation was much more fun.

“How old were you two when you met?” JJ shifted away from Myles, resting his forearms on the table around his beer glass.

Myles tapped his lips. “I think it was sophomore year when I moved to Chicago from Vancouver, eh? My dad took a job with the NHL that year.”

“Yeah, we had a few classes together, and he helped me get through physics class.” Warmth floated through my insides. We’d clicked. Not as well as him and Tyler, but in school, we always helped each other.

“Cooper here always had a girlfriend.” Hooking a brow, Myles drank his beer. “But they never lasted long. A new one showed up every few months, right?” He narrowed his eyes at me.

My gaze shifted to JJ, who gave me a pointed look.

“Did it change in college? Do you have someone back home?” Myles scraped his teeth under his upper lip.

“Nope. It sort of continued that way. But I’ve been, uh, single for about a year now.” I snuck a glance at JJ. I knew he wanted me to come clean with Myles, but I wasn’t ready. The two of them hitting on each other just seemed weird.

“Oh.” Myles focused on my mouth and then cleared his throat. “Anyway, how about our old chemistry teacher? Mr. Olson? He was something.” With a chuckle, Myles sipped his drink.

“Yeah? How?” JJ edged in closer to him.

“He was always blowing shit up. I think he got a kick out of scaring the hell out of us.” Myles shook his head.

“Yeah, sure was fun, though.” I wagged my brows at Myles and topped off everyone’s beer with the rest of the pitcher. I had to go home and sleep off this buzz.

After grabbing a pizza and drinking some waters with Myles and JJ, I found my car in the team lot and drove to my apartment.

JJ and Myles had promised to text and keep in touch, but hadn’t made a date.

Which was good, I guessed. Actually, I wasn’t sure what my feelings were with the situation now that I’d seen them together.

I parked under my covered spot, grabbed my backpack from the passenger seat and strolled down a walkway under tall trees to my apartment, the sunshine fading quickly from the clear, blue sky. The fucker better have cleaned up after himself tonight.

Swinging the door open, I stepped inside.

The aroma of beef caught my nose, and I flicked my gaze to the kitchen to the right of me.

Heat flooded my chest. “God damn it.” I ambled to our older kitchen with golden wood cabinets and white appliances.

Dude must have used every pot imaginable to cook pasta.

They were everywhere, with food stuck to the bottoms. I grabbed a paper towel from a dispenser in the corner and scrubbed a spot of red sauce from the glass burner. “Fucker.”

“What did you say?” Tony strutted into the room, his t-shirt pulled tightly over his belly and shorts slung low on his hips. He swiped a lock of brown hair from his brow and narrowed his dark eyes at me. “Sorry, man. I haven’t had time to clean it up yet.”

My gaze caught on the clock on the stove. “It’s seven. When did you finish cook—” Fuck it. I huffed. It wasn’t worth arguing with the guy. “I already ate.” I tossed the dirty paper towel into a trash bin next to the end of the kitchen island.

Tony scratched his belly. “Good, I’ll clean it up later then.” He ambled to my black leather couch, dropped into the end of it and pushed a plate on the coffee table, still half full of dried-up food, and then picked up a book.

The dude was a fucking slob. “Isn’t that your dinner from yesterday?” I slipped my backpack off my arm at the end of the couch as my gaze snagged a lump of…something, on the leather. “Fuck.” Rushing into the kitchen, I wet a paper towel and jogged to the couch. “What did you get on my couch?”

“Nothing, it was there.” He smirked at me. “You must have spilled. I don’t know, this morning?”

I rubbed at the lump, and the towel came up red.

“It’s fucking meat and red sauce, same as what’s on the stove over there.

” I scrubbed the old food, and a stain remained in the leather.

“Dude, you fucked up my couch.” The one my parents gave me when I moved out.

Scowling, I straightened and glared at him.

Now, Tony would come to mind every time I saw it.

“Sorry. Damn, it’s just an old fucking couch.” He snickered. “When you get your NFL contract next year, I’m sure you’ll be able to afford a new one.”

I dropped my jaw open. “So that makes it okay to fuck up someone else’s shit?” I fisted the paper towel and planted my fist on my hip.

He lowered his brows. “Chill. I didn’t mean to spill on your precious couch.” He scoffed and shifted, shaking his head. “Maybe you should stay away from the steroids?”

I saw red. Jabbing a finger at him, I said, “I don’t take fucking steroids.” They’d kick me off the team if I did. It wasn’t cool to body shame people…I was better than that.

“Could have fooled me.” He jumped off the couch with his book and stomped past me. “I’m going to study in my room, since you’re being such a dick.” With a huff, he left .

“God fucking damn it.” I scanned the mess in the room.

His shit was everywhere, clothes, half-full glasses with god knows what.

I hated living with this guy, and it had only been a month.

We might kill each other before winter break.

But then, I’d be traveling with the football team soon enough and I’d get some relief.