Page 30 of Perfect Storm (Toronto Thunder #1)

“No, and they know better. They get recognized.” Dom shook his head. “Can’t believe more people don’t recognize you.”

“It’s a blessing,” Aidan said, sounding like he meant it.

“Good thing you’re not a hockey player,” Dom said wryly. “What can I get you two? Your usual?”

Aidan looked over at Levi, who was in the middle of trying to figure out if Dom might be gay—and even more, if Dom somehow had a crush on Aidan and that was why he’d immediately demanded to know who Levi was.

Then, of course, Levi wondered, because he couldn’t fucking help himself, if Aidan had ever brought Mo here. He wasn’t going to ask though, because obviously he must’ve. Mo had been one of Aidan’s best friends. His best friend on the Thunder, for sure.

“I always get their supreme pizza, and the garden salad to start. You good with that?” Aidan asked.

Levi nodded.

“Glass or two of chianti, too?” Dom asked hopefully.

Aidan just laughed. “I wish, but no. We’ll just stick with water.”

Dom made a face but disappeared a second later behind the swinging kitchen door.

“Been coming here for awhile,” Levi observed.

“Yeah. Dom’s a . . .well, a friend. He comes to Thunder games sometimes. I get him tickets to my suite. He’s originally from California, and don’t tell anyone, but he says hockey just isn’t the same.”

Levi was not going to ask. He was absolutely not going to ask.

“Just a friend?” he asked anyway.

Aidan’s expression morphed from shock to astonishment to amusement. “Are you for real?”

Levi wanted to tell him he was just joking. That he hadn’t meant it. But he kinda had. “In my defense, bro,” Levi said, painfully aware at how un-casual he sounded, “you are Aidan Flynn.”

“Yeah, okay, but you know—well, you know,” Aidan retorted without much heat.

He did know. Aidan had been in love—was in love?—with Morris Jeffries. And two months ago, he’d told Levi that he’d never done anything with a guy before.

But that didn’t mean Dom didn’t wish that things were different.

“I promise,” Aidan continued dryly, “I’m not that much of a prize.”

That was a complete fucking lie. Aidan was hot and funny, in a lunatic, overachiever, dry sort of way. He was rich and a famous quarterback in the NFL, even though he was doing it in a city that cared way more about the Leafs and their never-ending quest for a Stanley Cup.

“The craziest part of that sentence is that I think you might actually mean it,” Levi said, shaking his head in disbelief. Because Aidan was a lot of things but he wasn’t the kind of guy who pretended not to be awesome so someone would argue with him.

“Of course I mean it,” Aidan said, shooting Levi a confused look.

Levi almost told him that just because Mo hadn’t wanted him didn’t mean nobody else did, but he’d done a very good job of keeping the guy’s name out of his mouth so far and he wasn’t about to break now.

“Besides,” Aidan added, “Dom’s got a boyfriend.”

“Ha,” Levi said. His gaydar had never been wrong yet.

Except, of course, when Aidan had told him that he was into guys and he’d been floored.

Another waitress—young, with a sweet smile—showed up with their waters, a bowl overflowing with salad, and two plates.

“You ever look at guys?” Levi asked as Aidan heaped salad on their plates.

Aidan glanced up at him. “Seriously?”

“What, it’s an understandable question,” Levi said. “Your best friend’s Landry, and even though he’s my brother, I can say objectively he’s damn good looking. Best-looking person in our family by a mile.”

“Hey now, don’t sell yourself short,” Aidan said, sounding honest to God a little offended.

Levi didn’t particularly need the ego boost—he was intimately aware of his pros and cons, probably even more than Aidan was—but Aidan’s easy retort still felt really good.

“Aw, thanks,” Levi teased, like Aidan hadn’t been as serious as he’d been.

Because Aidan being that serious about it sort of threw him.

Made him wonder, before he shoved the thought down, if this could be a date.

“To answer your question though . . .I don’t think so, but then, I didn’t think I was into guys at all. I think . . .sometimes I think I wasn’t even paying attention. Like just too caught up in everything I was doing, to wonder about what I wasn’t doing.”

“Yeah, I get that. I had Logan—but then, I think I came to terms that the fact I was gay a lot sooner than he did, even, so I’m not sure he really helped all that much.”

Aidan smiled. “Why do I think you probably helped him more than he ever helped you?”

“Maybe. I’ve just . . .I just always knew.”

“Lucky,” Aidan said, a little wryly.

“Hey, you got there eventually.”

Aidan had the nerve to look sulky. Levi hated it. Wanted to wash the look off his face, but he knew he couldn’t. Not here, not now.

“Eventually,” Aidan added quietly.

They ate their salad in silence, Levi mentally searching for a way to cheer Aidan up that wasn’t just grabbing him and kissing him in the middle of this little neighborhood restaurant.

Knocked his foot against Aidan’s casually, but other than a brief curl of his lips, Aidan didn’t really react much.

Aidan’s plate was almost empty when his phone dinged. Levi didn’t think he’d actually heard it make a noise since he’d arrived in Toronto, and Aidan had to get a shit ton of messages, so he was surprised to hear it actually notify him.

Aidan glanced over at it, and whatever it was, whoever it was, was enough to drive that look off his face entirely.

God, what if it was Mo? Levi suddenly felt sick to his stomach. Jealous, even though he didn’t want to be, and guilty because of it.

Dom had been bad enough, with his curly dark hair and his handsome, friendly face.

But before Levi could figure out how to ask who it was that had put that smile on Aidan’s face, Aidan murmured under his breath, “It’s Riley. Just wants my advice on something. I’ll text him back later.”

“Oh yeah? How’s the kid doing?” Levi said it, knowing it would pry some kind of reaction out of him.

Aidan shot him a glare. “Don’t call him that.”

“Chill, it’s a joke,” Levi said, smiling.

“He’s just . . .I just . . .” Aidan took a deep breath. “I screwed up a lot and I’m trying to be a better brother.”

“I don’t know, dude, from what I’ve seen, you’ve always been the best kind of brother.

” Landry hadn’t told him everything, but he’d told Levi enough.

Enough for Levi to know that while their parents had been intricately and intimately involved in their lives and that he’d always felt the warmth of their love, Aidan and Riley hadn’t been the same. They’d only really had each other.

Aidan made a scoffing noise. “Yeah, well, even the best of intentions don’t mean anything.”

“Still. I know you basically took care of him. Raised him. Made him into the quarterback he is today.”

Aidan’s mouth clamped down into a tight line. “Riley made himself into the quarterback he is today.”

“Bro, take a little credit. Riley gives you plenty of credit. He’s always talking about it.”

Aidan’s smile emerged again. Soft and sweet. Now Levi recognized it as his Riley smile. How had he missed it before? Probably because he’d been too busy being stupidly jealous.

“Yeah, he is. Kind of loudmouthed about it, if we’re being honest.”

“He loves you.”

“Yeah.” Aidan leaned back in his chair. “I love him too. We only really had each other for a long time. Forever it felt like.”

Kind of like Mo, Levi had always felt like Aidan and Riley’s parents were sort of a banned conversational topic.

Aidan never brought them up. Riley hadn’t used to, but slowly over the last few years, as he’d become the Condors’ starting quarterback and found success, he’d started not discussing them more openly but at least the fact that Aidan had been largely responsible for his upbringing.

Still, he felt like he should ask. Get the truth out of Aidan’s own mouth, anyway.

“What was up with that?” Levi wondered.

Aidan looked surprised, like he hadn’t expected Levi to ask.

“Uh, well, long story short, ’cause nobody wants to hear the whole ugly thing—”

“Never said I didn’t,” Levi interrupted casually. He kind of did want to know.

Aidan shot him a look but kept going. “They got divorced,” he said simply. “You know when you hate something so much you want to hate it more than you want to find something you actually love? That was them. They got so occupied hating each other it was like they forgot about us.”

Levi had thought it was something like this. Landry had mentioned a few things, over the years, even if it was never the details. But that didn’t mean the details didn’t hit hard, when they hit.

“Oh shit. Shit. Bro.”

“I mean, not entirely.” Aidan shrugged. “Maybe if they had, it would’ve been easier.

But like, I’d arrange everything for Riley.

Make sure he was taken care of and stuff, you know?

And then they’d remember oh shit, yeah, we have sons.

The next day, the whole schedule would be fucked up, because they suddenly thought they knew best.”

“No wonder you’re a control freak,” Levi said softly.

“I’m . . .don’t say it like it’s a good thing. It’s not a good thing. It wasn’t a good thing.”

Levi was surprised by the fierce note in Aidan’s voice. “No, well, maybe not to the extent you were with Riley, but, dude, you did right by him. At a time when nobody else wanted to.”

Aidan looked even tenser then, and Levi felt desperate to say something, the right thing to get him to understand. But not just that, to relax him, too. To realize that out of everyone, Levi was the last person who’d judge him.

“You guys are good now, though,” Levi added. “I saw you together this summer, and it seemed good.”

Aidan nodded. “Yeah. Of course. But I nearly screwed it up—”

“No, you didn’t,” Levi argued. “I mean, maybe, but is it really screwing it up when it comes from a good place? Landry told me you’d do all this film study not just for you, but for him. Time you probably didn’t have, just to help Riley out, help make him successful in the NFL.”

Aidan relaxed a fraction. Not a lot. Not enough. But some. “Landry told you that?”

“Listen, bro, you thought his dream could hurt him, and you were still out there, helping him make it possible. That’s . . .I don’t even know what that is. Like fucking unselfish behavior.”

“I didn’t know Landry had told you that,” Aidan said. He didn’t seem upset, only surprised.

“You know we’ve always talked a lot. And while Logan tends to handle most of the overprotective-brother shit in our family, Lyla and Landry will do their share, too.

” Levi hesitated, unsure of how much of this he should say.

How much Landry had already said. “He worried, too, when he and Riley started dating.”

Aidan frowned, but the waitress appeared then with their pizza, and Levi thought maybe that part of the conversation was over.

But after he’d demolished his first piece of pizza, Aidan shot him a look. “What do you mean?” he asked. “What was Landry worried about?”

Levi had a sudden, inexplicable fear that maybe Landry hadn’t ever told Aidan about this, but of course he had. He had to have. That was just the kind of person Landry was. Generous and loyal, to a fault. Not just to Riley, but to Aidan.

“It was just tough on him, at first. Trying to figure out the balance between being your friend and being Riley’s boyfriend.”

“I’d have told him to pick Riley every time,” Aidan said which was not only ridiculous, it was the most Aidan thing ever.

“Fucking please,” Levi complained. “Like he’d even do that.”

Aidan sighed. “I did tell him that when he got all angsty about it. I want Riley to have someone who puts him first.”

“And he probably does. Like ninety percent of the time. But like . . .you’re one of Landry’s best friends. Have been, forever. I don’t think even Riley could change that.”

Aidan thoughtfully chewed on his second slice. “True,” he agreed. “Probably easier too when I finally figured out my shit with Riley. Stopped putting him in the middle.”

“Hey, Riley could’ve told you that you were overstepping. He didn’t.”

Aidan looked up, shock widening his eyes.

“What?” Levi shrugged. “It’s true. You’re not a fucking mind reader.”

“But I should’ve—”

“Nah,” Levi interrupted.

Aidan shot him a pointed look.

“Riley’s got Landry and you looking out for him in this. Who’s looking out for you? Seems like I’m gonna have to do it.”

“Nobody says you have to do anything,” Aidan said, contrary. Because of course he was. Couldn’t even take a fucking compliment.

“I’m telling you I want to,” Levi insisted. “You’re a good guy, Aidan.”

Aidan rolled his eyes, but Levi could see that he was pleased, under all that.

“It’s so weird you can take a compliment when it comes to football, but give you any other kind of praise and it’s, like, you automatically reject it.”

“Do not,” Aidan argued.

“Do so.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Aidan said. But he sounded amused and was giving Levi that fond look that Levi enjoyed putting on his face so much.