Page 149 of The Play

To an extent, Grant expected the smiles and the jokes, especially from Carter.

He was not expecting when Carter turned and saw them, Ian tucked under one arm, his red hair shining under the dim bar lighting, for the guy to smile wide—but instead of making a joke, or teasing them about being together, he just gave them a look of complete and total understanding.

“Hey, Carter,” Deacon said. “Ian.”

“Hey, guys. It’s great to see you here. Especially you, Mr. G,” Ian said, smiling too.

“I think you can call me Grant, especially since we’re very much off the clock,” Grant said.

“Nice to see you,” the bartender said—Grant was pretty sure his name was Kieran—as he approached their group. “I’m honored you’d stop by, especially after the last time, Mr. Green.”

“Grant,” he repeated, giving the guy a smile and extending his hand across the bar. “Please. Call me Grant.”

“Kieran. What can I get you?” the guy said, shaking his hand briskly.

“I thought you had some kind of magic superpower when it comes to drink choices,” Grant said.

Kieran regarded him for a minute, his gray eyes narrowing in on Grant’s face. “You sure?”

Grant nodded.

“Me too,” Deacon said.

“Well, that makes it easy then, because you guys are drinking the same thing,” Kieran said, getting out two glasses, but to Grant’s surprise, he didn’t spoon ice in. Instead, he turned towards the row of taps lined up on the back counter and pulled a beer and then a second beer.

“I didn’t know you drank beer, Mr. G,” Carter said.

“I don’t usually.” He had in college. Cheap drafts, usually the cheapest drafts on the menu. After starting InTech, he’d graduated to well gin, and then when he’d made some real money and no longer worried about what drinks cost, his favorite kind of gin.

Kieran set the beers on the bar.

“Last time, didn’t you both get gin and tonics?” Carter asked.

“Yep,” Deacon nodded, shooting Grant a knowing look. “I appreciate y’all at least mostly letting us work this out on our own. You kept the interference to a minimum.”

“Mostly,” Grant said, and Carter laughed.

“Fair,” Carter admitted. “But we tried.”

“And in your case, sweetheart, that’s pretty damn impressive. If you even knew how much he wanted to interfere,” Ian teased.

“Oh, we knew,” Deacon said, chuckling under his breath.

“I’m just happy we’re all, you know . . .happy,” Carter said, and he was practically glowing with it. Happiness and love and friendship.

“I won’t say all this coupling up made my life easy—” Grant said. The opposite, in fact. There’d been weeks—maybe even months—where he’d lamented about why his players had to be so ridiculously interested in each other.

“Gave him a fair number of headaches, in fact,” Deacon inserted.

Grant turned to him, grinning. “Yeah, maybe. But if I could choose a situation where it didn’t happen, I’d still prefer it this way. And not just because of us.”

He hadn’t worried about how this would go, but it still felt so right, for Deacon’s hand to settle possessively around his hip. To feel Deacon’s warmth at his back.

This is going to be how it is all the time.

“Aw, they’re so cute,” Beck said putting a hand over his heart as he and Micah approached, Riley and Landry in tow.

“It’s our turn,” Deacon said.

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