Page 20 of Home Game

“I want to deny that, but I don’t think I can,” I told him. I glanced back over toward the dance floor, where the rest of the guys were laughing, teaching each other some sort of silly square dance jig. “Listen, Jax. Can you do me a favor?”

“Anything,” he said. “What’s up?”

“I’m going to head out. Landry’s going to take me home, but can you tell the guys I said thank you? I wouldn’t usually leave without saying goodbye, but I’m a bit… well, I’m a bit drunk.”

“Abit?” Landry teased from beside me.

Jax gave me a sympathetic laugh. “I can do that. Although Charlie just told me they’re going to go to an afterparty—I’m sure you’re invited, if you want to talk to them?”

I pulled in a breath, wavering a little as I stood up from my bar stool. “No. No afterparty. Water, and bed, and maybe a lot of soul-searching about what gets under my skin about a cocky football player who doesn’t evenlike fall.”

Rein it in.

Not the kind of things to say out loud, Emmett.

“Is everything okay?” Jax asked. “I know you guys are working with Storm, but he seems like a nice guy—”

“No. Of course. I like Storm,” I lied. “Such a great guy. Really going to stand out on social media.”

The image of his cock flashed through my mind without warning, and my whole body ached.

I looked over to see that Landry had packed up his paperwork and was waiting for me. I dropped a couple of crisp hundred-dollar bills on the bar top and gave Jax a nod.

“Have a good night, guys. Remember to drink some water, Emmett,” Jax said, giving me a look as I headed for the doors.

“Yes, yes,” I said, waving a hand as I walked. “I will.”

“Holy shit, thank you for that tip!”

“You’re nice, Jax,” I called back. “Charlie’s a lucky guy. You’re all lucky guys.”

I slid into the front leather seat of Landry’s car a minute later, breathing deep.

“Cutmore is out of his mind with this Amstead stuff,” Landry said as he started heading up toward my house. “Did you see the financials he sent over?”

“It looked messy,” I said, vaguely remembering some emails Cutmore had sent us earlier that day.

I was usually on top of everything, just like Landry. Storm wasn’t just a marketing liability for me, he was amentalliability. I needed to free up the brainspace that he kept taking up.

No more letting Storm get to me.

This was my one night to wallow in it, wishing he wasn’t the media’s biggest bad boy. And my one night to wallow in the endless parade of happy couples surrounding me, reminding me of just how single I really was.

Tomorrow, I was going to go back into tiger mode.

Relentless. All about the business.

No messy feelings.

“Thank you, Lucky,” I said to Landry as I got out onto my front driveway. “You’re the best. Seriously.”

“Go easy on yourself,” he said from his open driver’s side window. “And really, drink some water. See you soon.”

The first thing I noticed as I walked to my front door was the chilly air: the continued march toward fall, toward the season that should have made me feel like my best self.

The second thing I noticed was the music.

Loud music.

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