Page 57 of Slew Foot
Rafe squirmed a little because Mickey was kind of scary when he looked at him that way. Well, not scary like he was going to do something terrible to him. That wasn’t Mickey at all. But like …intimidating. Yeah, that was the word for it.
Like he could read Rafe’s mind. And Rafe knew he couldn’t. But sometimes he kinda wondered …
“Uhh,” he said aloud because he had a feeling if he told the truth, Mickey would yell at him. In, like, a nice way.
“That’s what I thought.” Mickey turned. “You can have it back after lunch.”
“Hey!” Rafe protested, laughing as he got to his feet. “Not fair!”
He followed Mickey toward the lunch spread set out for the team.
“Are we eating here or at the apartment?” Rafe asked, falling into step behind him.
Mickey turned back. “I don’t know. What do you want to do?”
Rafe shrugged. Honestly, he didn’t care either way. He was hungry now, but he could always start eating in Mickey’s car, even if he got a lot of side-eye from him about it. He liked chilling at the apartment and watching TV though. They were halfway through season two of the show they’d started on the road trip.
But if he said he wanted to eat here, he’d get his phone back sooner.Hmm.
“Rafe?” Mickey said quietly and Rafe blinked at him.
“I’m fine with either.”
Mickey lowered his voice and stepped forward. “Tell. Me. What. You. Want.”
“I want to eat at the apartment,” he blurted out. “I—I like eating there.”
Especially because today, Tanner was doing something and wouldn’t be back until late. And Rafe liked Tanner, he totally did, but sometimes it was nice when it was just him and Mickey. It was a lot quieter, for one.
“Then we’ll eat at the apartment,” Mickey said firmly.
“Can I have my phone back in the car?” Rafe begged.
“No.”
“C’mon, give it back,” Rafe protested but he was laughing again. He grabbed for Mickey’s shorts, trying to go for his phone, but instead he got a handful of Mickey’s ass.
They both froze for a second.
“Shit, sorry!” Rafe said, pulling back becausewhoops, that wasn’t what he’d been going for. It’s not like he’d minded. Getting a handful of a nice muscular ass was never bad but Mickey was still staring at him wide-eyed, and Rafe hadn’t meant to make things awkward.
“Boys,” Luke Crawford said, draping his arm around Rafe and Mickey’s shoulders. “Stop flirting or get out of the food line. I’m fuckin’ starving.”
“We’re notflirting,” Rafe blurted out.
Mickey sputtered out the same thing, looking weirdly pissed. He ducked out from under Crawford’s arm and grabbed a to-go container. He dumped in a pasta ladle full of whole wheat spaghetti, some of it spilling out from the edge because he was moving very fast.
Shit. He must be mad. Mickey was usually very neat and very careful.
“Hey. Sorry I pissed off your boyfriend,” Crawford said with a frown. “Didn’t mean to.”
He ambled over to get in line behind Mickey. Rafe sighed and followed him, not bothering to argue Mickey wasn’t his boyfriend.
He’d be a great boyfriend, but he wasn’t Rafe’s.
“So, uh, I didn’t mean to—um, grab you earlier.” Rafe said later when they were in Mickey’s car and Rafe had a tight hold on their to-go containers.
Mickey turned and blinked at him. Thankfully, they were still in the parking garage, waiting to turn out onto the street so he didn’t crash or anything. Though his foot did slip a little on the brake and the car lurched forward.
