Page 43 of Trade Deadline

“Thank you. Sadly, I lost both my grandparents two years ago, too. They passed away pretty close together, so it’s just me and my brother Jacob now. The one you met.”

I haven’t talked about it in a while. We don’t have any other family here, and our close friends know. My chest tightens as the emotions I’d buried deep float to the surface.

Blaine comes closer and takes my hand in his. The soft, soothing glide of his thumb across the back of my hand is comforting. “I’m so sorry, Alex. I can’t even begin to imagine losing your family like that.”

“It was really hard. It was four months before graduation, too. I’m still shocked that I managed to graduate, but Jacob needed me, so we kinda got through it together.”

“You guys own the bakery together, right?”

I nod, impressed that he remembers. “Yeah, that’s right. We opened the shop a couple of years ago.” I smile at the thought of my brother. “He’s three years older than me, but he’s like my best friend.”

“Elliot is my best friend, too.”

“Is it true that twins have some kind of telepathic sense?”

He guffaws. “Yeah, we seem to feel what the other is feeling sometimes, like he was saying the other night. It happens even if we’re not together. We have this thing as well where it’s like we know what the other is thinking. It creeps the fuck out of Coach.”

An image of Blaine and Elliot telepathically conspiring against Coach Harris enters my mind, making me snort. “I can imagine that would freak a lot of people out.”

“He’s just been the one person in my life who gets me, as weird as it sounds.”

I shake my head. “It’s not weird at all. He's important to you. Jacob is the same to me; he just gets me. Nate, too. We met in college.”

“Would it be bad if I admitted I was a little jealous of him the other day?” he says coyly. His fingers trace idle patterns on my forearm, almost like a nervous tic.

The thought of Blaine being jealous makes me giddy.

“Why?”

“Because I thought you were a couple, and I’d missed my shot with you.”

I melt at how vulnerable Blaine looks. His playboy bravado has been replaced with boyish charm, and the sincerity in his stunning gray eyes makes me want to lean over the table and kiss him again.

But I don’t.

Instead, a bubble of laughter escapes. “I can assure you there is nothing to be jealous of. Nothing has ever happened between Nate and me.”

Blaine’s eyebrows go up in surprise. “Really? Nothing at all?”

“Okay, maybe once, but I don’t think making out in sophomore year really counts. We were pretty drunk, and soon realized it was like kissing your brother, so we didn’t do it again.”

He chuckles, shaking his head.

The waiter and two other staff members make their way to our table, carrying trays filled with tacos—chicken, fish, BBQ pulled pork, two variations of beef, veggie, lamb, and spicy bean.

I have no idea how we're going to eat everything because the table is so full that they’ve had to pull up an extra one to accommodate the number of plates.

The final dish is put down, and there’s tacos as far as the eye can see.

“Holy shit…” I whisper.

Blaine grins from ear to ear as he tucks his napkin into his shirt like a bib, then rubs his hands together eagerly. “It’s taco time, baby!”

I take a bite out of the spicy bean taco, humming as delicious flavors take over my tastebuds, while Blaine eats his in two mouthfuls, licking his fingertips clean before going in for his second.

“When did you start playing hockey?” I ask between bites.

“I think I was about four years old. My dad grew up in Minnesota, and we used to watch the games with him. One of my earliest memories is of him telling us we weren't allowed to play football.”

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