Chapter 25
“What’s with the grin?”
Sitting on the couch, I’m roughly shoved to the side, knocking shoulders with both Kellan and Beck.
Kellan’s smirking like a douche from my right, responsible for jostling me around.
I push him right back and reach for his beer, nudging it into the centre of the coffee table, nearly out of his reach.
With a forced glare, I ask, “Do you have to be such a brute?”
“Someone here has to be since Ash isn’t here.”
Beck looks up from his phone long enough to say, “He actually might show up. I think I convinced him to come over for a beer when I chatted him up earlier.”
“You what?” Wes gawks at him across the room, slouching into the giant green beanbag he ordered off some novelty website.
The comic book characters drawn all over the slippery fabric added a good two grand to the cost of it.
“And you’re just dropping that on us now?
I would have ordered better beer if I’d known. ”
I lift a single eyebrow. “Why does he get the expensive shit and we don’t?”
“Because I doubt he’ll go through it at the speed the lot of you do.”
“For someone who has a full arcade in his basement, you’re cheap as hell, Wes,” Kellan grumbles.
Beck pockets his phone and drapes his arms over his knees. “It’s actually not a shock why the resident grump never hangs with us when you bicker like old ladies at bingo.”
“Speaking from experience?” I ask.
“Yeah. Your mom invites me to join her often.”
“Jesus,” Kellan says before grabbing his beer from where I’ve moved it and taking a long swig.
“When’s he supposed to get here?” Wes stands from his luxury beanbag chair and stretches his arm above his head.
We all look at Beck.
“Soon, I’m sure,” he drawls.
Kellen’s the first to reply. “How convincing.”
“What? Do you want me to ask him to share his location with me?”
“I’ve got Finn’s. That’s how I know he was at Aubrey’s place until 2:00 a.m. this morning,” Wes says, drawing my narrowed gaze.
His grin spikes something hot and angry inside of me that I don’t think I’ve ever felt around him.
Or any of these guys, for that matter. I’m straightening between Kellan and Beck, trying to trample down the protectiveness that’s rippling around my skin and demanding I make them all forget where Aubrey lives.
Like that information should only be for me.
“Don’t stalk me, you creep,” I mutter.
“Oh, now you have a problem with it? What a coinkidink. I’m going to bring us back to what Kellan asked earlier, buddy. Why are you so happy today, and does it have to do with your late-night rendezvous with our pretty little lawyer?”
“She’s not our anything.” It escapes me before I can trap it.
My groan is loud and obvious. There would have been no point in trying to hide it. The cheers that erupt afterward don’t chafe all that much, actually.
“That’s my boy!” Kellan shouts, gripping me by the shoulders and shaking. “Finally! That’ll be a thousand bucks, Beck.”
I whip my head to the side and take in Beck’s disgruntled appearance. “You made a bet on me and Bree?”
“We all did. Technically, Kellan hasn’t won shit yet. We don’t know the details,” Wes clarifies.
Reaching for my water, I say, “And you’re not getting them.”
“So there are details, then. Did it happen last night?” Kellan asks, eyebrows dancing.
“You’re insatiable.”
Wes pushes our drinks to the side and plops down on the coffee table directly in front of me. “I’ve been waiting seven years for this, Finn. Don’t blue ball me now that you’ve finally given me a stiffy.”
“Okay,” I grunt, pushing myself away from him and onto the couch. “Too far.”
Ignoring me, he claps his hands together before rubbing the palms. “Don’t make it weird. You know what I mean.”
“Maybe nothing happened,” Beck suggests, though the twinkle in his eyes doesn’t leave much room for appreciation.
Kellan’s voice has never pissed me off more. “You’re right. Maybe she just felt bad for our boy and let him watch her sleep or something.”
“Or he could have given her a foot massage. Brielle is always complaining about how sore her feet get after wearing those killer heels they both never leave the house without. Maybe he gave her a pedicure,” Wes drawls, winking obnoxiously.
“I didn’t watch her sleep or massage her damn feet.” But I would have done both if she’d asked, not that I’d ever admit that to these guys.
After having her ride my lap last night, there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t have done or said if it meant keeping her on top of me a bit longer. Luckily, I didn’t have to beg and plead for her to remain in place. She stayed there all on her own until she fell asleep with her cheek against my chest.
I was at her place until two in the morning because I couldn’t get myself to bring her to her bed before then.
Holding her last night was different from all the times before.
Back when she’d cry into my shoulder after a bad day or one of her mother’s guilt trips for not coming around enough.
It was always out of platonic love for her that I would wrap her in my arms and offer to fix every problem that had even slightly hurt her.
But now . . .
Last night was what I hope was the first of many to come.
I want to hold her in my arms again, with her lips against mine and her breath filling my lungs.
I want to explore every inch of her body with the same hands that she’s known for decades will bandage her wounds and stroke her hair in the car when her stomach swirls.
There are so many things I want to do to her and with her, and fuck me, I’m giddy at the thought of what could happen between us if we keep going down this path.
If she doesn’t pull away from me, that is. And knowing Aubrey, that’s a bigger possibility than I’d like.
“So, what did you do?” Wes pushes.
“Do you not have your own sex life?”
He huffs at me, dropping his hands behind him and leaning back. “It’s nowhere near as intriguing as yours.”
“You should bring her to the Noah Hutton concert this weekend,” Beck suggests.
Kellan groans, and I look over at him, confused. When he notices me, he adjusts his baseball cap and mutters, “I thought we weren’t including women.”
“That was just Roman’s suggestion. He knew we weren’t going to listen. Besides, I invited Elle this morning,” Wes says.
“You invited your sister, dude?” Beck drops his head back against the couch.
Our catcher kicks him in the shin. “What’s wrong with my sister?”
“Nothing! Shit—I was just asking a question.”
“Well, don’t ask about her. Roman gave us ten tickets, and unless you want to invite the coaches, we have extra,” Wes explains.
I wince, imagining spending the night at a rock concert with the Havoc coaching staff.
It’s not that they wouldn’t have a good time, but I could think of at least a handful of other people I’d rather spend my night with than those with fingers deep in my career.
We may as well invite Roman with us if that’s the vibe we’re going for.
Not that that would be the worst idea, come to think of it. Despite being the guy in charge of far more than any member of the coaching staff, he’s also someone I see as a friend. As harsh as he can be when it comes to baseball.
“I’ll ask Aubrey, but she might be working. She’s got a lot going on at the firm right now,” I say.
Wes grins, knowing he’s won. “Brielle will convince her if you can’t. Maybe you can just give her another foot massage—”
I’m stepping on his toes before he can get the rest of his sentence out. His hiss of pain puts an end to that statement.
“Aubrey could probably get Asher to come, too,” Kellan says with a shrug that jostles my shoulder.
“Get Asher to come to what?”
The four of us turn at the same time. Asher weathers our attention with little more than a grunt as he stands beneath the arch leading into the . . . whatever Wes considers this room to be. A secondary living space seems most appropriate.
He’s wearing all-black clothes with his hoodie strings tied at his neck and dark hair messy.
The bags beneath his eyes tell the usual story, but it’s the anxious twisting of the silver ring on his thumb that draws my attention.
Something that feels a lot like worry twists around my gut before I break the silence.
“The Noah Hutton concert. They’re team tickets.”
Wes clears his throat before adding, “Rumour has it that this might be his last tour for a while. Missing his last show would be crazy.”
“When?” Ash asks, slowly creeping past the archway.
I offer him a friendly smile. “Sunday. Once we get back into Vancouver. They’re private tickets, up in one of the suites.”
Roman has connections that extend far past the baseball world.
It isn’t a surprise that he managed to get handed these tickets, let alone with no intention of attending the concert himself.
Noah Hutton is one of, if not the biggest name in rock music right now, so yeah, it would be pretty crazy not to go to his last potential tour stop for the foreseeable future.
Even if it means I’ll have to deal with these guys watching Bree and me like animals at the zoo the entire time.
I’ve got a feeling they won’t matter once I’ve got her with me, though.
“It’s just us going?” Ash asks, shoving his hands into his hoodie pocket.
I nod. “The four of us plus Aubrey, Brielle, and you, if you’re up for joining. It doesn’t have to be a team bonding thing.”
“Think of it as an outing with friends,” Kellan says, his voice loud. “You are familiar with those, right?”
It’s his turn for a shin kick. Wes mutters something under his breath at him before speaking louder. “Just come, Ash.”
Our newest teammate surveys us for a minute, like he’s trying to stick pieces of a puzzle together that don’t fit. By the time he jerks his head in a reluctant nod, my leg has started to bounce. I relax a bit later and grin, waving a hand in our direction.
“Sit and relax, Ash. That beanbag is really comfortable from what I hear,” I tell him before smirking at Wes.
My best friend glowers at me before flipping his expression and giving Asher a thumbs-up. “He’s right. Enjoy it.”
Asher isn’t blind. He watches the group of us for a breath longer before taking the offered seat, ignoring my very obvious attempt to rile Wes. That same worry comes back around before I force myself to focus on something else.
I know that he’s spoken with Aubrey a few times, and while the guys like to use that to rile me, I know she’s just trying to make him feel like he’s a part of the family. And from what I’ve gotten to see and learn about Asher, he needs that more than he’ll ever admit to any of us, her included.
Dropping my eyes to my lap, I tug my phone out of my pocket, ready to ask Aubrey to come before anyone else takes it upon themselves to.
Beck starts bugging Asher about why he looks like he hasn’t slept in a week, and I take that as my cue to get up.
The contact I pull up makes my pulse skip when I slip into the hallway.
She picks up on the third ring, and I lean against the wall, grinning like a fool as her voice registers.
I should have paid each one of the guys what they’d bet on us, because I’m completely owned by this woman, and that’s not ever going to change.