Page 158 of Rewind It Back

A spark of excitement blooms before I quickly put it out. I’ve been wanting to go to one of his games for weeks. But there hasn’t been a home game on a night I’m off work.

“I wish I could, but I have a shift.”

“Actually,” Carson cuts in, “I’m covering for you. Your boy begged me, so here I am.”

I whip my head in Rio’s direction. “You did?”

He rubs his palm over the back of his neck—his adorable but nervous tell.

Rio and Carson have gotten to know each other a bit from all the time Rio has spent here sitting at the bar. Carson even enjoys his little nickname, but I didn’t know they were on the level of calling in favors.

“He also bribed me with two tickets to the game on my boyfriend’s birthday,” Carson adds. “So here I am.”

“I did do that.” Rio’s smile turns cheeky. “What do you say, Hal? Think you could take the night off?”

I check back in with Carson, who gives me the go-ahead.

“Yeah.” My smile gets way too big, way too fast. “I’m in.”

“Let’s go!” Rio cheers, knocking his fist on the bar top. “I’ll meet you around back. Thanks, Ken! I appreciate you!”

Rio jogs out the front before either of us can say anything else.

I look at my coworker. “I can tell him to stop calling you that, you know.”

Carson lifts a brow. “Um no... have you seen him? Don’t tell my boyfriend, but yours can call me anything he wants.”

“Back off,” I tease, clocking out on the computer before I say a few quick goodbyes.

When I walk out the back door, Rio is waiting by the passenger door of his truck, holding it open.

“I should’ve asked, but are you sure you’re okay taking the night off work? I’m probably being selfish here, but I’ve been kind of desperate to get you to a game and it hasn’t worked out yet.”

“I’m sure.” I lean up and kiss him. “I’ve been wanting to go see you play live instead of watching you from that TV in the corner of the bar.”

I round the door to my seat to find a folded jersey waiting for me on it.

“What’s this?” I ask, already knowing.

“Well, I couldn’t exactly give you my extra jersey like I used to in high school since the equipment guys keep them, so I got you your own.”

Opening it, I hold it up to my body to check the size and that’s when I see his last name stitched on the back above his number thirty-eight. An overwhelming sense of pride takes over because how the heck did he go from the kid who couldn’t even stand on a pair of rollerblades to this?

“And,” Rio continues, “I wasn’t sure what you’d want to wear with it, so I kind of raided your closet and brought you a bunch of options.”

He opens the back door and right there on the bench seat is what looks like half my closet.

“I thought I’d know what you’d want to wear, but then I got in your closet and realized you have way cooler style than me, so I brought a bit of everything. Apologies for how annoying this is going to be for you to put back later, but I got nervous.”

The way this man knows me.

I snag the pair of wide-legged checkered denim that I love but then find one of his hoodies tossed in the back seat, so I grab that too. He even brought some of my favorite jewelry pieces, so I add that to my pile, making sure to select a mix of silver and gold.

“Thank you for doing that.”

His eyes bounce between mine, and I don’t think I’ll ever get over the way he looks at me. It’s the same way he would look at me when we were younger. “Anything for you, Hal.”

He waits until I’m in my seat to close the door. Rounding the truck, he gets behind the wheel while I take a quick inventory of my surroundings to find no one else in the lot.

---