Rookie Move (Playing for Keeps 1)

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why’d you say that like you’re speaking from experience?”

“Because I am.” When I gave him a pressing look, Houston waved a hand and picked up his knife again. “It was a short thing in college. I had a long-standing crush on a dude. We finally hooked up. I figured that’d be the end of it. It wasn’t.”

“What? Who? Why haven’t I heard about this?”

“Because I don’t tell you every little thing about my sex life, Garrett, and”—he pointed his knife at me—“I appreciate it when you don’t do the same. I cannot unsee or unhear some things where you and Ramsey are concerned, fuck you very much.”

I latched on to the momentary distraction for what it was, a few minutes’ reprieve from the shit I was currently dealing with. “Was it someone on the football team?”

“Yes,” Houston said tight-lipped.

“Fucking A. Who?”

“I’m not saying. They weren’t out either, so it’s not my story to tell.”

I got that, but still, I was all kinds of curious, especially since that muscle was fluttering along Houston’s jaw, which definitely meant there was more to the story. “Okay, don’t tell me who, but what happened with them?”

“Long-term? It was a nothingburger. We graduated and went our separate ways. But we’re not talking about me right now.”

“You brought it up.”

“Yeah, as an example. And it’s long in the past, so back to the present.”

“It may not have worked for you, but sometimes it does. I had a fierce crush on Grady Holcomb sophomore year of college. We fooled around a couple of times and poof, it was gone, just like that.” Never mind that Grady had turned out to be a jackass and a shitty kisser, while Ramsey was none of those things. “There were others too, so it’s not like I could’ve predicted I’d get in deeper than I should.”

Houston spun around, grabbed two beers from the fridge, and came over to my side of the counter, plunking one down in front of me. “I know it sounds like I’m coming down on you, but I’m not. I just hate that you’re both in exactly the position I was worried you’d be in, where one or both of you gets hurt.”

I took a long swallow from my beer. “No one’s getting hurt. We’re good. We’re friends. We’ll keep being friends, sex or no sex.” If I kept telling myself that, it’d be true, right?

Houston exhaled a skeptical chuckle. “Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?”

“This is Garrett 2.0. He comes with the responsibility expansion pack preloaded.” I waggled my brows, and Houston shook his head, then dropped an arm around my shoulders.

“I’m always on your side, and I’ll always support you. Just know that, even when I’m side-eyeing your choices.”

“Humans have been making dumb choices since the dawn of time. Some more than others,” I conceded. But I thought maybe for once I’d gotten it right. Ramsey and I could continue to kick ass on the field, keep our friendship on the sidelines, and in time, that niggling feeling in the pit of my stomach would fade. I hoped.

23

RAMSEY

“Stop checking out my ass,” Garrett whispered, his voice low and just for me, but with that playful edge he always had. Just hearing that familiar teasing in his voice made me want to smile.

My eyes snapped away from his very tight, very round ass that I was totally checking out even though I shouldn’t have. “I wasn’t,” I lied. Fuuuuuck, it was a great ass. I really missed having my dick inside it.

Garrett’s loud laugh drew attention from a few of the other guys in the locker room. They all stared at us, expecting an explanation. “Private joke,” Garrett hedged, as if unsure what else to say. When the guys stopped paying attention to us and resumed getting dressed, he added, “You eye-fuck me every time you see me.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not the only one.” This just-friends thing was harder than I’d thought it would be. Besides football, we didn’t even hang out anymore, and I was pretty sure it was because we both knew that if we were alone together, we’d end up naked. The crazy part? The one I could never, ever let Garrett know? Or hell, even admit to myself outside of this one moment? It was spending time with Garrett I missed the most. He’d become such an integral part of my life—the person I wanted to talk to about things and laugh with and play video games or exercise with—that I felt really goddamned lonely. I saw him six days a week between practice and games, and yet I missed him. It was weird as shit.

“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.