Page 102 of Unrivaled

Grady Armstrong had invited a rival team player to his house?Max’sGrady? Okay, so Max had also been to Grady’s house, but he hadn’t beeninvited.

He desperately wanted to be invited. No—he wanted to know he didn’t need an invitation.

The shortest way to get there from here was to see Grady now, in person, before he lost his nerve.

Preferably while the memory of Grady’s smiling, helplessly in love face was fresh in his mind.

“Yeah,” Max said. “Yeah, yes, I do.”

Baller grinned. “Cool. I’ll call our driver.”

HEY AREyou home?

Grady finished his wipe-down of the kitchen counters and tossed the paper towel in the trash. Over the past three hours, he’d obsessively cleaned every surface in the house. Not because they were dirty—he’d had the place professionally cleaned before he took possession—but because he needed something to do. Max hadn’t answered his text from last night.

Max suggested they reschedule their date. It had taken everything Grady had not to share his Google Calendar and tell Max to pick the earliest time that worked for him.

Instead he’d said,I’m free tomorrow and the next day. Flying out the day after, back on Sunday night. When works for you?

He hadn’t gotten a reply, hence the cleaning binge.

And now Baller wanted his attention for something. He wished the message had come from Max.

Grady sighed. The house was as clean as it could get. Maybe Baller could provide a new distraction.Yes. Why?

The reply came through two minutes later.Special delivery.

The doorbell rang.

Grady’s phone clattered to the ground. He left it where it landed and went to the door.

Max stood on his front step, hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched. Out of the corner of his eye, Grady barely registered an SUV in the driveway. The person in the passenger seat waved jauntily as it backed out.

Grady ignored it. His heart thudded in his chest. “Hi,” he said stupidly.

Max said, “I love you too.”

Grady’s brain shut off like his phone when he left it in the sun. He’d been desperate to hear Max say that for weeks and now he couldn’t speak in return. He didn’t even know what to do with his hands.

At least Max was smiling. Actually he looked kind of… giddy. Tired too, punchy maybe. He’d forgotten sunglasses, so he was squinting against the sun, his blue eyes sparkling.

He looked so fucking good Grady could hardly stand it.

“Are you gonna invite me in?” Max asked finally. The twitch of his mouth said he might be about to laugh.

Fuck it, he could laugh at Grady all he liked, especially if he was going to do it in Grady’s house.

Grady laughed too, and then he had Max in his arms, kissing him. It felt like a pass connecting right before a goal. Grady let the electricity of it buzz through him, spark over his skin. Max felt warm and right and alive under his hands, and he clung to Grady’s shoulders.

Of course that was when Grady’s words came back. “I love you.” He spoke the words between kisses, against Max’s mouth.

Max curled his fingers into the back of Grady’s shirt. Somehow they got the door closed.

Only now Grady’s stupid mouth didn’t want to stop talking. “I should’ve given you the benefit of the doubt. I overreacted and I hurt you and I’msorry—”

Max took pity on him and put a finger to Grady’s lips. His eyes were bright and his cheeks were flushed, and he was wearing just the hint of his old shit-eating smirk. “I forgive you. Now take me to bed.”

Grady’s body obeyed and started to walk Max into the bedroom even as he teased, “Are you sure, because I had a little more groveling planned—”

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