Page 103 of The Head Game

Pieter frowned. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? The doctor said to limit your screen time.”

He nodded. “Screens were bugging me for a while but I think I can handle it now.”

Which reminded him, he should probably boot up his phone again.

His head had hurt way too much for him to squint at the tiny images while he was in the hospital and he hadn’t felt like dealing with the avalanche of messages he probably had waiting for him, but he couldn’t put it off forever.

“I’d like to watch the game too.” Pieter loaded up his plate with sushi.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t mind watching it either,” August said. “If that’s okay with you.”

Isa threw up her hands. “Fine, watch the game. We’ll break out the wine and have a girls’ dinner, if that sounds good to you, Anika and Noor?”

Taking advantage of his parents’ distraction, Nico grabbed the front of August’s cardigan sweater with his right hand, the one he still had some strength in. “Auggie, I need to talk to you about something. C’mere.”

He hauled a sputtering August with him into his bedroom.

“What the fuck?” Nico whispered urgently when they were alone. “We aren’t engaged, are we?”

About a thousand emotions crossed August’s face before he slumped back against the door. “No.”

Nico laughed. Loudly. “How in the hell did that happen then?”

August groaned, leaning his head back against the door and tipping his chin up, exposing his throat. Nico had the nearly overwhelming urge to bite his Adam’s apple but restrained himself.

This wasn’t the time. He wanted answers more than he wanted sex.

Which … hey, that might be the first time in his life that had happened.

August let out a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry. I massively fucked up. I was worried about you after that hit and I showed up at the hospital feeling completely frantic. I lied to a nurse about who I was and then Skylar arrived and it all went to hell after that.”

Nico snorted. It all made sense now. “I should have known Sky was at the bottom of this.”

August tilted his head and looked him in the eye. “No, this is on me. I am sorry for being dishonest with you.”

Nico studied his face. “Why wasn’t I in on this shit from the beginning?”

August winced. “Well, it got very … complicated. You were in surgery at the time and your parents were so happy about the engagement and I didn’t want to let them down and …”

Laughing, Nico pressed closer, sliding his arms around August’s waist and pulling their bodies tightly together. “Honestly, if you met my parents for the first time and a fake engagement is all you agreed to, that’s honestly pretty impressive.”

“I suppose.” August grimaced.

“So that all happened during my surgery, right?”

“Yes. And then after you were … a little out of it.”

“Yeah, so they tell me. Skylar gave me shit about hitting on you the second I woke up.”

“It was somewhat reassuring knowing that you hadn’t changed.” August gave him a half-hearted smile.

“Honestly, it’s just as well you didn’t tell me right away, I’d totally have blown your story to smithereens with the way I couldn’t stop blurting stuff out. I was starting to think they’d forgotten to reinstall my brain-to-mouth filter.”

August chuckled, but he quickly grew serious again. “But once you were a little more alert and not blurting everything out, I should have told you.”

Nico hesitated, studying August’s face. “You tried a bunch of times,” he said slowly. “Didn’t you?”

“I … yeah. I did. It’s hard to get any privacy in the hospital. But I could have insisted.”

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