Page 93 of Unrivaled

“Could have been great,” Grady finished.

“You’re an asshole,” Max said. “Who just stops talking to someone they—?”

“Someone they love?” Grady’s voice cracked.

Fuck.Fuck.“Nowyou say that to me?” Max’s hands shook and his eyes burned. “Now?”

“I should have told you in Miami, but I’ve never—it’s been fifteen years since I said that to someone who wasn’t my sister.”

Max’s grip on his anger was slipping. With anyone else, he might have questioned the truth of that statement, considering the timing. But he knew to his bones that Grady had never said those words to a lover. It shouldn’t have been enough to sway him, but he didn’t want to stay mad. He wanted Grady to apologize so they could be together for real.

And it looked like he might get his wish. “I was stupid. Hedgie said—you know what he said, I guess. And I panicked. I assumed the worst. Then they stuck me in a trainer’s room to make sure I didn’t have a concussion and let me stew for an hour, and I kept going around in circles. By the time they told me they were trading me, I’d convinced myself….”

Max bit his lip until he tasted copper.

“And then I was going to California, and I thought, well, it’s not like we could even….”

Max exhaled shakily.

“But I was wrong about you telling Hedgie, and I think I was wrong about that too.”

Maybe he was. Max curled onto his side on the bed.

Was he still mad? Yes. Could he get over it?

Yes. He could get over it and let Grady back into his life and have that great thing that they would have had if Grady hadn’t fucked everything up.

And he could set himself up to get hurt all over again.

All of a sudden Max wasn’t angry. He didn’t have any more anger in him. He’d never been good at holding grudges, and right now he needed something to feel positive about.

As long as Grady was willing to put in the work, Max was too. And there was one good test to find out. “Say it for real.”

“Max.” Max swallowed hard and held his breath while Grady paused. “I’m in love with you.”

There—thatwas the feeling Max had been waiting for. He went warm all over and his mouth smiled without his input.

Long distance be damned. This might really work. Actually, right now the distance felt like a welcome buffer. It would give Max some time to work through his residual hurt. By the time he saw Grady face-to-face again, he’d be ready.

“Okay,” he said.

“Okay?” Grady didn’t quite squawk, but it was close. “I tell you I’m in love with you and that’s what I get back?”

“Oh yeah.” Max rolled onto his back. He might’ve forgiven Grady, but he wasn’t ready to pick up where they’d left off in Miami. Grady would have to prove he deserved to be there. “Just because we’re dating now doesn’t mean I’m going to go easy on you.”

Grady laughed. It was the second-best thing Max had ever heard. “No, of course not.” Then, “Dating, huh?”

“Yup.” Max popped thepand stretched out to get comfortable. This phone call could go on for a while. “Don’t worry, though. I know how much you hate going on dates. But look on the bright side—you have until we play each other in April to plan one.”

MAX COULDhave restrained himself, but restraint had never been his strong suit. He could only go so long without pushing Grady’s buttons. So the next time he was out with the team after a win—and one too many shots—he found himself replying to one of Grady’s bland but somehow endearing texts withhow good r ur dick pics?

Then Hedgie distracted him, and he forgot to look at his phone again until he was back at yet another hotel room, brushing his teeth.

He had three new messages from Grady.

When the first picture loaded, Max snickered. That was Dick van Dyke. A white whale followed—Moby Dick, presumably. Then a comic-book character in red and green with a yellow mask. Robin?Funny, Max said.whos the last one?

Dick Grayson.

---