Page 84 of Playing for Keeps

I turned, looking for Luke, but he’d been ambushed by a TV presenter wanting a soundbite from him.

Everyone wanted a piece of the Miracle Man.

* * *

The dressing rooms were raucous after the cup presentation. The alcohol continued to flow, although it seemed more of it was sprayed around and tipped over our heads than made it into our mouths. The Supreme Rugby cup was being passed around the team like a favorite child, everyone wanting a selfie with it.

Despite the mayhem of the celebration, I couldn’t help my gaze constantly finding Luke.

Shit. Luke like this, with his hair messed up, cheeks flushed, eyes sparkling. With his laugh ringing around the room. This was Luke unconstrained, unleashed from all the pressure he always piled on himself, Luke at his happiest.

And I wanted him.

I’d never had lust burning me up like this before, as if it was a living, breathing thing inside me. Something that continued to grow and grow.

Our after-match function was to be held at the hotel where we were staying. Never say that the Marauders management weren’t thinkers. Let’s face it, vast quantities of alcohol were always going to be consumed whether we won or lost. The fact we’d won just meant there were far more smiles than there would have been otherwise.

I even saw a rare Aiden Jones smile as he tapped out a message on his phone.

“You messaging the vanquished enemy?” I asked.

Ali rolled his eyes. “Let me guess, you’re going to say you’d have won either way.”

Jonesy looked up from his phone. “Fuck no. I’m ecstatic to have gloating rights over the hubby.”

“You call him the hubby?” I said, delight in my voice. “I’m going to have to remind you of that at some point. Like potentially every day next season.”

Aiden just rolled his eyes.

As the night went on, family members started to trickle in, including Luke’s parents.

I didn’t think I’d ever seen Anthony so happy. He’d been Luke’s biggest supporter since rippa rugby days, and his proud smile as he watched everyone congratulate Luke caused a lump to rise in my throat. I was a dad. I got it.

But he didn’t stop at being proud of just Luke. He came up and clapped me on the back. “Congrats, Ethan!”

“Thanks.”

He grinned, an older version of Luke with an unrestrained smile. “When I think of all those Marauders games I took you and Luke to when you were kids! Who would’ve thought you’d one day both be part of a team that won the championship.”

“Who would have thought,” I agreed, my gaze drifting over to Luke.

Although the fact that Luke was here wasn’t that surprising. This had been his natural habitat from the moment he’d set foot on a rugby field, the center of a victorious team. Anyone who’d ever played with or against Luke knew he was special.

The only real surprise was that I was here too.

Eventually, in the early hours of the morning, the party started to wind down.

Luke was still grinning. His eyes were still shining. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him so happy. And it made me grin like a loon too.

A bunch of us headed upstairs together, including Jacob, Zach and Reuban, who was past half-cut and well on his way to being fully trolleyed. I’d never understood that term before, but with Reuban starting to look as if he was attempting to set some record for staying cross-eyed, he did look like someone who’d been hit in the face by a shopping trolley.

“Fuck, you’re going to have a sore head tomorrow,” Jacob said to him as we got out of the elevator on our floor.

“Totally worth it,” Reuban slurred.

Grinning, Luke unlocked the door to our room. “See you guys in the morning.”

“Not too early,” Reuban said.