Page 68 of Pick Six

“Well if it isn’t my favorite teammate and—Harper, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, Gabe, right?” I pretend like I didn’t notice the way he just looked at me, and step down slowly into the other side of the hot tub alongside Alex.

“Yes, it’s Gabe. Gabe who better watch where his eyes are if he wants to still be my teammate,” Alex mutters as he sits down in the water.

Just as I go to sit, he grabs me and pulls me into his lap, wrapping an arm around my stomach. I want to grumble at him, but I love the feel of him around me.

“Never cared where my eyes went before,” Gabe taunts him.

“I care now,” he grits back.

I frown, studying Gabe across from me. His arms stretch across the wall above the hot tub as he watches us both.

“Care to fill me in?” I ask bluntly because I don’t like feeling like I’m the outsider in this conversation.

“Oh, she doesn’t know?” Gabe smirks, his eyes dancing with a threat.

“McGregor…” Alex warns but it does nothing to deter his amusement and his eyes return to me.

“Know what?” I look back over my shoulder to Alex and his brow furrows, eyes less bright than they were before. I’d almost say he looks nervous if I thought he was capable of the emotion.

“Nothing,” he mumbles.

“Oh, I don’t know if it’s fair not to let her in on that secret.”

“Secret?” I ask, a flicker of apprehension runs up my spine because I don’t like the idea that there’s some insider information about Alex that everyone else has that I’m not privy to.

“What are you doing up here anyway? Tobias know you’re here?”

“Yeah. He knows. Said he’d be up here later. Unless that’s what you’re waiting for.” He grins wider and I feel Alex’s grip on me tighten.

“Someone should fill me in,” I say, letting the frustration edge into my tone.

“It’s nothing worth talking about right now.”

“Fuck that. It’s definitely worth talking about,” Gabe counters.

“I’m gonna go back inside,” I say abruptly, starting to move but Alex’s grip around me tightens.

“Just fuckin’ tell her. She’ll find out anyway.” Gabe shakes his head. “At least I hope she does because it’s a show I definitely want to see.”

Gabe’s eyes are on me again, drifting over me.

“So you can see what you’ll never fucking touch?” Alex’s tone is lethal.

“She already mentioned she worked at the museum when we talked. I assumed it was a look don’t touch situation.”

It suddenly hits me. What I should have realized way before now. He and Tobias aren’t that different. It’s why he didn’t flinch in the car when Tobias’s date was basically fucking him in front of us. Why Danica was all over him on my couch at a party. Why Gabe is making the comments he is now. I look back at Alex.

“Tobias not the only one that likes to be watched?”

“I’m not nearly as bad as Tobias.”

“It’s true, sweetheart. Tobias will fuck anywhere. Your boy here’s a fan of more private gatherings. VIP shows if you will.”

“McGregor, remind me why I shouldn’t kill you?”

“We won the game on a field goal after the two-minute warning?” Gabe looks very amused with himself.