Page 60 of The Waiting Game

“Anyyyway, no, I’m not asking Tyson out. I am going to text him tonight and say that I appreciate what my grandmother was trying to do but that I am not in a place where I’m available to date.”

“Letting him down easy,” Matty said with a nod.

“Well, it’s true,” Jonah pointed out.

“Yeah, I mean you’re already in a relationship with Felix,” Matty shot back.

“Fuck off,” Jonah said, laughing as he glanced over at Felix. “Jesus, we’re never gonna live this down, are we?”

“Nope,” Matty said smugly. “You sure aren’t.”

The chirping continued for the rest of the game and on into dinner.

Dustin had reserved a back room in the team’s favorite Toronto steakhouse and most of the guys had joined them.

Between golf and dinner, Jonah had called to check on his grandmother. She’d informed him she was fine and would he please stop interrupting because she and Nancy were busy watching their favorite celebrity reality show.

Jonah would worry she was just deflecting so he’d stay out with the team and she could sneak off to Zumba class or something but Nancy had also texted him to assure him that they’d finished the dinner Nancy brought over and were just watching TV.

Nancy was Grandma Ji-min’s partner in crime so Jonah had to take all that with a grain of salt but she had sounded genuinely worried when Jonah had called her this morning to let her know what was going on, so Jonah chose to believe her.

Food and drinks had been coming all night and though Jonah was very full already, he kept eyeing the ginormous slice of very dark bittersweet chocolate cake in front of Felix.

“Here.” Felix shoved his plate over and into Jonah’s sightline. “Have some. I can see you eyeing it.”

“I already had a piece. I don’t need more. And it’s your birthday.”

“So? Am I not allowed to share with people on my birthday?” Felix shot back. “Besides, I don’t need all of this.”

“But I do?”

“Shut up and eat the damn cake.”

Jonah grumbled and picked up his fork. “Fine.”

“God, you two really should just get married already,” Jordan said with a laugh. “You sound like my parents the way you squabble.”

“We don’t squabble,” Felix protested, sounding indignant.

Jonah shook his head and took a big bite of his cake. That was the part he was arguing about?

“And we don’t sound like a married couple,” Jonah protested. “It’s just because we’ve been friends so long.”

“Suuure,” Jordan said with a wink. “We’ll go with that.”

Jonah and Felix polished off the remainder of the cake in no time and a few guys started to peel off, making their excuses before they headed home.

Some of the core guys lingered at the table, talking for a while longer. Most of them were drinking tonight. Not too heavily—although Matty had put a fair few away tonight—but they’d relaxed some since Felix seemed fine with it.

It made Jonah nervous, which in turn made him feel bad, like he didn’t trust Felix or his sobriety. And he did but it was hard to shut off the worried voice in his head.

Still, the night was going well. It was team-only tonight and everyone appeared relaxed and in good humor.

With just a few more days until the first round of the playoffs began, now was the perfect time to have a bonding night like this. The fact that it had coincided with Felix’s birthday this year was just a perk.

Jonah took a sip of his iced tea just as Felix spoke. “Hey, who did you and Courtney hook up with that one time?” Felix asked as he leaned toward Matty, “No one has ever said.”

Jonah nearly choked on his drink. Felix hadn’t been around for that shit show with Matty’s ex-wife and Jonah had no idea what had just sparked that conversation.

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