Page 79 of The Drop

Cheers go up around us, and Cami is laughing and hugging Bear. I glance over and catch Grant’s eye, and he moves up next to me. Slipping his arm around my middle and tugging me back into his body while everyone else is busy and whispering in my ear. “Imagine my surprise when I found your apartment empty when I got home.”

“Weird,” I smirk, taking a sip of my drink but continuing to dance with him behind me.

“Someone promised me a celebration” He reaches his other hand round and takes my cup and drinks the rest of my drink; it was full, and I turn and pout at him.

“Oooooh.” I put on my best shocked face and gestured around us. “I thought you wanted to party and celebrate.”

He laughs at me but backs up a little with just a hand on my hip, and we dance along with Adam and Bear, who have Cami sandwiched between them and are pulling some silly dance moves to make her laugh. Thank God, I love her, but we were joined at the hip since yesterday, and I wanted to dance with Grant.

“I think something is going on with Cami and Gunnar,” he says into my ear, and I stiffen. “I’ll talk to you about it later.”

I nod back at him, hoping he won’t. Whatever it is, I don’t want to hide from Grant that I know something. I feel like I’m just lying to everyone at the moment, and it would be nice not to have to add another one to the list. “Where is he?” I ask, looking around at the rest of the team surrounding us, hoping he won’t just start telling me now because I noticed Gunnar is the only guy on the hockey team not here.

“Sasha called him as soon as we stepped into the apartment, so he stayed.” He shrugs and reaches toward a freshman, steals his beer, and opens it by wrapping his arms around the front of me. Before he can take a sip, I steal it and start drinking it, and I can feel him laughing behind me.

“That’s a shame. He should have celebrated with you guys.” I frown while handing him the beer back, and he squeezes my hip in thanks.

“The rest of the boys made it out, so that’s all that matters.” He shrugs as a hand claps him on the back and congratulates him, and I smile as he stops dancing and thanks the guy. Grant has such an easy-going demeanour; it's as if it’s no big deal that he just led his team to a win. Once he’s done, he turns back to me, offering me the beer that we are now sharing.

“What’s got you smiling?” he asks, smirking, and I tug his hand toward Cami and the boys.

“Oh, nothing.” I laugh. “Come on, Anders, show me how you celebrate.” I grab Cami’s hand and make a circle where we can dance.

Adam throws an arm over Grant’s shoulders. “Let’s hear it for the captain," he shouts; everyone in the basement goes nuts, and the boys on the team do a wolf’s howl.

“Speech,” Bear shouts, and Grant just shakes his head. “Too far?” he asks, and we all laugh.

“All I’ll say is enjoy it now, boys, because the hard work is coming.” Grant laughs as they all groan, and Cami and I openly boo him while Adam shouts, “Worst speech ever!”

He just laughs,shooting me a wink and his trademark smirk.

Chapter Thirty Seven

Brooke

When Bear suggested walking home instead of getting a sober ride when we left the party, we all laughed at him, but then he mentioned walking past the taco truck, and now, all five of us were stumbling down the road carrying our bags of tacos to the apartments.

Bear is carrying Grant on his back and doing lunges as they both laugh so hard they aren't making any progress, and Adam has his arm slung over Cami and my shoulders as we sing off-key together.

We must all look insane.

Once we reach the apartment, Bear fumbles with the key in the lock as Grant asks us if we are coming in to watch a movie and eat our tacos.

Cami shakes her head, and I hope she doesn't notice the pleading eyes Grant gives me.

"I'm not that sleepy yet," I say to her, moving towards the boy's apartment. "I won't be long."

"Don't worry." She yawns. "Once I've eaten this, I'll be out cold." She laughs, holding up her taco bag and heading to our door as Bear cracks the boy's lock, fist-pumping his way into the apartment. I laugh as the boys shake their heads.

I follow the boys in, and Grant slips his hand down my back as I head round to the sofa, all of us crashing down to eat our tacos as Adam turns Friends on.

It’s our go-to TV show once we found out that Bear had never watched a single episode, so it became our mission to educate him about watching it, but not watching it at the same time.

We get through an episode while the boys tell me about their away game and who they play next, when we hear a car door slam and shouting from outside.

Adam stands walking over to the window and pulls the curtain back to look outside.

"Shit," he says before snapping the curtains shut quickly and turning round, looking panicked.

---