Page 28 of Perfect Storm
Aidan was sitting on a big navy blue sectional in the main living space, sprawled out next to another guy.
Glancing up, Aidan gave him a friendly smile. “There you are,” he said.
“Hey, bro,” Levi said. Kind of annoyed that now Aidan had made it weird athirdtime.
He hadn’t anticipated that Aidan would have anyone over. After all, Aidan had known that Levi was showing up around now. Did he think he could find a way for them to never be alone together? That was ridiculous and impossible.
“This is Dawson Hall, our kicker. He’s new to the team, too, but we played together at Michigan, with Landry.”
Dawson nodded at Levi, and now Levi realized he looked vaguely familiar.
“Dawson not like Asa or Beau Dawson, right?” Levi asked, referring to the Piranhas’ famous head coach and his son.
“Nope.” Dawson shook his head. “Just happened to be my name.”
“Dawson and I are just catching up,” Aidan said, like this somehow explained why they were sitting in Aidan’s living room.
“Ah,” Levi said. He wanted to pull Aidan aside and tell him tobe cool, dude, but he’d forgotten one important factor in all this: Aidan had never been cool a day in his life.
“Here, I’ll . . .uh . . .show you the guest room,” Aidan said, getting to his feet.
Now that Levi was looking, he recognized Dawson for more than just his stint at Michigan. The guy had put together a whole string of great seasons, but last season had been a disaster. He’d missed a bunch of field goals, and even a few extra points. The Ravens had released him, and after, a bunch of stuff about his ugly divorce had come out.
He’d clearly been distracted—which, for a kicker, who relied heavily on their mental focus, was a big problem.
“Thanks,” Levi said, picking up his bags.
The living areas in Aidan’s apartment were spacious, but the hallway leading to the bedrooms was not, and Levi’s shoulder brushed Aidan’s. Aidan didn’t exactly spring back but he didn’t look over either.
He didn’t need to tell Levi he was pretending nothing had ever happened in Michigan, because it was obvious that was the tactic he was going with.
“I’m right over here,” Aidan said, pointing to a closed door. Like he thought physically closing a door might be enough to send a ragingly obvious hint that Levi wasn’t supposed to show up in his bedroom. “And you’re over here. Attached bathroom. There’s a closet, I made sure it was empty, and there’s a dresser, and stuff. If you need more space—”
“I shouldn’t,” Levi said, setting his bags down and doing a quick survey of the room. It was nice, basic maybe, but big enough, the bed taking up almost the entirety of the space.
“Oh. Okay. Good. I want you to make yourself at home.” Aidan had stayed in the doorway. Like he wasn’t about to enter a room with Levi and a bed.
Again, Levi was possessed by a strong desire to tell Aidan to chill. But he already knew it wasn’t going to change anything, so why bother? It would only make things even more awkward than they already were.
Clearly, Aidan didn’t want to talk about it, so Levi wasn’t going to force him.Yet.
“It’s great of you to offer,” Levi said. “I could’ve found another place, probably.”
“Are you fucking joking? Of course you were staying here,” Aidan scoffed.
Please don’t tell me you did it because of Landry.
Funny enough, Levi might not have cared before, might have brushed it off as big bros being big bros, but he didn’t want Aidan to have invited himonlybecause Landry had butted in.
“You could’ve asked Dawson,” Levi said, because he was very stupid and apparently couldn’t leave this alone.
Aidan shot him an incredulous look. “I could’ve, sure. But you’re practically family.” He made a face then, like he realized how bad that sounded. “Butnot, of course.”
“Of course,” Levi said, nodding vehemently in agreement. He was still jerking off, thinking about that single kiss. He did not need Aidan to decide, somehow, that they werefamily, despite their brothers being madly in love.
“And,” Aidan added, dropping his voice and taking a step closer, like he’d finally forgotten that he wasn’t supposed to be going into the room with Levi and the bed, “Dawson’s feeling sorta . . .well, he’s prickly about help.”
Levi had only really followed the bare bones of Dawson’s situation, but it had sounded bad.
