Page 128 of Unrivaled

Grady shot a warning look at Farouk, but he took one last sip of his beer and gestured toward the back of the patio, away from anyone who might overhear.

“Okay,” he said mildly when they’d gotten as far away from other people as you could get on a patio in LA. “Talk.”

And then Dawg squared his shoulders and lifted his head, his face set in determination, and shocked the hell out of him. “I owe you an apology. I shouldn’t have made my feelings your problem, and I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

Grady blinked. Honestly he hadn’t been sure Dawg could sayanythingto improve the situation, but though the apology was short, it hit on exactly why Grady had felt so upset. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Dawg repeated. The maturity that had settled into his expression a moment before evaporated. “So, like… are we good?”

Were they good? Grady didn’t know if he’d go that far. But they were going to be teammates for the foreseeable future, and he didn’t want any drama. “Try not to punch my boyfriend in the face again. At least not without provocation.”

Dawg smiled and held out his hand to shake on it. “Deal.”

“Deal.” Grady glanced back at the table. Mitch and Farouk both quickly turned away and pretended they hadn’t been watching. Idiots. Grady sighed inwardly. In for a penny. “Do you want to join us for lunch? Fair warning, I invited them here to get relationship advice.”

Dawg’s shoulders straightened again. Grady was starting to think of it as his Captain Posture. “I can handle it.”

They might as well test that somewhere he couldn’t punch Max in the face, so Grady gestured him toward the table.

Their server ambled by when she noticed Dawg had joined them, and they all ordered another round and some burgers.

Then Grady figured it was time to get down to business. “So. You may be wondering why I asked you here.”

Mitch and Farouk exchanged looks.

“It’s Max.”

“Told you,” Farouk said, holding out his hand. Mitch pulled out his wallet and slapped a twenty into his palm. “But bro, it’s too soon to be talking marriage.”

Not according to Max’s nephew.Grady shook his head. “It’s not about that. More like… it’s been a long time since I had a season as good as this one, and it got fucked up at the end, and that sucks. But I need to get over myself—”

“This is way above our pay grade.”

Maybe Grady should get anewnew set of friends. He glowered at them. “—anddo something nice for my boyfriend. He lost his lucky cuff links. And it turns out I actually might want him to, you know….”Win the Cup.

It was too embarrassing—and unlucky—to say out loud.

Mitch and Farouk stared at him in horror.

But Dawg, though he wrinkled his nose in distaste, nodded. “That makes sense. I mean, you’re not going to do it, so you might as well be happy for him.”

Now Mitch and Farouk turned their stares on him. Dawg turned red. “What? Look, last year we went all the way to the Cup Final and lost and then my sister had a baby while everyone else was out of town.”

Grady couldn’t figure out how this story was relevant. A glance at Mitch and Farouk showed that they were similarly at sea. “And?”

“And babies are fragile and they cry a lot, and I don’t know if you’ve ever had to take care of someone who just gave birth, but, like, I’ve seen some gross hockey injuries. This was not like that.” His tone made it clear which one was worse. “But it was also kind of nice. I couldn’t help my team win the Cup, but I could make dinner and run the dishwasher and change a diaper, you know? And meeting my niece for the first time was awesome. I couldn’t spoil that for my sister by sulking about the playoffs.”

Damn it. That was actually insightful.

Then Dawg ruined it by patting Grady on the shoulder and intoning, “I’m just saying. I’m proud of you for being so mature.”

Mitch and Farouk fell over each other laughing.

Grady groaned but accepted his lumps. “All right, let’s try to leave my reputation as a sore loser in the past.”

Fortunately, Mitch and Farouk were too invested in taking apart Dawg’s analogy to make fun of Grady.

“So, wait,” Farouk said, “is Max the baby in this scenario?”

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