Page 93 of Brace and Chase

“That’s great. Wait, are you coming too?” he sounds excited.

“I don’t know . . .” I make him sweat because I’m still fucking pissed and he still hasn’t explained himself to me. I hope he told Beau where the hell he’s been, though. “We have a game tomorrow,” I hedge.

“Yeah, but it’s a late game and the concert has to end before midnight, surely. You can get a room here so you’ll be asleep earlier,” he cajoles, not knowing I’m pulling his leg. And hell yeah, I can get a room at the Winner. I wanna suck Nik off in that room. I don’t know why, but it’s been too damn long since he got hit by that damn puck over a week ago.

“Yeah, okay.” I cave, and he cheers obnoxiously, but I pipe in with what Nik said this morning. “Santa wants to go anyway.” It’s weird how unnatural it feels to call him by his nickname. I’ve never called him that, but he did ask Finn and Beau to call him that yesterday and I don’t feel like hearing anyone else call him Nik so, yeah. I’ll just go with it.

Finn, on the other hand, seems to be having some trouble.

“Uhhh, don’t you two hate each other?” From his point of view I guess it does seem weird as hell, and that’s my fault completely, I know that. But after giving it some thought this morning, I realized I do want to tell them, onlynot this weekend. Beau’s going through it, and I feel like it’s a good time to just let him be.

“It’s complicated,” I tell him finally, and sigh heavily.

“You know you can tell me, I won’t tell another soul.” God, I love him so much, even though more often than not he is a little pain in my ass, but I really do love him.

“Thanks, Fi. I know. Now . . .” I change my tone dramatically. “Gab told me she offered you guys the suite for Sunday’s game too.” She did so this morning, after not exchanging a single word with Nik—again. “But you said you wanted tickets?”

“Uh, yeah.” It takes him a second to get the words in his brain out of his mouth. “I need to ask Lou first??—”

“Who’s Lou?” I ask, very alert now.

“Just a guy.” He’s the one hedging now.

“Sure,” I snort. “Just a guy you want to impress. I know that tone.”

“Okay, yeah, maybe I want to impress him. Whatever. Shut up,” he hisses when I outright laugh at him. “Let me just check with him. I don’t know yet if he’s the crowd type or the silent type.”

“Fine,” I tell him, sarcasm dripping from the word. “I’ll just be here eagerly waiting for your instructions, master.”

“That’s the way it should be. It’s nature’s way,” he says with a hoity-toity tone just to be a little shit, and dammit I can hear the smile on his face.

“Ugh, you’re??—”

“I need to go now, but we’ll see you for dinner beforethe concert so we can actually work on cheering Beau up?” He speaks lightning fast.

“Yes, fine. Come by my place.” I shake my head at him.

“You got it, bye.”

What am I going to do with him?

“So everything’s okay?” Nik asks, and that’s when I notice he’s no longer on the phone.

“Yeah. I actually don’t know what he did, but he’s fine. And he has a date he wants to bring, apparently?”

“To the concert?” he asks, brows raised. I only nod. “Let me call Sterling back then.” He gets to work on it when I think to ask.

“Oh, and can you give me the name of whoever’s in charge of PR? I need to ask for another ticket for tonight.”

“PR is a shitshow since Gab came in and she hasn’t hired a new director, but sure,” he mumbles, attention firmly on his phone because he’s helping me put things together for my brothers.

Again, the monumental wave of affection for him rushes over me and takes me under.

“Thank you,” I whisper, staring at him like a fool.

A lovesick fool?

TWENTY-NINE

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