Page 101 of Caught Stealing

“You’re being summoned,” I murmur with a grin.

“Oh, am I? I hadn’t noticed.” He leans in, his mouth trailing over my jaw. “I’m a bit preoccupied—”

“Holden, getin here!”

“I swear to God,” he curses with a laugh, his forehead colliding with my shoulder.

It takes every ounce of my willpower to not wrap him in my arms and just inhale him. “Just go. He’s not gonna stop until you’re in there.”

As if on cue, Noah shouts again.

“HOLD—”

“I’m coming!” Holden turns and shouts at his teammate.

The words leave my lips on impulse, before I can even attempt to rein them in. “Oh, are you now? Doesn’t look that way to me.”

“Someone’s mind is in the gutter tonight.” He looks back to me, a dirty grin plastered on those sinful lips. “Is it all the sexy football players you’re watching on television? It’s okay if you say yes. I know they’re pretty irresistible.”

More like the one currently pinning me against the wall.

My mouth curls up in a smirk. “It’s more like what happens when I’m forced to hang around all you Neanderthals. Makes my brain revert back to the baser instincts.”

He shakes his head with a soft laugh before pressing his lips to mine in the briefest kiss. Like it’s natural—a habit, even, before he steps away and heads back down the hall.

I wait a few seconds before following, and the second I step out of the hall, the entire living room erupts in cheers. Shouts and hollers and even a few ass smacks are exchanged between the group, and I realize it’s because the game is over.

“I take it New England won?” I ask Wyatt, who is standing in the kitchen watching this group of idiots act like…idiots.

“Yep,” he says with little to no enthusiasm. “Apparently Nashville thought the QB for New England was gonna go for a Hail Mary, but he threw a short pass to one of his receivers. The same one from earlier—Grady. He caught it and ran it in for the winning touchdown.” He blows out a long breath and shakes his head. “Football is fucking weird.”

“Footballplayersare weird,” I correct him, watching them all celebrate a team that isn’t even theirs. Nevertheless, I can’t help smiling when I see the big grin on Holden’s face.

Unfortunately, my best friend chooses the same moment to step into my view, blocking Holden from sight.

“Hey, I didn’t realize you’d be here,” Kason says with an awkward chuckle. “Not exactly your scene, but I would’ve caught a ride with you had I known.”

Well, damn. The guilt sure didn’t take long to join the party with his arrival.

My teeth roll over my bottom lip and I glance over to Wyatt, hoping to possibly find a way out of this conversation. But he’s already slipped out of the kitchen to rejoin the rest of the group.

Shit.

“I didn’t even think about it, honestly. Theo invited me over, and I figured…why not, ya know?”

Kason nods, but it’s stiff and a bit jilted. I don’t miss the way his attention keeps diverting over his shoulder to the living room as we stand here in awkward silence, either.

“This is gonna sound weird,” he starts, still looking, “but is something going on with you and Holden?”

Panic hits me in an instant. “What? No, why would you even think that?”

“I saw you two talking a little while after I got here, which was strange enough considering the way you were at each other’s throats the entire time in Florida. And with you saying you were on a date a couple of weeks ago…” He trails off, leaving me to fill in the blanks.

And I realize, this is it.

The moment of literal truth.

The one when I should finally come clean about the whole thing with Holden and let the chips fall where they may. And I want to—God, I fucking want to, because I’m sick and tired of drowning in guilt and hiding my feelings for Holden.

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