Page 28 of Absolutely Pucked
Fuck my fucking life. I smiled anyway. It wasn’t like I was going to tell him no. “I will do anything for you because I love you, but also make it quick. I have pizzarolls, ranch, and a gay Thai rom-drama waiting for me at home.”
He snorted a laugh and gripped the handle of the cart while I took the end and guided him to the produce. I knew Tiago well enough that I knew his path. Root vegetables first, then leafy greens, then the butcher, the baker, and the fucking candlestick maker.
“You sound tense,” he said as I stopped by the bin of potatoes and he began to fill a bag.
Leaning on the cart, I let out a heavy sigh. Iwastense. There was a lot going on, and the one person who had given me any kind of relief in the last few months had disappeared like a ghost in the night.
I wasn’t entirely convinced he wasn’t a ghost.
Especially now that the spooky car had returned to my parking lot. I tried peeking in the windows again, but it was full of junk, which probably meant Alessia was right: it was some poor soul living in there.
But I wasn’t entirely giving up my theory that I was being haunted.
And maybe it was the guy from the bar. Our night had been hot as fuck, but his body had been cold, so…
“Hello?”
I blinked and realized I hadn’t answered Tiago. “Sorry, man. I’ve been in my head a lot these days.”
He nodded and dropped his potatoes into the bag before I led him to the lettuces. “I get it. I mean, I know losing Tucker is difficult. But he was the least obnoxious guy they’ve interviewed for the position. I was kind of holding out for Boden, but I know he’s not going to give up playing to coach us.”
“Not yet, anyway,” I said. I could see Boden eventuallystepping into the role of a coach, but not until he’d basically had enough trophies to metaphorically shove down his dad’s throat to shut him up for good. “But yeah. I mean, I’m happy for him. It just sucks to watch my friends all leave, you know?”
Tiago smiled as he added a couple of heads of butter lettuce to the cart, then tapped the handle for me to lead on. “Yeah. I’d be absolutely fucking fucked if Jonah left. The whole team would. No one plays like him.”
That wasn’t entirely true. Micah and Jonah both had very different styles, but they were also both goalie prodigies.
“Is Bodie feeling better now that he’s getting dicked down a bit?”
I froze so fast Tiago crashed into the cart and grunted. “Shit, sorry. Sorry! But what the fuck are you talking about? When has he gotten dicked down?”
Tiago paled and grimaced. “Oh, uh…I just… Never mind. I’m talking bullshit. Ignore me.”
He tried to push forward, but I held the cart still. “I don’t fucking think so. Explain.”
Tiago sighed. “There was a hot guy at the bar a while back. I was playing wingman that night because I was bored and dealing with Kelsy leaving.”
Right. His breakup.
“Boden was super into him, and when he and I talked a few days later, he seemed…different. And he’s been different since then. I figured he was getting some regular orgasms, you know?”
“Boden doesn’t shit in the same toilet twice,” I said flippantly. But something about what Tiago was saying rang true. Boden had been different for a while.
Tiago groaned. “That is not a saying, and please don’t try to make it one. But I don’t know. I mean, I know his rules, but?—”
“Well, he would have told me,” I said. And that might have been true in the past, but my gut was saying I was wrong on this. Shit had been so weird with him lately. “Do you know who the guy was?”
“You know his rule about names. I’m pretty sure he was Canadian. His accent was thicker than Bodie’s. But we were inside the bar, so I couldn’t see anything other than he had dark hair, and I’m pretty sure he was a white guy.”
“How did you know he was hot?”
Tiago’s eyes narrowed, and I realized my fuckup.
“Sorry, sorry. I know being hot is more than the way someone looks. I’m not trying to be an asshole.”
He deflated. “You’re not. I’m just sensitive right now. It’s been a rough few weeks with Kelsy leaving. Anyway, I’m probably wrong about this. I don’t think Boden would hide anything like that from you guys.”
I desperately wanted to believe that, but I couldn’t. Things had been upside-down for so long now, each day felt like waiting for the next crisis. And tonight, I was pretty sure, was no different.
