Page 2 of Perfect Storm (Toronto Thunder #1)

Oh, that was cute. Aidan wished that was true.

That it was as true today as it had been his whole goddamn life, all the way up until his close friend Morris had signed a blockbuster deal with the Raiders and fucked off to the other side of the country, and Aidan had realized, way too fucking late, that maybe his friendly and brotherly feelings about him were not nearly as platonic as he’d always believed.

“Like you were straight?” Riley waggled his eyebrows at his boyfriend.

Landry flushed. Looking, like Levi had just said, dickmatized.

Riley was a good-looking kid, but the eyebrow waggling was not his best look. That didn’t seem to matter. Landry always looked like this around him. Like he was constantly dazed by the good fortune that Riley had ever deigned to look in his direction.

It was gross, and maybe a tiny bit cute.

Aidan ruthlessly cut off the thought that, at one time, he’d hoped that he might be able to look at Mo like that. That he might be allowed to look at Mo like that.

Levi shared a commiserating glance with Aidan. Of course he didn’t know what he was commiserating, but it was still more comforting than Aidan might have imagined five minutes ago. “Wouldn’t that be a little . . .I don’t know . . .incestuous?”

“And when has that ever stopped you?” Riley asked in disbelief. “You and Logan both fucked Carter Maxwell.”

“Not at the same time!” Levi yelped, like this was an important detail that everyone hadn’t already assumed.

“Ew, gross. I know Carter,” Landry muttered.

Aidan took a long gulp of whiskey.

“I don’t know, I don’t think it would be,” Riley said slowly. “You’re not actually related.”

He didn’t want to lie to Riley or Landry. Lying to Levi was more fluid, but he was present, too, so Aidan supposed he counted. Thus, he could not stand up and declare that yes, he was way too goddamn straight to fuck Levi.

Just way too caught up in someone else.

“True.” Levi looked contemplative, like he was actually thinking about this. And that was not going to happen. Not now, not ever.

There was nothing to do about it, but change the subject, again.

God, did he have to do everything?

Aidan pulled himself up from the couch, whiskey sloshing in his glass, dripping onto his hand. He licked it off and ignored the face Riley made about it. “Come on,” he said, “let’s go outside. S’mores, right, Ri?”

Riley looked like he knew what Aidan was trying to do, but the more important thing was that he didn’t call him on it.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Riley said.

Aidan hesitated in front of Levi, still sprawled out on the couch, big thick thighs exposed with his pair of short neon yellow shorts. Aidan couldn’t say his fashion sense was the best, but at least he didn’t unironically wear neon.

Levi shot him a pouting look. “Not gonna help me up?”

“This isn’t a double date,” Aidan said flatly.

“And I even got you a refill.”

Aidan sighed and extended a hand, and it took more strength than he’d imagined to yank Levi up, but he did it without embarrassing himself too much.

Ignoring, deliberately, how during the whole discussion of Levi hooking up with Aidan that Levi had never said, not once, how he wasn’t attracted to Aidan.

He didn’t need that brain worm too, on top of all the others currently eating away at him.

Levi’s fingers were sticky with burned marshmallow and the remnants of the chocolate bar he’d stolen from the box and eaten without even bothering to sandwich it between graham crackers.

Across from him, Aidan was still morosely staring into the fire, like he might find all his answers in its dancing flames.

Riley and Landry were lost in their own world, sharing one of the big Adirondack chairs, Riley practically on Landry’s lap, his head resting on Landry’s shoulder. If they were paying any fucking attention at all, they would surely see that Aidan was not himself.

He was always full of dry sarcasm. Always knew better than anyone else what they should be doing.

Was never the loudest person in the room, but usually the most self-righteous, an authority he no doubt believed he’d earned by usually being right.

But from the moment when the three of them had descended onto his vacation house, right on one of the Michigan lakes, it had been obvious to Levi that Aidan was even quieter than normal.

Something bleak and unpleasant lingering in the back of his blue eyes.

Physically, he was like the original and Riley the younger copy. Taller and broader, with darker blond hair and darker blue eyes, it was ridiculously easy to tell they were brothers.

But Riley’s smiles came so much easier, especially now.

Levi and Aidan had never been particularly good friends. That had always been Landry and Aidan, but Levi had spent enough time in Aidan’s orbit to know something was up.

It was kind of shitty that neither Landry nor Riley had noticed, but then, they were still caught up in their own world, giggling under their breath, feeding each other little bits of melted marshmallow, while Aidan gave himself whiskey dick on the other side of the fire.

Aidan was normally kind of a chill, loose drunk, but not tonight. The more booze he drank, he just grew quieter and quieter, until Levi wanted to get up and demand he tell him what was going on. Be annoying enough he couldn’t brush Levi off anymore.

He didn’t even know why Aidan’s steadfast reluctance to tell him the truth bothered him. They weren’t really friends. Aidan’s shit was his own business.

But Levi felt bad. Unlike Levi with his three nosy, over-involved siblings, Aidan only had Riley, and Riley was kind of the best, but he was a little—or a lot—distracted right now.

“Dude,” Levi said, moving his chair closer to Aidan’s. Further away from Riley and Landry’s.

Aidan’s gaze slid over him lazily. “What?”

“You’re really not going to talk about it?”

“God, you’re persistent,” Aidan said, not sounding that perturbed by it. Maybe that was the whiskey talking.

“Youngest sibling’s prerogative. We’re built this way.”

“I meant it. I don’t wanna talk about it.” He was definitely sulking, no question about it. Aidan’s lips practically turned down.

“Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t,” Levi pointed out.

Aidan opened his mouth and then snapped it shut again. His gaze flicked over to where Landry and Riley were giggling together, and it occurred to Levi, that even though they were very clearly not listening, Aidan still didn’t want to risk saying anything either of them could overhear.

And suddenly, Levi was more worried. Because if the thing had been a minor issue, Aidan wouldn’t have cared. Wouldn’t have tried to hide it so hard.

“Dude,” Levi said flatly.

“I’m not sure that’s better than bro,” Aidan said.

“You’re still going to be playing, right? Like you’re not retiring early? I didn’t hear you were injured—”

“I’m not injured,” Aidan interrupted. “It’s not . . .it’s not anything to do with football.”

“You didn’t get a girl pregnant, did you?”

Aidan gave a short, unamused bark of laughter. “No.”

“Okay, well, what the fuck is it, then?” Levi hoped he could stop guessing. He was running out of legitimate ideas and he had a feeling bringing up his less legitimate ideas was not a surefire way to get Aidan to open up, only to annoy him.

Aidan clamped his lips shut. Didn’t shake his head, but the message was clear enough.

Ugh.

Levi wasn’t just worried, he was curious.

But then Riley slid off Landry’s lap and Landry was up a second later, wrapping an arm around Riley’s waist.

“We’re going to bed,” Riley announced.

“Thank God, finally,” Aidan said dryly.

Riley shot his brother a look. “You think you’re cute, but you’re not.”

And of course Aidan was. Probably not the way Riley meant, but Levi was trying to be smart about this. Aidan might be hot, but he was straight, and Levi had long given up lusting after straight boys.

“I don’t know, I think I’m pretty cute.” Aidan fluttered his eyelashes, something Levi was pretty damn sure he wouldn’t have done if he hadn’t drunk all that whiskey.

“Alright, you keep thinking that,” Landry said, detouring over to him to pat him on the shoulder. “Chug some water, okay?”

“Sure, Dad,” Aidan retorted.

Landry barked out a laugh. But thirty seconds later, the back door was closing behind them.

Levi didn’t pounce. He knew if he did, Aidan might not tell him.

But he did glance over and waggle his eyebrows. He’d never have done it if he thought there was a chance in hell of seducing Aidan, but this was Aidan Flynn. There wasn’t a chance anyway.

“You’re ridiculous,” Aidan muttered.

“You know you wanna tell me. You wanna tell someone. And you’re clearly not gonna be telling Riley or Landry.”

Aidan groaned low in his throat, his frustration evident. “I might have.”

“No way. You wouldn’t have tried so hard to hide it.”

Aidan just pinned him with a heated look. It shouldn’t have made Levi hot, but it did. Levi was bigger, but he had a flash of a vision—Aidan and his broad shoulders and intense blue gaze, pinning him to the bed.

But Levi didn’t let himself dwell, because lusting after straight guys lay certain insanity.

Then, before Levi could say anything else—could even shake his mind entirely clear of the fantasy, even—Aidan said in a low, resigned voice, “You know Mo Jeffries?”

“Morris Jeffries?” Levi was surprised and couldn’t hide it. Morris had signed a new contract with the Raiders three years ago, despite Aidan working his hardest to try to get the Thunder to keep him.

But that had been three years ago. Surely Aidan wasn’t still throwing a shit fit because one of his closest friends and certified favorite wide receiver had gotten his payday from a different team?

“Yeah,” Aidan said morosely. “I . . .he’s one of my best friends, you know? We played together for years on the Thunder. And I thought I knew what he meant to me—”

“Trust me, dude, you made that plenty clear.”