Page 16 of Perfect Storm (Toronto Thunder #1)

“Bro, I’m so glad I caught you,” Levi said to Logan, his phone tucked into the corner of his shoulder and his ear as he turned the corner from the neighborhood coffee shop that he’d started visiting in the mornings.

Aidan had a coffee machine, but it was kind of shitty drip coffee, and he couldn’t care less about it because he was apparently insane and “above caffeine” and “his body was a temple.” Whatever.

Moments like that made Levi wonder why he was so hung up on the guy.

Why every time they got close, his heart felt like it was in his throat and his dick was about to bust out of his shorts and he wondered why the fuck he had said a year, when right now seemed like such a better idea.

He was trying to play it cool, and he thought he was doing an okay job of it, too, because Aidan seemed to be on a similar page.

“Yeah, you’re some big shot now, with that huge contract,” Logan teased him.

Levi took a long sip of his latte. It was still iced but Blaize at the coffee shop kept teasing him that soon he’d need it hot.

“Like yours is any smaller,” Levi retorted after he’d swallowed.

“But it’s going good, yeah? Aidan treating you well?”

Levi didn’t really want to touch the subject of Aidan Flynn with a ten-foot pole. Which was why he had ignored Landry’s offer to talk this morning with a quick sorry I’m busy text and taken up Logan on his instead.

“Yeah, of course,” Levi said, hoping that generic answer would smooth over any of Logan’s concerns.

“Good, ’cause he can be kind of an ass,” Logan said. Levi could hear a hint of his brother’s disapproval even over the phone. But then, Logan had never made any secret of how much their eldest brother’s best friend annoyed him sometimes.

“Come on, he’s not that bad,” Levi said.

Part of him couldn’t quite believe he was defending Aidan, because before he’d never have done it, and surely that would make Logan think something was up.

But the other part of him actually believed what he was saying, because now that he’d had the privilege to get a bit closer to Aidan, he could see what Landry had always seen: his loyalty, his protectiveness, and even his bone-dry sense of humor.

Then there was that he was screaming fucking hot, too. That didn’t hurt.

“Are you okay?” Logan asked, sounding mystified. “Aidan’s not that bad?”

“He’s mellowed,” Levi argued, even though he thought the opposite might actually be true.

Sometimes Aidan reminded him of a polished diamond, all deceptively sharp edges, working harder than everyone else on the field while still attempting to look like he wasn’t.

Levi didn’t want to be dazzled by Aidan’s facade, but it was hard not to be.

“Sure.” Logan didn’t sound convinced, but at least he’d accepted it.

“Things all good in Florida?” Levi changed the subject before Logan decided he had more to say about Aidan.

“Oh yeah,” Logan said. “We’re kicking ass here. Taking names. Dylan says hi, by the way.”

“Your boyfriend’s hot,” Levi said, because he knew it would annoy Logan.

He huffed out a breath. “You’re just saying that to get under my skin.”

Levi chuckled. “Or maybe he’s just hot.”

“But you don’t have to say it,” Logan complained.

“Sure I do. What, do you not think Dylan’s hot?” It was too much fun to wind Logan up like this. Made it hard to resist.

“You know I do,” Logan said flatly. “Anyway, he says hi. He’s doing good too.”

“If everyone’s doing so good, why did you want to chat?” Levi wondered. He pressed his keycard onto the outside door to the apartment tower, letting himself into the lobby. A glance at his watch told him he had five minutes with Logan before Aidan had said they were leaving.

“I’m worried about you,” Logan said, annoyingly self-righteous. “You fitting in okay there? How’re the other guys on the line? I know Griff some, he always seemed like a stand-up guy.”

“Never gonna stop worrying about your baby brother, huh?” Levi joked, but his heart was warm as he hit the button to the elevator that would take him upstairs so he could grab his bag from the condo before practice.

“Something like that,” Logan said.

“The guys are good. You’re right about Griff.” Levi paused. Wondering if he should say something. Logan was his brother, sure, but he played for the Piranhas, who didn’t need any advantages to be competitive.

“You sticking at right tackle?” Logan asked before he could say something.

Damn, it was like Logan knew him. That wasn’t so surprising, but it was amazing and also kind of frustrating to be known like this, inside and out. “You saw the speculation.”

“Kind of hard not to,” Logan said.

Levi hit the button for Aidan’s penthouse floor hard, swiping his keycard on the reader so it knew he was allowed to go up that high.

They’d had an open practice two days ago, and the media had seen Ross Acker struggle on a few plays to protect Aidan’s blind side, and since then, there’d been approximately a hundred articles about how their newly signed blockbuster right tackle, Levi Banks, had played left tackle more than adequately during the handful of opportunities he’d had.

Levi sighed. “The guy already kind of hates me.”

“Is it gonna be a problem?” Logan asked.

He hadn’t bothered saying anything to Ross about his own abilities, because there was no way that wouldn’t break bad. He’d only reassured Ross that Ross himself had skill to make it happen.

Secretly he wasn’t sure that was true, and he only intended to be loyal to Ross as long as he got the job done. If he didn’t—if he let Aidan down—then Levi knew exactly what side he was coming down on.

“I don’t think so,” Levi said optimistically. The guy knew his starting job was riding on his performance; he’d bring it today. If it were Levi in Ross’ position, he’d make sure of it.

“If you think so,” Logan said dubiously.

Clearly he was siding with Levi here. He’d probably already watched the film from practice half a dozen times and seen the issues just as clearly as Levi had.

Ross was a hair too slow to react to the rush, and not as agile as he needed to be to stick with the coverage.

“Yeah,” Levi said. The elevator dinged open. Another look at his watch told him he had two minutes to grab his bag. “Hey, we’re heading into practice. I gotta grab my stuff and make sure I don’t make Aidan late.”

“Sure, that would be a nightmare,” Logan said.

“Hey, you’re punctual,” Levi said, keying himself in one more time to the main door to the condo. “No judgment.”

“I’m gonna judge all I want to,” Logan said stubbornly. “But as long as you’re happy, baby bro, that’s all that matters.”

“I’m happy,” Levi said automatically.

“Good,” Logan said. “Don’t be a stranger—to Landry or Lyla, either, okay?”

“Yes, Dad,” Levi said, only because he knew it would annoy Logan.

It worked perfectly, Logan squawking in outrage as Levi hung up the phone. Sometimes Levi thought Logan had gotten the majority of the big-brother genes even though he wasn’t the oldest.

He had approximately thirty seconds to grab his bag from his bedroom and meet Aidan at the front door.

Aidan was already waiting, hat turned backwards, old Thunder T-shirt on, the fabric clinging to his biceps and stomach in a way that Levi found incredibly distracting.

“Ready to go?” Aidan asked and Levi nodded.

He was quiet as they rode down to the garage level, where Aidan’s Range Rover was parked, thinking about what Logan had asked and how he’d answered.

He hadn’t considered the question before he answered it, not really anyway, because it was always a mistake to be too honest with any of his brothers.

They tended to get fiercely protective and over-involved—though he’d give them credit, because they’d never, ever been as bad as Aidan had been with Riley—and make trouble when Levi could handle his shit just fine.

He was twenty-seven. A full-grown fucking adult.

He didn’t need to be bailed out from tricky situations.

He’d done it with his contract, hadn’t he?

Lyla had told him when they’d talked about it that she’d been sure he’d settle for less, just to stick where he’d always been, and she’d been proud of him for branching out.

For refusing to accept less than he was worth.

For going to a team, even a team new to him, that had a real shot at winning it all.

Levi had rolled his eyes, annoyed at his sister, even as he was a little touched by her concern.

He tossed his bag into the backseat and was just buckling up, watching out of the corner of his eye as Aidan hooked up his phone to monitor the traffic to the practice facility, when Aidan said, “All good?”

“Yeah, bro, of course.”

Aidan shot him a long-suffering look as he pulled out of the space.

The practice facility was further out of town than the stadium, which was nestled right in the heart of downtown, forming a sports triangle with Scotiabank, which the Maple Leafs and the Raptors shared, and the Rogers Centre, where Canada’s only baseball team played.

But the practice facility was at least a thirty-minute drive, if traffic cooperated, and even though Levi had only been in Toronto for just over a week, he’d begun to realize that traffic rarely cooperated.

“You’re being super quiet,” Aidan pointed out. “That’s not like you.”

Levi tried not to feel suddenly self-conscious that he was spending the drive into practice every morning chattering Aidan’s ear off.

Aidan hadn’t seemed particularly annoyed by it, and Levi knew he hardly held back offering his opinions when something did annoy him.

“Talked to Logan this morning,” Levi said, which was not really the change of subject Aidan probably thought it was. “He asked me if I was happy, and I just told him yeah, sure, because . . .” Levi slid a glance over at Aidan, suddenly unsure if he should say everything.

Aidan was Landry’s best friend, after all, and the original card-carrying member of the Overprotective Brother Club.