Page 34 of Icing the Play

“How much of our conversation did you hear?” As the edge of my lips tugged up, my pulse quickened. What had we said and was any of it embarrassing?

“Enough. Ace was beside himself and almost lost it, so I hadto send him back to our bedroom.” He giggled softly. “He wants me to report back after I talk to you.”

Rolling my eyes, I said, “Oh my God, I’m not surprised, but yeah, Ace isn’t one to be stealthy, eh.” I glanced at the hallway. “But you two shouldn’t be eavesdropping on your roommates.” I attempted a glare and failed. I couldn’t be mad at them. They only wanted the best for me.

“Listen, I think it will be important for you both to take it slow since you’re living together. You don’t want things going too fast and fizzling out.” He freed my hands. “You’ll both need some space.”

I nodded. “Agreed. We sort of talked about that already.” I glanced at the hallway. Hopefully, Cooper wasn’t listening.

“Good. If you need Ace and I to be around more, we can be. Then you and Cooper won’t be on top of each other all the time.” He wagged a brow. “Speaking of topping…”

“Stop, Zoma. We haven’t gotten that far.” I snorted a chuckle and threw another glance at the hallway, my heart skipping. “Listen, thank you and how about we talk some more when Coop’s not home?”

“You got it.” He climbed off the couch, stood and grabbed my arm. “I’m so happy for you, Myles. Me and Ace both.”

I gave him my warmest smile. “Thanks.” I pointed at my book. “Now let me read.”

“Sure. Goodnight.” He strutted off.

CHAPTER EIGHT

COOPER

After a grueling practice that went longer than expected, I followed JJ through the tunnel and into the locker room with my helmet under my shoulder. “Hey, man.” I patted his shoulder pad.

“Yeah?” He stopped and turned around, his helmet swinging from his hand. His brows lifted. “You want to talk about Myles?”

“Uh…” How did he know? I tensed the edge of my mouth. “Yeah, I do.”

“I was wondering when this was coming.” He sighed and raked his fingers through his wet hair.

Guys passed by, some glancing at us.

“It’s probably not what you think.” I peeked at Casey as he walked by and patted my ass, saying, “Good hustle out there, Hayes.”

I up-nodded at Casey. “Thanks.” Shifting my focus to JJ, I said, “Have lunch with me. Five Guys? We earned it after all those runs Coach made us do.” I knew he’d be down for that.

“Sure. Let’s shower and get the hell out of here. I have a class in two hours.”

I ordereda cheeseburger and fries along with JJ, filled my drink cup with ice and tea and then found an open chair by the windows of the diner-style restaurant. As my gaze slipped out the window at the students strolling by in the heat of the midday sunshine, my gut twisted in knots. JJ better be okay with my explanation.

JJ fell into the chair opposite mine, slid his backpack off his shoulder, and placed his bag of food on the table. “So, are we shooting the shit first, or do you want to get right to it?” He threw me a glance and hooked his backpack onto the back of his chair.

I chewed my upper lip, gauging his mood. He seemed pretty calm right now. “I’ll just come out with it.” Inhaling deeply, I fisted the end of my food bag. “I wanted to know if it was okay if I started dating Myles.” I tensed my jaw.

Dropping his mouth open, he stared at me, and his gaze grew hard. “We just broke up, like yesterday.” With a thin-lipped smirk, he said, “You don’t waste any time, do you?” He shook his head once. “Fuck.”

They broke up? Were they so serious, he considered what happened yesterday as a breakup? “I, uh, I didn’t know it was so serious between you two.” I glared at my bag. I’d pretend this didn’t bother me and eat. Opening my bag, I pulled out my burger.

“What did Myles tell you?” He fished his fries out and set them on his bag, next to his opened burger, then stopped and gave me a look. “You two live together now. I’m sure you’ve talked about it already.”

“We uh, we did.” Shit, how much should I tell him? My gaze darted across the table. I shouldn’t tell him about the kiss. Or about Myles having a crush on me already. I forced myself to look at him. “He told me you guys decided you were better off as friends.”

“Okay.” With a slow nod, he wiped fries through his ketchup and ate them. “Yeah, it was pretty obvious he wasn’t into meafter we started dating, so I gave him an out and told him I wasn’t feeling it either.” He jabbed his finger at the table. “But don’t you tell him that.”

My heart stung. This sucked. JJhadliked Myles. How much would it hurt him to see us together? “Okay. So…Um…” I had nowhere to go with this. But now that I’d had a taste of Myles, I needed more.

“So, what? I’m pretty sure he has a thing for you. The guy was always talking about you when we were together and on top of it, he can’t keep his eyes off you when you’re around.” He ate a bite of his burger.

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