Page 36 of Summer Catch

Kieran laughed. “Me too. But then you already knew that.”

“Guess I did.” The long day was finally beginning to catch up with him, and Jon was suddenly having trouble keeping his eyes open.

“You know what I did after that happened with Riley?”

“Cried? Wondered if you were gonna end up following me to Green Bay or LA or Seattle?”

“Went out and bought a Riley Flynn jersey.”

“Oh.” That wasn’t what he’d expected Kieran to say.

“Best way I could buy one of yours. ’Cause he’s your guy, now, you know?”

Jon did, now.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “And so are you.”

Epilogue

Ten months later

“I do love a wedding.”

Jon shot Kieran a heated look as they took in the crowd scattered across the country club field. “Oh yeah? You’ve only said that about a hundred times. And that’s just in the last few days. You tryin’ to tell me something?”

Kieran grinned. “I said it plenty of times when these two tied the knot the first time.”

It had been during the Condors’ bye week. They’d been sitting out on Kieran’s terrace, sharing some beer and enjoying the sunset, when the text had come in about Beck and Micah.

In fact that was what Kieran had said. “I love a wedding,” he’d proclaimed.

Jon had not felt so positively about it.

But then Kieran hadn’t spent the last few weeks trying to prevent his second-year safety, Beckett West, and the newly traded corner and Beck’s ex-best friend, Micah Rose, from killing each other.

“Guess murder wasn’t on their minds after all,” was what Kieran had said next.

And well. Jon couldn’t really disagree with that assessment, even though, before that text, he’d been very sure that was the case.

“You did,” Jon agreed. “There was a reason you were willing to indulge all of Carter’s bachelor party planning.”

“It was the big fat wad of cash he gave me,” Kieran said, but he was smiling. Besides, they both knew the money had had almost nothing to do with it.

“Next you’re gonna tell me that falling in love has made you a romantic.”

“Lie. I was always a romantic. Just didn’t have an outlet for it,” Kieran said. Reached out and took Jon’s hand. Squeezed it. Because now he could. Because they were doing this, now, officially, in public.

They’d agreed that Beck and Micah’s wedding reception would be their first appearance together.

The season was over, the Condors making the playoffs despite nobody believing they would, and Jon knew it was time.

To Kieran’s credit, he hadn’t been angry or upset or happy. When Jon had suggested they go to Micah and Beck’s wedding reception together, he hadn’t even looked surprised—or hurt or upset or anything else—he’d just asked when they were leaving.

Jon squeezed Kieran’s hand back. “You want a drink?”

“Sure, but I think the resident bartender should take care of our libations, tonight,” Kieran teased. “Make sure the staff here is doing their jobs right. You go mingle.”

Kieran must’ve caught a glimpse of his panic. “I’ll be back, no worries. You’re not gonna have to make small talk alone.”

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