Page 130 of Perfect Storm
In the huddle, prepping for the first play, Aidan put a casual hand on Levi’s shoulder, leaning in as he walked him through the coverage.
“You’re gonna need to pull to the left, more,” Aidan said, and Levi nodded.
Levi was focusing—he was a pro, by now, and knew how important all this preparation was for the upcoming game—but he couldn’t help the stray thoughts that kept sprinkling into his consciousness.I wonder if Aidan ever leans in like this and wants to kiss me, too? ’Cause I’m burning with it. Miss it. Sure not getting my dick wet sucks, but not kissing is worse.
Something crossed over Aidan’s face then, before he pulled back. A flash of desire, suddenly reined in. At least that was what Levi hoped.
But if that was true, why wasn’t Aidanlettinghimself?
They ran the first play, Levi blocking against the second string defense, pulling to the left, the way Aidan had thought he should.
“All these double tight end formations,” Mo complained when they huddled up again, after.
Lane shot Mo an amused look. “Feeling a little left out, bro?”
Mo shrugged. “Like a little action in between blocking.”
“It’s ’cause you’re shit at it,” Aidan said. He sounded fond, but Mo still grimaced.
“I’m better than I used to be.”
“Yeah, and you used to be utter shit at it,” Aidan only said.
Levi did not do a fist pump of delight. But hethoughtabout doing a fist pump of delight. Did that make him a bigger person? He didn’t know.
On the third play they worked on, Trevor curled the wrong direction, nearly colliding with Lane, and Lane exploded, yelling and gesturing at his stepbrother.
“Fucking get your playbook memorized,” Lane exclaimed. He didn’t shove Trevor, but his hands were up like they were itching to.
Mo slid between them before anyone else could get down field in enough time to do it.
“Yo,” Mo said, “everyone chill, okay? It was only a mistake.”
“Yeah, he should know this shit,” Lane huffed.
“Like you do any studying,” Trevor retorted, sounding really deeply pissed.
Levi had a feeling it was more because of Lane calling him out in front of the entire team than it was embarrassment over not running the pattern right.
“Hey, you two, calm it down,” Aidan called out and clapped his hands. Forever the eldest brother and peacemaker. “Let’s run it again.”
Trevor shot Lane one last dirty look, and they all lined up again.
This time Trevor curled the right direction, and Aidan hit him mid-stride.
They only ran about twenty more minutes of plays, Zane clearly pleased with what he was seeing. After he dismissed them, Levi dawdled by the entrance to the locker room, waiting for Aidan. Hoping to catch him by himself and suggest they grab some dinner, just the two of them.
He’d told himself this morning that he was going to stop trying to get Aidan to open up to him. If Aidan didn’t want to tell him what was going through his head, that was on Aidan.
But itwasn’tonly on Aidan. Maybe Aidan didn’t realize, but Levi was going through it too, as a result.
Maybe if he kept trying, Aidan would see he was trustworthy enough to confess to.
But when he did catch Aidan, Aidan spoke first. “Hey,” he said, “can you get a ride home with Griff tonight? I wanna go over some more film with Nate and the rest of the defense for the Condors game. Nobody knows Riley’s moves like I do.”
It wasn’t very surprising, and it wasn’t anything that Aidan wouldn’t have normally done. But Levi still wanted to make a face.
Instead, he reined in his disappointment and didn’t. Just smiled, easy, like it was no big deal, and said, “Sure thing, bro.”
