Page 60 of The Triple Play

She lost it then, full-blown cackling into my ear. “You’re such a mess,” she gasped between laughs. “I love it. This is the best thing you’ve ever done.”

I chuckled alongside her, my cheeks heating a little. “It’s not even been twenty-four hours. If I survive the Raiders game tonight without someone spotting me, it’ll be a miracle.”

Zoe giggled. “You’re happy, though?”

I paused mid-breath, her words making me falter. “Yeah,” I said, my voice a little quieter, but I meant it. “Weirdly, yes. Completely.”

————

The boys crushed it.

I’d spent most of the third period on the edge of my seat high up in the stands, one hand clutching the hem of my hoodie and the other digging half-moons into my thigh, as I’d watched Xavi send a pass clean across the ice. Colton had slammed in the first goal with that stupid dimple popping out on the live screens above, and Cole, quiet and calculated, had closed out the game with a wrist shot so filthy it made a grown man behind me scream like a child.

But they’d won. The Fire scored four, LA Raiders scored two.

I’d beat them back to the hotel, slipping out with the crowd the second the final buzzer sounded, my body vibrating from the adrenaline. I’d taken the world's fastest shower, scrubbing myself like a crazy person, cursing myself for not leaving enough time to reapply at leastsomemakeup. I wrung my hair out, tossed my towel over the rack, and walked back out into the main living area of the massive hotel room naked as the day I was born.

I grabbed my baby Taylor that I always traveled with and dropped down onto the sofa, slotting the body of the guitar between my crossed legs, using it to barely cover up my important bits. I didn’t care that the massive floor-to-ceiling window behind me showed off my bare back to the entirety of LA — we were high enough up that it didn’t matter.

I played it a few times to myself, practicing it, counting down the minutes, the chill only barely starting to sink into my bare skin.

But then I heard it — the keycard in the lock, the sound of the door opening, the heavy footfalls of three exhausted men.

And then nothing.

I looked up, grinning at the three of them. “I wrote a new song. Want to hear it?”

They stared at me, fresh from their post-game showers in the locker room, like they’d walked into a dream they weren’t entirely sure was legal. Cole with his damp, salt-and-pepper hair pushed back, the short little strands curling out around his temples, a soft gray shirt covering his top half and a pair of deep blue jeans that hugged his thighs in a way that made my mouth water. Xavi looked carved out of tension, his brows raised as he stood there in his black hoodie halfway zipped over his bare chest and his navy joggers, his overgrown black hair hanging limply around his cheeks. And Colton, comfort over style when it didn’t matter, stood there in a pullover and sweatpants that left far too little to the imagination, his longer hair pulled back in a low bun for once instead of a ponytail.

Cole took a deep breath in through his nose. Xavi’s jaw clenched tight, his arms crossed over his chest like he needed to hold himself together with brute force. Colton just stood there, wide-eyed and breathless, his mouth opening.

“You’re gonna kill me, sweetheart,” he said finally, his voice hoarse. “Just straight up end me right here in this hotel room.”

My grin turned wicked as I lazily plucked a chord on the guitar. “That’s not a no…”

Cole scrubbed a hand over his face and dropped his bag on the floor. “She’s trying to killallof us.”

I shrugged. “I saw you guys win,” I said softly, fluttering my lashes as if I was completely innocent. “I thought you deserved a reward.”

Thatgot a reaction.

Xavi took a step forward, and then another, and another, pausing on the other end of the low, glass coffee table. “You think this is areward, baby?” he huffed, his gaze crawling over every inch of bare skin he could see, then staring at the guitar like he could somehow see through it to my breasts and core. “Don’t get me wrong, I want to hear your song. But this feels more like a tease than anything else you’ve done.”

My cheeks heated a little. “The reward is more than just a song if you play your cards right,” I taunted, my fingers dancing across the strings again.

He practically groaned.

Colton and Cole walked up together, and Colton dropped onto the couch with an exasperated sigh, his head falling back onto the cushion. But his eyes, tired but so intensely playful, never left me for a second. “Play it. We all want to hear it. But I swear to god, if that guitar moves, I can’t promise I won’t lunge for you.”

I beamed at him. “Touch me before I’m done and I’ll be playing a song at your funeral.”

Cole barked out a strangled laugh and perched on the arm of the couch, trying but absolutely failing to look anywhere but my thighs. “You know you didn’t need to be fully nude for us to listen to you play, right? We all gladly would have sat down the moment we walked through that door if you’d been in the baggiest pajamas you could find and told us you’d written a new song.”

I blinked at him, a little taken back for a second. His words hit a nerve that I didn’t even know existed. It wasn’t necessarily that I assumed theywouldn’thave done that, but Elliot had needed that extra bit of incentive to sit down and listen to me, and I couldn’t remember a single ex who had ever been that interested. Even my dad needed prompting. But Mom…

No. I didn’t want to think about Mom right now.

I pushed it back and away and righted my guitar, feeling the weight of three sets of eager eyes on me and letting it drive me forward. I cleared my throat. “I’ve been in a bit of a writing slump recently so I’m sorry if it’s a bit rusty.”

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