Page 79 of Playing for Keeps

“And I don’t want to risk our friendship. Not when we’ve just got it back.” I scuffed a shoe against the gravel before I raised my eyes to his. “The stakes are just too high if we screw it up.”

That was at the core of my concerns. Above Char, above Theo, above what his family would say. I couldn’t handle going back to not having Luke in my life. I just couldn’t.

Luke’s dark eyes were watching me intently. Then he glanced away, staring at the lake. “Yeah.” He ran his hand through his hair and blew out a deep breath, before locking eyes with me again.

We stared at each other for a few heartbeats.

“So, friends?”

Luke nodded. “Definitely. Friends.”

Even though it had been my suggestion, regret flickered inside me instantly.

Luke scrubbed a hand over his face, before rummaging up a smile. “Right, let’s go and get you some food before Hungry Ethan makes an appearance.”

Hungry Ethan. As opposed to Horny Ethan, who was featuring a lot lately around Luke.

“Pretty sure the vortex to hell will open up if I don’t eat in the next ten minutes,” I agreed, trying to ignore the tightness in my chest as I followed Luke over to the entrance.

The café was warm and welcoming.

It also had great décor in the form of a super hot barista and a cute guy who was serving the large queue ahead of us.

“The cinnamon rolls here are out of this world,” I told Luke.

“I prefer all my food to be out of this galaxy, actually,” he countered.

“Well, the food does end up going down a black hole, right?”

He chuckled and I met his eyes with a grin. This. We could do this. We could get things back to normal.

We ordered then found a table with a great view of Lake Wakatipu. Shit, on a beautiful day, overlooking the lake with the mountains behind, it was impossible to believe there was a more stunning place in the world than Queenstown.

As I took my first bite of cinnamon roll, I noticed the cute guy at the counter had been joined by an older guy who placed a kiss on his cheek.

Their casual affection caused my gut to clench and I forced myself to look back down at my food.

“It’s a good thing we live six hours drive from here or else I think these cinnamon rolls would become a problem,” I said.

“They would definitely get addictive,” Luke replied.

Yeah, I didn’t want to think about things that were addictive right now.

Because while the right decision had been obvious, I realized, as I watched Luke lick a fleck of icing off his lips and felt my cock give an uncomfortable twitch, how difficult it was going to be to live with that decision.

Now I’d had a taste, was I ever going to stop wanting Luke?

Chapter20

Luke

We cruised through the semi-final against the Tornados, winning easily.

And thank fuck my form rebounded. I scored two good tries and did a twenty-meter breakaway run that set up Ali’s try.

I’d hated feeling like I had after the last round of pool play, like I’d let the team down. It was the worst feeling in the world. Well, almost the worst.

The actual worst feeling in the world had to be knowing what it felt like to kiss Ethan Lewis and knowing it was never going to happen again.