Page 6 of The Last Person (Baker Girls #5)

CHAPTER FIVE

HARDY

“Oh my gosh, this place is beautiful,” Frannie gushes, spinning around the living room. “And I love that we’re semi-neighbors.”

Frannie lives upstate in a little town called Ida—where Hallie recently moved as well—though she grew up here in the city.

She moved to Ida a couple of years before she met Mark, then they randomly met on a plane, and they bonded over both having ties to that small town.

It’s where she prefers to be, but while the season is on, Frannie comes down here every weekend we have a home game.

This weekend she’s also traveling down south with us for our away game.

With Hallie in Ida now, and Justin and Jade living a couple of towns over from them, Mark spends most of the offseason there, and Brian has been looking for an offseason home out in the country there as well.

All he really wants is peace, quiet, space, and gardens.

“That means dinner together when you’re in town,” Brian says.

Mark squints, then nods. “Sure. Maybe one of the nights.”

I suppress a chuckle. I don’t blame him for wanting to have his girl all to himself.

“Did you want to stay for dinner tonight?” I ask, mostly teasing them. She only got here an hour ago, and I’m sure they’re desperate to get upstairs and ditch their clothes.

Mark and Frannie look at each other. “Oh, well… we wouldn’t want to intrude on your first night in your apartment,” Frannie says.

“And we have dinner plans.” Mark clears his throat. “Which we should get to.”

“Right. Those.” But the tops of Frannie’s cheeks turn pink.

I look at Brian out of the corner of my eye and see him holding back laughter too.

“It’s all good. We won’t keep you. Besides, I need to feed him before he gets hangry.” Brian throws his thumb in my direction.

“Excuse me? I do not get hangry.”

“What was the time on the plane when you threatened to throw one of our teammates out the emergency door because you woke up late and forgot to eat breakfast?”

I throw my hands out to the side. “In my defense, TJ was being annoying as fuck.”

“On that fun note, we’re going to head out,” Mark says, wrapping an arm around Frannie and ushering her toward the hallway.

Brian waves as they go. “Have a good night.”

Just before they get to the door, I call out, “Happy boning!”

The last thing I hear before the door closes behind them is Mark’s grumbling.

“Just couldn’t help yourself, could you?” Brian asks, heading into the kitchen.

I shrug. “It’s not like we all don’t know what their dinner plans are. We’ll probably end up hearing part of the show.”

Brian grimaces. “A fancy building like this better have good insulation between the floors. I don’t need to hear my friends having sex.”

Across the room, our gazes connect, and something warm simmers in my gut.

I wouldn’t mind hearing him have sex.

Would I?

Blood rushes lower, and I quickly drop my gaze and stride toward the kitchen counter, refusing to let myself wonder if he was thinking the same thing.

It wouldn’t be impossible. Brian’s bi. It would be more… expected for him to be comfortable hearing a guy have sex.

Now I just sound like a creep. Great.

Mind out of the gutter.

“So, what do you want to do for dinner?” I ask, sliding onto a stool at the spacious kitchen island.

I fucking love this place. Living with Brian is going to challenge these feelings I might have—which is part of the reason why I’m doing it. There’s no better way to figure out my feelings than to share more space with him. Jump in the deep end, right? Or something like that.

“Actually, I have a surprise for you.”

My eyes lift, tracking him as he moves across the kitchen to the refrigerator. “You have my attention.”

“While you were taking forever and a day setting up your clothes earlier, I went down to Wholey Health Food and got—”

“Cauliflower pizza crusts?”

I’m practically foaming at the mouth, but I make no apologies.

Strict diets are the way of life during football season—and even the offseason—and the hardest part of that is my love for a greasy, carby slice of New York pizza.

Or a whole pie. I’m shameless when it comes to pizza, and I’d do dirty, dirty things for the cauliflower pizza crust from Wholey Health Food because somehow it tastes like actual pizza and not weird mashed vegetables.

“Yes.” He sets two pizza crusts on the counter, then turns back to the fridge. “And some low-fat mozzarella cheese and low-sugar tomato sauce.”

“I love you.”

Something flares in his eyes at my words, then he smiles. “Obviously. I’m the greatest best friend in the world. You’re lucky to have me.”

Luckier than he knows.

Was I imagining the tiny shift when I said I loved him? Was it a good shift or a bad shift?

I need to cool it.

This is how best friends behave. They do nice things for each other. And I behave by showing my love for the people around me however I can. This is normal. I need to act normal.

“Come on. Let’s make the pizzas, then I have one more surprise for you.”

His genuine smile helps me refocus. I was hoping that living with him would give me some clarity, but so far, all it has done is made everything murkier.

“Time for surprise number two,” Brian says as we get comfortable on the couch. He flicks the TV on and turns to me. “You’ve been looking for a new show to watch and haven’t found anything. I think you’ve been looking in the wrong era.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re looking for recent shows. But I have a better idea.

” He pauses before searching for anything.

“There are three things my mom loves. Everyone knows the first two. Sundays spent with family and Thursday night crochet club. But the third isn’t one she owns up to as easily.

She absolutely loves Dawson’s Creek. And the other night when you were talking about needing a show that would give you the same vibes as Jade’s books, I thought of how one of her couples reminded me of Joey and Pacey.

” He pulls up the show. “So, I present to you your next TV show addiction. You’ve never seen it, right? ”

I shake my head. I’ve heard of it, but who hasn’t? And I’ve also seen that Dawson crying meme a thousand times, but actually checking out the show never occurred to me.

I toss my legs up on the coffee table. “All right, let’s do this. I hope you know what you’re getting into. We’ll be watching this at every away game, and it’ll be our nightly routine.”

He smirks and goes to the first episode.

“I hope you know what you’re getting into.

Dawson’s is like a gateway drug to 2000s drama.

From there, you’ve got Felicity, One Tree Hill, and don’t even get me started on the reality shows of that time.

Laguna Beach. The Hills. You think you know what drama is now… ”

I gasp. “Is Brian Ackley secretly a melodrama lover? Admit it. You need it as badly as I do.”

He bumps his shoulder against mine. “It’s less an addiction and more of a strange comfort. In the evenings, those were the shows my mom would have on while she was crocheting or reading the paper or whatever. They made her happy, so they make me happy too.”

Yeah. That’s Brian. It’s not about the show. It’s about who he watched it with.

I reach over and pinch his cheek. “Aw, that’s so cute.”

He swats my hand away and starts the first episode. “Be a good boy and watch your show.”

I almost swallow my tongue when he says that. I’ll be the goodest boy ever for him.

Something unsettling stirs in my stomach.

I already am that way for him. I’d do anything to make him happy.

Anything to see him smile. I’d do whatever he asked of me and soak in the joy it brought to his face.

And when he praises me for something? It’s possible I’m much farther gone than I ever considered.

I’d live and die for Brian and his sweet, perfect smile.

What was that I said about being the problem? I don’t need to watch dramatic TV shows. I am the drama.

Which is exactly why I’m going to get lost in a fictional TV world instead of my own problems. Sounds like a healthy plan.