Page 55 of The Game Plan

“Hey, Cherry.” His deep voice gives me a little thrill. Every single time. “What you up to?”

“Going out for drinks with Anna.” I dart across Fifth and weave past a slow-strolling tourist family.

“Drew’s Anna?” Dex asks in obvious surprise.

“Yep. We’ve gotten to know each other over the years. Gray always invites her and Drew to spend Christmas with us.”

Drew lost both his parents when he was in high school, and Gray lost his mother to cancer around the same time. Gray has madeit a priority never to let Drew go a holiday without family.Familybeing him, and now Ivy and me.

“Right, I forgot about that. Kind of kicking myself for going home to my parents’ instead of to Gray’s Christmas party last year,” Dex says with a wry laugh.

Because he’d been invited too. Every year.

“You were being a good son,” I say.

“I was avoiding the temptation of you,” he answers.

It makes me stumble. Frowning, I quicken my step. “Why did you avoid me?”

He sighs, and I can imagine him rubbing a hand along his beard the way he does when he doesn’t want to admit something. “Well,last year you were still in college, and I was a rookie in the NFL. There was absolutely no hope of us ever seeing each other.And, besides, you were Gray’s baby sister-in-law.”

“I’m still that. Although I object to the termbaby.”

“Fine,youngersister.” There’s a smile in his voice before his tone goes serious. “I asked him, you know. If he objected to me making aplay for you.”

“What?” I practically shriek.

“He’s one of my best friends, Fi. It’s man code. And you don’t mess with the code.”

“And what if he’d said no?” The idea of Gray lording over my sex life does not sit well with me.

“Then I’d have laid out a perfectly logical and irrefutable argument for him to change his mind,” Dex says. “Or I’d have poundedon him until he saiduncle.”

I laugh. “So much for the man code.”

“Punching out an argument is an accepted form of conflict resolution in the man code. It’s part of our bylaws.”

“And you say women are confusing.” I laugh and hurry along so I’m not late. “What about you? What are you doing tonight?”

“Same thing. Going out with my QB.”

“Finn Mannus?” I give a little sigh. “He’s dreamy.”

Okay, I’m still a little irked by Dex’s archaic “man code” thing with Gray, and payback is a bitch.

Predictably, Dex makes a noise of disdain. “Thought you didn’t follow football.”

“There’s a difference between following the sport and following a hot player,” I tease.

“Never thought I’d be the jealous type,” he drawls. “But I guess I am because I have the sudden urge to punch the little shitin the face right about now.”

“Don’t do that! You’ll ruin the pretty!”

“Fi.” Dex sounds ominous. And pained.

Laughing, I put him out of his misery. “Baby, you know I only have eyes for one guy. And he is way sexier than some skinnyquarterback.”

“Yeah?” He’s practically purring now.