Page 52 of Thoroughly Innocent Intent

“Man, I hate these early flights.” Dante sighs as he sinks into the seat across from me, pulling me from my thoughts. “Why can’t they fly us out the night before so we get to sleep in? I’d much rather do that.”

“Not me.” Shane shakes his head and takes the seat next to me. “I’d much rather sleep with Elliot than by myself.”

“Wait til that baby comes.” Dante rolls his eyes. “You’ll come over to my side.”

“I definitely won’t,” Shane reclines his seat and closes his eyes.

“You will,” Dante says confidently. “You’ll be lucky to get a good night’s sleep. And you can forget about sleeping in. That shit only happens when you’re on the road. Am I right?” He looks to me for confirmation.

“I guess.” I shrug, not looking to take sides in this ridiculous debate.

“What do you mean you guess? You’ve got a kid.”

“I’ve got a kid I haven’t lived with in over ten years. I don’t remember how much sleeping in I did back then.”

My bad.” Dante winces. As a dad he’s great about remembering and including other people’s kids at every opportunity, but he doesn’t always remember that I don’t have any custody, and most of my time with Sawyer comes from visits and vacations.

“No problem.” I wave him off.

“Well, you’ve got three days to sleep in princess,” Shane mocks Dante, “so you can catch up on your beauty sleep.”

“You only wish you looked this good,” Dante gestures to his physique.

“People Magazine says I’m the sexiest man.” Shane grins and props his feet on the coffee table.

“Three years ago,” I point out.

“Still made the list.” He winks arrogantly.

“Only after me, son.” I shake my head. “Only after me.”

“That’s cause you’ve got a dozen years on me, old man.”

“Eight. And if you’re still playing at this level at my age you can bet you won’t look as good as I do, on or off the field.”

Dante gives me a fist bump and reclines his seat, getting comfortable. “Brad’s thinking about moving back to Denver,” he says, referring to our former teammate who got traded a few years back.

“When?” Shane asks.

“Not sure. He’s gotta find a house first.”

“He should go house hunting when we have a home game. We can get him tickets and all go for burgers afterward like we used to.” The four of us used to cheat with the occasional gut bomb after a particularly hard four quarters.

“Oh hey, that reminds me.” Dante sits up and leans toward me. “I need your tickets next weekend for my folks. They’ll be in town and want to see a game.”

“No can do, they’re spoken for,” I tell him, having offered them to Sam and her friend.

“Nah, seriously man. I want my folks to come with Meghan and the kids.”

“Seriously, they aren’t available.”

“Sawyer suddenly likes football?” His brow knits into a confused frown.

“Never said it was Sawyer.” It’s childish not to tell him who the tickets are for, but something about the way he’s choosing not to hear me rubs me the wrong way.

“Who else would it be? You never use your passes.” Shane’s tone is curious, but the question on top of Dante’s attitude only adds to my frustration.

“I know people outside the team.”

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