Page 92 of Relief Pitcher

I quickly pressed my lips against his. “The idea was Danita approved.”

His mouth fell open. “No wonder she’s been dodging my calls all week. The woman is terrible at keeping secrets.”

“Jesus. She should’ve told me that!” I shook my head. “At least she managed it this time.”

He turned my hand over so our palms touched as he intertwined our fingers. “I was stressing all week and made a deal with myself to talk with you after the game. I was worried you wouldn’t know how important you are to me and that it would be easy for you to walk away.”

I bit my lip. “Good thing neither of us chickened out, huh?”

“You sure you want this? I’ve got enough baggage to fill a 747, and I haven’t had a new relationship in well over a decade. I know I’ll screw up sometimes.”

I stared at him. “You’re worriedyou’llscrew up? The guy who maintained a happy marriage far longer than most people do? You realize your marriage didn’t end because you failed at it, right? You’re not the one I’m worried about in this scenario. I’m the one whose relationship experience is the sum total of a college boyfriend who lasted less than a month before he decided some drunk guy at a party was a better prospect. I’m the risky proposition.”

“Tyler, you’re the only proposition I want. We’re both going to screw up, but we’ll figure it out together. Yeah?”

“Yeah.” He was right. If I ever had a chance of making it work with someone, Coop was it. He never made me feel ashamed of my sexual history, embarrassed about being a goof, or guilty for spending time with the guys and investing in our business. Coop liked me as I was.

I scrunched my face. “God, I feel so fucking high school for saying this, but will you be my boyfriend?”

“Only if I get to wear your letterman jacket.”

My mind raced with possibilities. “Now that’s some roleplay I can get into.”

During the rest of the drive, we chatted about what officially dating might look like for us—basically what we were already doing—and what we wanted from a relationship—basically what we were already getting but being more open about it.

Funny how the transition to an official relationship was so easy. Just like everything else with Coop, it was natural, and when it wasn’t, it was worth the work.

When he parked at the brewery, he turned to me. “Thank you for taking a risk and choosing me. I know it wasn’t easy.”

I let out a long breath. “It wasn’t, but then I remembered how many pairs of my panties and jocks you haven’t seen yet, and that made it easy.”

He shook his head, an adoring smile on his face as he leaned in for a kiss. I was getting addicted to all the extra kissing already. I wondered what other fun things I would get from a relationship besides access rights to his functional raincoats. A guy has priorities, you know?

CHAPTER40

TYLER

Team Tap That Group Text

Dom: What’s everyone doing tonight?

Austin: Going to a new restaurant with Caleb. One of his chef friends.

Ethan: Attending some boring ass event with Parker.

Ty: Fucking my boyfriend.

Dom: Good thing I have Seth now. He’ll watch a shitty action movie with me and eat too much junk food.

* * *

On a scaleof one to call the cops, how creepy was it to watch my boyfriend sleep? I probably didn’t want to know the answer because it was hard for him to consent to me being creepy while he was snoring and drooling next to me. The cute snores, not the chainsaw kind. I loved this man enough that I found his snores cute?

Whoa. Big thoughts for a Saturday morning.

I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling in Cooper’s bedroom. It’d been almost a week since we’d officially become a couple, stated our intentions, decided to go steady, or whatever Jane Austen-type shit it was.

It’d been a great week and, frankly, not that different from the weeks before. It was dawning on me that some part of me had worried everything would change if I were to tell him I wanted to be with him, but it hadn’t. We’d seen each other a couple of nights, texted like usual, sexted once or twice. It was easy. Bonus? I hadn’t fucked it up and hopefully never would.

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