Page 142 of Playing for Keeps

Ethan gave me his innocent look. “You told me to organize whatever decorations I wanted.”

“And you thought that combining alcohol, rugby players and things that make annoying noises was a good idea?"

Ethan shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a man with vision.”

“Yeah, terrible vision. I’m talking complete visual impairment.”

“Hey, I had the vision to decide marrying you was a good idea, so you might want to amend that statement.”

I laughed. “That was definitely a moment of 20/20 clarity.”

He gave me a genuine smile. “Most definitely.”

“You two aren’t acting sickeningly in love, are you?” Zach said as he joined the group.

“It’s our engagement party, we’re allowed to,” Ethan responded.

Ethan and I normally managed to keep things professional around the team, but there had still been a few raised eyebrows in the Marauders squad when people had discovered our relationship.

We hadn’t announced it but we hadn’t tried to hide it either, so eventually the news had filtered out.

There had been one amusing moment when we’d arrived at practice at the same time as Reuban.

“You guys are carpooling it every day,” he’d said as we walked into the changing rooms together.

Ethan stripped off his T-shirt and threw it in his locker. “Yeah, it makes sense since we’re living together.”

“Are you crashing at Ethan’s until you find a new place to live?” Reuban asked me.

“No, we’re living together,” Ethan replied for me.

Reuban smirked at him. “Aren’t you too old to have a roommate?”

“We’re not roommates.” Ethan’s voice was still patient.

“What do you call it if you’re living together and you’re not roommates then?” Reuban started to chuckle.

Ethan stared at him, one eyebrow raised expectantly, while I bit my lip to hold back a laugh.

Reuban’s chuckle faded and his gaze ping-ponged between us. “Wait, really?”

“And it finally clicks,” Jonesy said from the next locker over.

Reuban blinked a few times. Then he turned his attention to Aiden. “Hey, at least Lewis has the good taste to shack up with another Marauder rather than the enemy.”

Aiden Jones smirked. “Don’t knock rivalry sex if you’ve never had it,” he said.

There was a moment of shocked silence, because Aiden Jones was the last person anyone expected to mention his sex life, and then we started laughing. Well, all except Reuban, who lurched around the locker room clutching his head and demanding someone give him brain bleach.

Just another day in the life of a professional rugby player.

Now, all around me were highly-paid rugby players acting as if this was the first open bar they’d ever been to and they needed to drink their weight in alcohol before the bar ran dry.

I scanned the room, huffing out amusement when I saw Isaiah and Levi doing shots. That was guaranteed to end messily.

But then I spotted an unexpected face in the crowd.

He’d come.