Rookie Move (Playing for Keeps #1)(69)

“You’re silently blaming me for this whole situation, aren’t you?” he asked, and I couldn’t stop myself from grinning, then forcing myself to frown. I shouldn’t like that he knew me so well, but the truth was, I did like it. Garrett was just…different. Everything about him felt that way to me.

“No.”

“Liar, liar, pants on fire.”

Someone cleared their throat, and I looked up to see Tucker standing there. I didn’t notice when he’d walked over, but it was evident he’d had enough time to hear some of what we’d said.

“I’m feeling confused,” Tucker said. “I thought… You know what? Never mind.”

“What’s up?” I asked, but he didn’t have time to reply before Coach’s loud voice broke through the room.

“Hurry up, gentlemen. We’ve got a plane to catch.”

We’d just finished a game in Baltimore, where we’d scraped out a win by the skin of our teeth. We’d gotten a W and lost two games since Thanksgiving, when all hell had broken loose. The playoffs started in less than a month. We really did need to keep our heads in the fucking game. Right now, that was more important than anything else. If Garrett and I wanted to have orgasms together again, we could after we got a motherfucking ring. Then maybe we could fuck our way through the off-season, before ending this shit for good.

Are you ever going to really want to end it? That thought had no business being in my head, so I told myself it wasn’t.

We finished getting dressed, and then the bus took us to the airport, where we jumped on a plane for Denver.

Tucker sat beside me. The asshole had won rock, paper, scissors for the window seat. Cross and Garrett were two rows up on the opposite side. Most everyone was quiet, wiped out from the game. I knew Garrett would have bruises… Maybe he should come over and I could kiss them better? No. Bad Ramsey!

“Dude,” Tucker said.

“Dude what?”

“You just groaned.”

Shit. Had I? “My body hurts. Someone let me get sacked in the third.”

Tucker laughed, but the sound was overtaken by Garrett doing the same while talking to Cross. My attention automatically shot to him. My brain completely malfunctioned all the time now because of G. He’d crisscrossed all my wires, and I didn’t know how to untangle them.

“Shut up,” Nance told them. “Some of us are trying to get some rest.”

“Fuck off,” I shot back, and Garrett whipped his head around and gave me a look that said I needed to be the one to fuck off when it came to opening my mouth with Nance. He didn’t need me to defend him, but that shit came naturally. I’d do it with anyone I cared about.

Okay, so maybe I did it a little more with him. Sue me.

“Problem, gentlemen?” Coach asked, his gaze directed at me.

Fuck. Me and my big-ass mouth. Hopefully, I was the only one who heard the warning in his voice. “No, sir,” I replied.

Garrett and Cross went back to chatting. I heard Cross ask him about hanging out and then mention some woman Cross fucked, liked Garrett knew who she was. My muscles were feeling a little twitchy. Was G fucking someone else? It’d been three weeks, after all. He had every right to, but the thought made me ragey. Like I was going to go all psycho on him and lock him in my basement because if I couldn’t have him, no one could.

I didn’t even have a basement.

I groaned again.

“Are you broken?” Tucker asked.

“Yes.” He frowned, so clearly, honesty hadn’t been the way I should have gone there. “I’m just giving you shit. I’m fine.”

I stuck my earbuds in and tried to keep to myself the rest of the flight. Every once in a while, I’d find myself glancing at Garrett. A few times he was looking at me first. I winked. He gave me the finger. I wanted to tell him yes, we could fuck, but I was a good boy and didn’t.

I kept my distance when we landed in Denver. Houston was picking Garrett up. He’d offered me a lift too, but I’d ridden in with Tuck and he’d left his car here. He was taking me home.

I risked a glance at Garrett. He was looking at me already, the right side of his mouth kicking up to half a smile, before he shrugged, his expression readable. He still wanted me too. This was way more complicated than it was supposed to have been.

I tried to turn away from him but couldn’t. We were looking at each other like two puppies being separated, people moving around us while we just…stared.

God, the bastard really had broken me.

Garrett turned away first and got into Houston’s car. Houston said something to him, then looked at me, then at G again—and this was way too ridiculous, so I blew them both a playful kiss and was on my way.

It wasn’t until we were in Tucker’s ride that he punched me in the arm. “You fucking dumbass!”

“Um…I’m sorry?” I had no idea what I’d done. “What are you talking about? I mean, I’m a complete dumbass, but are you just figuring this out?”

“I’m such an idiot. I can’t believe I thought you were boning Houston. Either some freaky shit is going down between the three of you and Houston and Garrett might end up arrested because of it, or I had the wrong fucking brother.”

Shit…shit. Were we really that obvious? Clearly, we were, since my dad almost caught us sucking each other’s faces off and now Tucker had figured it out. Still, I said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”