Page 93 of The Waiting Game

With that, they found themselves herded out of the room before they could protest.

“Uhh,” Felix whispered when they were back in the waiting area. He glanced around but there was no one there but Kate’s assistant, Mitchell Nash, who’d given them a distracted wave when they came out and had returned to his work, hands flying over his keyboard. “What the fuck?”

“I don’t know,” Jonah said. “I’m so confused. I can’t decide if she knows we’re making this engagement up or if she doesn’t want to know.”

“Agreed. I couldn’t get a word in edgewise there.”

“I … Dude, what just happened?”

“Kate happened,” Felix said drily.

A day later, Felix still couldn’t decide what that all meant.

Did Kate suspect that the engagement was fake and wanted plausible deniability? Did she genuinely believe they’d dated in college? Felix had more questions than answers but she seemed happy and the team press release today had certainly backed up that narrative.

In the end, it didn’t really matter, right?

Felix glanced at his teammates heading toward the elevators. They should be calling his name soon. He was ready to shower and have a lazy evening watching movies and mentally preparing for the game tomorrow.

His phone buzzed with a text and he absently checked it to find a message from Kris Henderson, his former D-partner in Vancouver. I fucking knew it!!!

Knew what?? Felix replied.

That you and Jonah were a thing.

I was with Whitney when we played together, dumbass. And yes, I was very much in love with her at the time.

No, I know that. Just seemed like you missed Brewer a lot. That’s really cool that you reconnected and started dating again. Must have been hard to break up after college. Congrats on the engagement, man.

That was … interesting. Kris probably knew him better than anyone on his team in Vancouver. Felix was going to need to think about that one for a while. A looong while.

Thanks, he shot back. How’ve you been?

They exchanged texts for a few minutes before the conversation petered out.

Felix was semi-engrossed in the dumb phone game again when he heard Grady call out his name and Jonah’s together.

“Hale. Brewer. Room 407.”

Felix’s head snapped up and he glanced at Jonah who looked as confused as Felix felt.

Felix shrugged and walked over to Grady with Jonah on his heels.

“Uhh, what’s going on?” Jonah said. “Is there a reason we’re doubling up?”

Grady blinked, still holding out the key card. “You’re engaged, right?”

“Right.” Jonah laughed softly. “I just, uh, didn’t expect you guys to switch room assignments so fast.”

Grady still looked confused. “If it’s a game routine thing, we can talk to the front desk and see if there’s another room available—we just assumed you’d want to share a room now that everyone knows …”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Felix said, taking one of the proffered key cards. “Right, Jo?”

“Yes.” Jonah cleared his throat and took the remaining card. “It’s fine. I was just surprised.”

Grady nodded. “Great. Now, move along so I can get the rest of these guys to their rooms.”

“Sorry.” Jonah flashed Grady a tense smile.

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