Page 27 of Time to Shine

Casey walked quickly up the stairs, and Landon tried to ignore the weird desire to follow him.

Chapter Nine

Landon shouldn’t have been surprised when Casey sat next to him on the plane to Seattle, but he was. Surely Casey could use a break from the guy who’d invaded his life.

Although, Landon found he didn’t need a break from Casey either.

They’d had a nice morning together. Landon had made them both omelets and toast for breakfast, which had blown Casey’s mind. Landon had been pleased to see the swelling in Casey’s lip had gone down quite a bit overnight, and his knuckles didn’t look too bad either.

Then they’d driven to the arena for practice, stopping at a café on the way where Casey had flirted with the barista. Landon hadn’t loved that part, but it was probably a useful reminder that Casey was not someone he should develop a crush on.

The problem was, Landon always developed crushes on unattainable people because it was safe. That way he never had to deal with the complications of that person liking him back.

The other problem was that Landon had stayed awake for a while after going to his room last night, uncomfortably aware that he was more turned on than he’d felt in a long time. He’d resisted the rare urge to jerk off, because he’d known he would think of Casey if he did, and that was a line he didn’t want to cross.

If he could help it.

Now they were sitting together on the plane and Landon was keeping his focus on the window, admiring the peaks of the mountains that poked through the clouds. It was safer than admiring the man who was pressed against his side.

Casey wasn’t making it easy to ignore him, though.

“Hey, remember the omelets you made? Those were amazing.”

“I remember them, yes.”

“How do you get them so thin and perfect without burning them? I tried making fried eggs once and burned the shit out of them.”

“How high did you turn up the heat?”

“Oh, like, all the way. Huge flames.” He was smiling, and even though he looked a bit busted up he still, unfortunately, looked very cute. His hair was tied back in a loose bun, and he was wearing a mint-green suit that made his eyes look unreal.

“Well,” Landon said. “There’s your problem.”

Casey kept smiling at him, and Landon kept staring. In a desperate dimple-evading maneuver, Landon changed the subject. “You got big social plans for the team tonight? A bar or something?” This road trip was a weird one, consisting of back-to-back matinee games in Seattle, and then Vancouver. Tonight was a night off in Seattle.

“Nah, not tonight. I’ve got a date lined up!”

Landon managed to stop himself from physically recoiling. “A date?”

“Yeah. There’s this guy I hooked up with the last couple of times I was in Seattle. He’s smoking hot. He wanted to get dinner this time too, which I think is kind of adorable.”

Oh.

Oh.

Landon had no idea what his face was doing but he must not look friendly because suddenly Casey was frowning at him.

“That’s not, like, a problem, is it?” he asked.

“That you have a date?” Landon asked stupidly, because it weirdly felt like a problem.

“That I’m into guys. I’m bi. Everyone on the team knows. It’s not a big deal, unless...”

“It’s not a problem,” Landon said quickly. “Just a surprise. Sorry, I’m being weird.”

It could be a good opportunity for Landon to share that he was maybe probably gay. He honestly wasn’t sure. Most of the time he felt...not very sexual. But sometimes he crushed hard on someone, and those someones had always been male. That could be more of a proximity thing because he only really got to know other men. The getting-to-know-someone part was important to Landon.

Landon hadn’t quite figured himself out yet, so he wasn’t ready to share. He also suddenly felt too warm and like he didn’t fit in the space he was in. Having Casey this close wasn’t comfortable or exciting, it was awful and he needed to get away, if only for a few minutes.

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