Everything for You (Bergman Brothers #5)(44)

“Perfect pass,” he says gruffly.

My head snaps up. I smile at him. “Perfect shot.”

“That it was,” he says, gaze trained ahead.

I roll my eyes. “Humble as ever.”

“Nothing wrong with taking pride in what you can do, Bergman. You gain nothing by understating your abilities.” He spins, stopping where I’ll stand, just outside the circle as we get ready for New England to kick off. Leaning in, he lowers his voice. “He’s looking at you.”

“Who?”

“That wanker.”

“Ah. Bryce.”

Gavin glances over my shoulder, locking eyes with him, glaring death. “Next time you have the ball, we do that play again,” he says. “But this time you’re going to keep running. I’ll feed it back to you, and you do what you do best.” He leans in, his mouth a whisper from my ear, the memory of this morning flooding my mind, his mouth against my neck, his breath warm and soft against my skin. His hand interlaced with mine.

I shiver.

“Put the ball in the back of the fucking net,” he says quietly. “Remind that inveterate ass what he let get away and will never ever get back.”

I stand there, speechless at the top of the circle as he turns and strides deep into the midfield.





I’m still on a cloud as we walk to our cars in the parking lot back home in LA. After Gavin’s goal to tie it up, I scored. We won. Not even another cross-country flight could bring my mood down.

“Will you ever stop dancing?” Gavin grumbles. There’s amusement in his voice, faint, hidden, just like the smile after his goal.

I two-step my way across the parking lot, then spin, because there are honestly few things I delight in more than watching Gavin Hayes try to act like he doesn’t enjoy the heck out of my dance moves. “Not anytime soon.” I bounce to the rhythm of Carlo’s music, which has started blasting in his car’s stereo. To the beat, I tell Gavin, “Because there’s no I in team, no me in we. You and I scored, got ourselves a victory!”

“And that’s when you know you’ve watched too much Hamilton.”

“Too much Hamilton?” I shimmy my shoulders while looking for my car. “No such thing.”

Gavin rolls his eyes, brushing past me to unlock his gas guzzler. “Why the frown?” he asks.

I’m scanning the parking lot, and I don’t see my hybrid anywhere. “Can’t find my car.” I pull out my phone as suspicion dawns and dread creeps through my limbs. My missing car has Viggo written all over it.

And there it is. A text as soon as I power on my phone, after having turned it off for our flight.

Viggo: Needed to make a long-distance bakery delivery and we both know my car is too delicate for such extended mileage, so I caught a cab to the parking lot and borrowed yours. Hopefully you can get a ride home! ;-)





Gavin opens his driver’s side door, but freezes when he sees me still standing next to him. “No lying about your car just so I’ll give in to carpooling.”

I pocket my phone, seething. Viggo’s going to pay so bad for this. “It would give Mama Nature a little hug.”

Gavin throws me a withering glare as he tosses his bag inside the Land Rover. “We played well together today, I’ll give you that. Doesn’t mean we’re buddies, and it certainly doesn’t mean we’re carpooling.”

“See, and here I was thinking, considering we woke up being big and bigger spoon this morning, a fifteen-minute car ride was peanuts in comparison—”

“Goddammit, Bergman.” He pinches the bridge of his nose. “Fine. Fine, all right? We can discuss carpooling. But only if you swear never to bring that up ever again.”

“You got yourself a deal.” I beam a smile and offer him my hand to shake.

He glares down at my hand, then peers back up at me. “Get in your damn car and go home.”

“Ooh, good idea. I’d love to caravan, except my car isn’t here. My brother borrowed it.”

Gavin sighs. “Well, then I suppose I’ll have to drive you home. But we are not listening to any musicals.”





14





OLIVER





Playlist: “Fever to the Form,” Nick Mulvey





I’m playing it cool with Viggo. I sent a nice No big deal text back while Gavin drove us home in silence and I stared out the window, fuming at my brother. I’m going to let Viggo think he didn’t piss me the heck off, when he knows Gavin’s my neighbor and he knows that taking my car meant Gavin would likely be the one to drive me home.

So much for his “you know your own path to happiness” bullshit. This was one of his “lead a horse to water” moments, and he might not have made me wear swimming trunks, but he certainly compelled me to carpool with my neighbor, who is also the guy I have a massive crush on, who I was tangled up in bed with this morning and inadvertently rubbing hard-ons with while he extracted us and then made me promise never to talk about it.

And for that I will make Viggo pay dearly. I’m only acting like I’m not upset with him because revenge will be sweetest if he thinks I’ve let it go and he lets his guard down first.