Page 86 of The Long Game

Jack popped up onto one elbow. “Really?”

Grady eyed Jack. “Wait. Do you know someone there? For real?”

Jack grinned and promised to set up a tour, his eyes dancing. Grady wanted to ask more, but Jack kissed him and that was also a solid plan.

For the secondday in a row, Jack took the boys with him on his errands, then they went to the arena. The boys used the gym while Jack did some work and packed up even more to do at home. The only urgent issues were regarding the clinic the next day and none were serious or difficult to resolve. It was hard to believe it had only been a week since they’d found Colton. Colton already felt…important to Jack.

Jack was an only child, but he suspected this fierce protectiveness, this need to see Colton safe and happy and well, was what it would be like to have a little brother.

After some hunting, he found Colton and Sam in the locker room chatting with Mike Erdo and Alexei Belov. Sam clearly didn’t know whatto make of Alexei’s crazy story and wild gesticulating while wearing nothing but a towel. As always, Mike stood at Alexei’s side, similarly clad in a scrap of terry cloth, smiling at his boyfriend more than the story. Colton appeared to be entranced by the storyandthe view.

Jack chuckled at Sam’s bemused expression, wondering how long until he felt as fiercely about him as he did Colton.

Who was he kidding? He probably wouldn’t make it to the end of the day.

It was scary. But also good.

The boys grinned when they saw him, and he was helpless to do anything but grin back. The fact that they both looked so much like Grady only added to the tight, happy feeling in his chest.

“You guys ready to go?” he asked, noting both boys had showered and changed already.

“Almost,” Colton said, turning back to Alexei. “So, is the homemade glue water-soluble?”

With true horror, Jack realized too late that thelastperson he should have left the precocious teenager alone with was the league’s most notorious prankster.

Jack had regrets.So manyregrets.

Since there was no going back now, he left Alexei to finish filling their heads with terrible ideas and went around the corner. Jack had suggested Colton and Sam use the private bathroom with shower in the trainer’s office off the locker room, so he poked his head in there to make sure they hadn’t left a mess.

They hadn’t. In fact, it was cleaner than when they’d arrived.

Returning to the locker room, Jack pulled Mike aside for a quick chat, then shooed the boys into the hall while Mike towed his shit-stirring boyfriend into the shower room before he could explain how to suspend an egg from dental floss.

Why would anyone want to do that?

On second thought, Jack didn’t want to know.

What he did want to know was why he’d thought it was a good idea to bring the boys along when he needed to stop by his mother’s house. If she said even one thing to upset either of the boys, Jack was going to pack them in his truck, lose his shit on the woman, and leave.

In a preemptive effort to placate her, they stopped at the Dipsy Doodle Dangle Café on the way.

He made Colton get decaf. He was, apparently, a monster.

As soon as Jack pulled in the driveway, Colton jumped out of the truck, tray of drinks in hand, and skipped up to the front door to knock.

Jack’s mother opened it, one eyebrow arched. “And who would you be?”

“Colton,” he chirped as he ducked through the door in a whirlwind of cheerful greetings and exclamations about how lovely the house was.

By the time Jack and Sam made it into the living room, Colton was planted on the couch, passing Jack’s mother her latte while he waved his bucket of iced sugar-coffee in the air and exclaimed how happy he was to meet her.

Jack chuckled at his mother’s expression. She had no idea what to make of Colton.

His mother looked at him for help, which might have been a first. He shrugged and introduced Sam.

“Nice to meet you, ma’am,” Sam said quietly.

Jack held his breath while his mother eyed Sam, then Colton, then Jack. “Why have you brought these…charmingchildren to my house?”

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