Page 31 of Bad Ruck

One.

The horn sounded, signalling the end of the game.

Another win for the Dusk Bay Smashers. We were dominating this season, but we hadn't played the Sydney Devils yet, and they hadn't lost a game. When we met, that would change. My loyalty was here now. I'd help my team claim victory and let the Devils taste defeat.

I trotted over to the guys and threw myself into a group hug with anyone who was close enough. I found myself with Jay on one side of me and Frost on the other. Storm was on the other side of him and Ramsey and Dallas on the other side of Jay. Maybe the hug wasn't so random after all. We were drawn to each other like a packet of magnets. Of course, Storm was the negative and I was the positive.

"Good job," I said to all of them. "We fucking destroyed them." Winning never got old. It was the biggest rush there was, second only to a good fuck. Priorities.

"Fuck yeah we did," Frost agreed. "If they're not careful, we'll win the whole damn thing."

"No reason we can't," Storm said. Blood caked the side of his face, mingling with dirt. He'd taken a few hard hits. The rest of us had too. We left nothing on the table. Not one of us held back a thing. We'd played better together than we ever had before. If we kept going like this, we'd be unbeatable.

Whenwe kept going like this, I corrected myself.

"I need a shower," Jay said. He was the first to back out of the hug, gave the crowd a brief wave and trotted to the locker room. His back was stiff, a sure sign he'd had enough of the noise and crowds and needed to step away.

"Me too." I followed close behind. Not too close to crowd him, but close enough to be supportive and to keep anyone else from getting too close. Making myself a barricade between him and the rest of the world. Until he was ready to deal with it again.

He barely stepped into the locker room before he was tearing off his shoes and socks. He carried them the rest of the way to his locker before dropping them and starting to strip off. He was always in a hurry to get everything off his feet, but when he was overwhelmed, he did it more quickly. Like he couldn't bear to have anything touching his skin.

"They don't say Team Awesomest, do they?" Storm was asking Frost.

I looked over to see Frost pulling off his own socks and grinning at the fullback.

"Not yet," Frost said. "I'm still working on it." He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows playfully.

Storm shook his head and started to strip his own clothes off.

I didn't think Frost was working on it at all, but he couldn't resist stirring Storm up every chance he got. Could I blame him? Hell no, it was too easy to get under Storm's skin. I didn't hate the guy the way I used to, but I'd never stop stirring him up either. It was too much fun.

"You're getting along," Jay remarked. "With them."

I looked over to see him nod toward Storm and Frost.

"I never had a problem with Frosty," I said. Was that what had him on edge right now? Frost and whatever it was between him and I?

"I wasn't talking about Frosty," Jay said. "But you know that."

I grinned. "Sorry, couldn't help myself. Yeah, Storm might be okay. Sort of. Does that bother you?" My smile faded and I looked right at him, trying to figure out what was going through his brain. He was easier to read than some, but not at times like this. Not when he clearly had something on his mind and was still trying to work through it himself.

"That you two don't want to kill each other anymore?" Jay cocked his head at me. "I don't know, but it seems like a good thing to me. We're all on the same side here."

I was used to him not meeting my eyes, but he was more evasive than usual.

"Are you sure this isn't about Frost?" I asked, keeping my voice down low. Not that anyone would hear over the noise in the locker room.

We'd talked about the other guy before and I assured Jay I wasn't going to leave him for Frost. Jay and I were tight, that wasn't going to change as far as I was concerned.

"When you were down finding Dallas, Frost and I fucked Chelsea," he said.

I nodded slowly. "Okay. I'm all right with that." Was I? We weren't exclusive and never had been. Ever since we knew eachother, there'd been other lovers. It was no big deal. It didn't change what we were to each other.

"I like her," he said slowly. "And I like him. And you like him."

"And I like her," I added. "Are you saying you want to be with him too?"

Jay's face was already pink from exertion, but it became darker now. "I don't want to mess things up between us. I know how I felt when Frost kissed you. I wanted to—" He held up his hands to mime strangling someone.

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