Page 13 of Summer Catch

“What if he doesn’t?” The question came out of him before he could snatch it back.

“Aw, honey,” Nadia said, her expression growing sympathetic. “It’s gonna be okay.”

“It’s gonna be more than okay,” Brock said. “He seems like a cool guy.”

Don’t say who he is, don’t say who he is. Especially in front of Nadia, who will never let it go.

But Brock seemed to understand that he needed to be circumspect, because he didn’t say anything else.

“Now that we’ve had a nice long chat about my love life, who’s gonna clean the bathrooms?” Kieran asked.

Nadia groaned and turned to Brock, doing their regular rock-paper-scissors game to determine who had to do the shitty job.

Kieran pulled his phone out again. Maybe you could stop by again, and laugh-cry in my general vicinity, he suggested. He hadn’t invited Jon to come in since he had two weeks ago, but maybe Nadia was right. Maybe he needed to show a little bit of extra interest.

Convince Jon to meet him halfway.

God, I wish I could. I’ve been dreaming about your Moscow mules.

Kieran had to wonder if that was all he’d been dreaming about. Because a certain coach with kind brown eyes and the kind of lean, tan body he’d love to explore more had been occupying a very central starring position in his dreams lately.

Well, the offer’s always open.

Maybe next week, Jon texted back. I’ll get a reprieve from all these rookies, and it’ll be a week before the veterans arrive.

Kieran told himself that Jon wasn’t putting him off, he really was busy. But he couldn’t stop from adding another little push. We don’t always have to hang out here, at the bar, he said, I can meet you any other time.

Early in the morning, for breakfast?

Kieran knew he was teasing, because his hours meant that he never made breakfast—only brunch, at best.

For you, yeah I’d do it.

Kieran didn’t expect Jon to respond to that now or maybe ever, because this was the most obvious he’d been about his feelings.

But to his surprise, Jon texted back almost immediately, before he could even put his phone into his back pocket.

Let me figure some schedule stuff out, and I’ll let you know.

It wasn’t a yes, or necessarily a, I understand, cause me too. But Kieran told himself it was something. He didn’t want to think of it as a concession, because they weren’t negotiating. But it was a branch, extending out, connecting them together even tighter than before.

Chapter 6

Jon was not stupid, and he was trying very hard not to be stupid about this, too.

He couldn’t say he had a lot of experience with dating. He’d done it, of course, but nothing had ever lasted a long time. It was hard, when his feelings had never been particularly engaged, not in a serious way, and when he kept moving from place to place, climbing up the coaching ladder.

There was a part inside him who wanted to claim this thing with Kieran wasn’t a dating thing, at all, but he knew it was a lie the moment the thought crossed his mind.

What he really should do was talk to someone about all these new feelings he was experiencing. Help him parse them out. But the issue with that was he didn’t know anyone he could ask, at least not well enough to risk revealing so much personal info.

It wasn’t like he was an unknown anymore; he was the head coach for the Charleston Condors. He drew quite a bit of media coverage, mostly because nobody knew what to expect from him or his team during the upcoming season. And also, Kieran liked to tease, because he was too young and too good-looking to be the head coach of a professional football team.

If he’d wanted to believe it wasn’t like that between that—Kieran flirting with him and Jon liking it—was enough for him to at least acknowledge that things were changing.

But how to take a step forward?

Jon was out of experience and way out of his comfort zone.

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