Page 49 of Totally Geeked

“He is pretty amazing.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. Seriously though, get him to a game. Or we could do dinner. Or bowling. You like bowling.”

“You like bowling. I liked the karaoke bar we hit afterward.”

“Fine, bowling and karaoke. Set it up and Niki and I will be there.”

“Sure,” I say, and he leaves to go back to Niki, and I try my best to not make it obvious that I’m tracking Arlo’s every move.

“Hey,” Ryan Tanner says, pulling my attention as he sidles up next to me.

“Hey,” I reply, leaning against the bar and nodding my head in time with the beat of the music. I let my gaze move around the room before it returns to Arlo.

“So, I hope it’s cool I’m here,” he says.

“Doesn’t bother me.”

“Good. I just don’t want things to be weird between us, you know with me asking you out and all.”

I let out a small laugh and glance his way. His cheeks have that rosy tint they had when he hit me up at the field. “Really, It’s cool.”

“Good, because if I had known you were seeing someone, I would never have even asked.”

Now my full attention is on him.

“Who told you I was seeing someone?”

He shrugs. “Some of the guys were talking and I overheard—”

“What did they say? What guys?”

He frowns. “I really don’t remember exactly, sorry. I think it was something about you stopped going out looking for hookups now you found a man.”

My heart is pounding. Did someone see Arlo and me together? We’ve been really careful, but what if someone has spotted us and what if they say something to Gordon before we get a chance to tell him, to explain?

Ryan smiles, but it's one of those thin-lipped ones people do when they are forcing it. “Look, I just wanted to let you know I get it, either way. I think you were right before. Dating a player would be too tricky if things go wrong.”

“Yeah,” I agree, and he orders a beer, then heads to the side of the room toward where Tim and Dave from the Funky Monkeys are chatting.

I move to the living room and sit down next to Duckie and a few of the AC players on the couch. They’re chatting about how epic today’s game was, but as much as I try and act like I’m involved in whatever it is they are saying, my attention keeps going back to Arlo like there’s a magnet pulling me back to him. Then Ryan sidles up next to Arlo all smiles and deep dimples, and my stomach churns.

“You okay there?” Duckie asks, nudging my side.

“Fine,” I lie, and he laughs.

“You don’t look fine. You look like you want to kill Tanner.” He leans in close and whispers, “You know you’ll have to tell G about you and his little bro at some point.”

What the fuck?

“Ahh, I don’t know what you mean,” I say, looking around to make sure no one else heard what he just said.

“Dude, you brought him home three times last week todrawalone in your room.”

“He’s an artist, he needed sketches for the new book, I—”

“Didn’t remember that our apartment isn’t exactly soundproof.”

My cheeks burn.

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