Page 27

In the spirit of that, I wasn’t surprised when Max shouted at my retreating back this morning that he’d be coming to my game this afternoon.

It’s a beautiful day, and he has the afternoon free from hockey for once.

Now, I squint into the stands and try to pick him out.

He’s usually in the same section each time, although the seats change.

His hair makes him stand out in the crowd, though, so I don’t usually have a hard time finding him.

Today, I can’t locate him. Frowning, I turn my attention back to Coach.

Across the dugout, Luke meets my eye and grins.

After the game, I take one look at Vince’s shiny torso next to my locker and decide to wait him out.

It’s not his fault when we brush up against one another changing, but the sweaty, moist feeling of his skin against mine makes me want to die.

No, the best thing to do is stand to the side and wait for him to finish.

Behind me, Luke is chatting happily with one of our outfielders as he changes.

Walking over, I lean a shoulder against the side of his stall. The lucky bastard has an end locker.

“Hello, MG,” he greets me. I raise an eyebrow.

“MG?”

“Short for Marcos the Grouch.” Seeing my facial expression, he laughs. “Nicknames are a sign of friendship and love.”

“I’m definitely feeling the friendship and love,” I deadpan, which makes him laugh again. “Max here?”

“Yeah! Didn’t he tell you he was coming? ”

“He did, but I couldn’t find him in the stands. He’s usually to the right of home.”

Luke shrugs. “I don’t know what seat. He’s here, though. He’s coming with me to my place tonight. Bryce got the new NHL game and he wants to play it with, you know, a real-life hockey star.”

I smile at that. Max is absolutely a real-life hockey star.

“What are you going to do tonight?” Luke asks, before realizing I’m still in my uniform. “Aren’t you changing?”

“Just waiting for things to clear out a little bit.” I nod toward Vince and Luke grimaces in sympathy. “And I’m not doing anything tonight. Maybe just get ahead on some homework.”

Luke makes a face likely meant to convey how awful my night sounds compared to his plans with Max.

Glancing over at my locker, I determine the area looks clear enough for me to strip.

Not wanting to waste any more time and more than ready to leave, I take the same route as Luke and forgo a shower. I’ll just shower once I get home.

As I get undressed, Luke wanders over and sits on the bench nearest my locker.

His face is ducked as he looks down at his phone, leg bouncing up and down as though he’s still got pent-up energy after the game.

I glance back at him. He’s obviously waiting for me even though it’s unnecessary.

He’s leaving with Max, after all, and they’re not coming back home.

“You can head out, if you want,” I tell him. He looks up, smiling, and shrugs.

“I’ll wait. Max will want to see you before we go over to my place.” He lays his phone down on his lap, losing the smile and eyes turning contemplative. “Do you…have a plan for next year? ”

I raise my eyebrows, but delay answering by bending over to slip on clean socks.

Before Max and Luke met, the plan was for me to join him in Detroit when we graduated and he started in the NHL.

Now? I have no idea if Max will even want me tagging along as the third wheel in a relationship that is solid enough not to need one.

“I don’t know what the plan is,” I admit, keeping my gaze on my feet. I don’t want Luke to see the sudden sadness I’m sure is in my eyes.

“Me and Max are still going to be together,” he tells me, voice firm. I nod, because that much had been obvious to me. “And I want to go with him to Detroit.”

“You should,” I agree.

“But you should come, too. If that was what the plan was for you guys, I don’t want you changing that for me. You should come with us,” he repeats.

“You talked to Max about this?”

“Yeah, a little bit.” Luke rolls his eyes fondly. “He asked if I might want to go with him. As if there was a chance I wouldn’t. Idiot.”

“I’ll think on it a bit. I don’t really know what to do, and I haven’t given it much thought, to be honest. I’ve been…focused on other things.”

“Okay. I just wanted you to know where we stand. Don’t stay away just because of me.”

I nod and shoulder my bag. Silently, we walk out of the locker room together. I huff a small laugh when Luke immediately swivels his head around, eyes wide as he searches for Max, and is clearly disappointed that he’s not hovering directly outside the door.

“Well, I thought he was here,” he mumbles.

“Come on. I bet he’s just outside. ”

Max is indeed outside, standing in the sunshine and chatting with none other than Nate.

A fission of energy goes through my body, like I just put my hand on a live wire and electrocuted myself.

He looks beautiful in his jeans and dark blue V-neck.

His skin is practically glowing in the light, as though even the sun is happy to have the opportunity to kiss him.

Luke nudges me with an elbow, clueing me in on the fact that I was probably starting to drool.

“Damn, Marcos,” he says in an impressed sort of voice. “Good work.”

“Shut up,” I mumble as we approach the pair.

Nate spots us first, eyes performing a slow crawl from my feet to the top of my head as an even slower smile spreads across his face.

His hand floats upward as I walk up to him, but stops before making contact as though the movement was unconscious.

Squaring my shoulders, I reach for him. As always, there’s that little bit of fear when I make initial contact, but my skin doesn’t crawl and there’s no vertigo.

Relaxing, I give his arm a little tug to bring him into my personal space.

“Hi. I hope this is okay,” Nate manages to get out, a second before I kiss him.

He gasps against my mouth. Clamping a hand on my hip, he tries to pull me closer but I lean away, not wanting to take this further with an audience.

“Hi,” Nate repeats. This close, his eyes shine like chips of jade in the sunlight. I’ve truly never seen a more beautiful eye color.

“Hi,” I greet him, taking a full step backward but keeping hold of his hand because why the hell not? No sense pretending I’m not excited to see him when clearly I am.

When I glance over at Max, he’s looking distinctly smug. Luke, with an arm thrown over his shoulders, is grinning widely. I scowl at the pair of them.

“Me and Max came together,” Nate tells me, bringing my attention back to him. “Me and him are going to hit up all the games together from now on since our guys are on the team.”

I raise my eyebrows at “our guys,” but let it pass for now.

I want that. I want him. I might not deserve him, and it might not work out, but fuck do I want to try.

I’m sure my therapist would have a few choice words to say about me starting a relationship when I’m still trying to work on myself, but it’s hard to care about that when Nate’s green eyes are on mine, his presence a warm, steady weight beside me.

“We rode together,” Max puts in, a sly lilt to his voice. I narrow my eyes at him. “Since me and Luke are heading in the opposite direction, would you be able to drop him back off at his place, Marcos?”

Okay, Max, I see what you’re doing, I think in his direction. Shaking my head at my friend in exasperation, I turn to Nate.

“Need a ride?”

“If you don’t mind,” he replies, grinning cheekily. Feeling ganged up on, I look to Luke before realizing he will be absolutely no help whatsoever. Frankly, I’m surprised he wasn’t the mastermind for this setup.

“I don’t mind. You guys want to grab something to eat?” I offer.

Luke glances at Max, reads something on his face and shakes his head. “Nah, we’re going to head home. I’ve got to shower still.”

Oh hell, so do I. Taking another small step away from Nate, I try to surreptitiously sniff myself. I’d better drive home with the windows down. I doubt Nate’s attraction to me will extend far enough to include post-baseball-game sweaty .

“Great!” Max says cheerfully. “Glad you came with me, Nate.”

“Thank you for the invite,” Nate replies, squeezing my hand as though I’m the one who invited him. He waits for Max and Luke to stroll off together, Max held awkwardly to Luke’s side by an arm over the shoulders, before turning to me. “Sorry. We sort of teamed up on you, didn’t we?”

“Max is apparently trying his hand at being a matchmaker,” I muse. Nate grins.

“Listen, I’ll take all the help I can get.

” He pulls our linked hands up and kisses the back of mine.

I jolt, surprised. I can feel the phantom imprint of his lips even after he lets our hands fall back to our sides.

Apparently, I’m having a very good day, because nothing about this situation is bothering me.

“Do you have plans the rest of the afternoon?” I ask him, while silently hoping he doesn’t. I want to talk to him, and then I want to strip him down—lay him out on my bed and keep him there for as long as I’m able.

“Nope.”

“Want to come back to my place?”

“Sure,” he agrees quickly, barely letting me finish the question. He looks around, suddenly impatient. “Where’d you park?”