Page 108 of Thoroughly Pucked

My voice hits the sky. I’m freezing, horror-struck, and he knows it.

I don’t want him to go. I need him to stay.

He chuckles softly, then drags his thumb down my jawline. “No, baby. I’m not being traded. But it didn’t go unnoticed how you sounded just now.” Like he’s just discovered a wooden chest with hidden treasure, he tilts his head my way. “You don’t want me to go.”

Said with wonder. Said with total delight too.

The way he looks at me is disarming. It warms my heart. Fills it up. Completely terrifies me. “Of course I don’t want you to go,” I say, like it’s no big deal.

When itisa big deal.

And he knows it.

He lifts a brow, then taps his temple. “I’m filing that away in the good things drawer.”

I grab his arm, frustrated. “Dev! Just tell me what’s going on? I’m dying to know.”

“Sanchez posted some pics of the game yesterday. Which is fine. We knew he was doing that. Apparently, with the ‘Dev Save’ thing going viral…” He shrugs, looking embarrassed to be at the center of a trend. “The pics took off, too, and became the next thing in the whole ‘Dev Save’ saga. And this local camp in San Francisco that Jessie’s husband runs wants me to stop by.”

“Oh,” I say, processing this news. “The Sea Dog’s owner’s husband.”

“Cade’s a sports agent too. A buddy of Garrett’s. He gave him a call. And…”

I fill in the dots. “The owner and the owner’s husband asked your agent. Of course you need to do it,” I say before reality hits me. My shoulders sag. “It’s today, right?”

He winces, then nods. “This afternoon.” He sighs heavily. “I can say no though. I can say I can’t cut the trip short.” But then he hesitates. “It’s just I feel like it’d be really shitty to G-man then, you know?”

I get it. “I understand completely. It’s important that you do this stuff for you.”

“It is,” Dev says. That’s the bigger issue. Not so much that my brother asked for his help, but that Dev wants to do it. That’s who he is—a man who shows up. “But I told him I’d check with you.”

I love that Dev’s asking. He’s including me. “You should go,” I say, meaning it, so he feels free to get on that plane.

Dev looks unconvinced. “But it’s our last day.”

“Go,” I add, more brightly. “And have fun.”

The longer I hold onto these guys, the harder it’ll be to say goodbye tomorrow. There’s just one little problem. Ledger and me—do we stay behind?

I hadn’t thought about that till just now.

Footsteps pad across the carpet, then Ledger’s standing in the doorway, dressed in black boxer briefs and a scowl. “What kind of animals are you? Up at this hour?”

“I need to take off,” Dev says, explaining the details quickly.

Ledger’s sleepy morning grimace vanishes, replaced by a more thoughtful expression. “That sounds cool, man,” he says as he sits next to me on the couch.

“It really does,” I say since I want Ledger to know that I support this choice.

I want both guys to know I’d stand behind their careers rather than in front of them. But why am I trying to impress this upon them? I’m not their girlfriend. I am their friend, though, and I know what it’s like when someone doesn’t support you. I know the anxiety that produces.

Everyone goes quiet. This is where things get awkward. Do we part ways now, with Ledger and me staying behind to traipse around the city, shopping and eating fancy food? That feels all wrong.

But the guys won’t ask me to leave early. They’ll want to spoil me, even with one here and the other remote. Here is where my make-everything-better skills come in handy.

“I think we should leave, too,” I say before they can try to convince me to stay.

“What?” Dev asks, his brow pinching. “You guys don’t have to.”

---