Page 52 of Be My Endgame

“Ask away.”

“The match in Liverpool.” Alex’s teeth sparked in the darkness. “Did you take a dive?”

It wasn’t what Lee had expected. He huffed out a laugh and started walking again, towards the golf course that was tastefully lit. “I did not.”

“Really.” The word carried heavy scepticism. Not resentment, though, and when Lee slid Alex a sidelong look, he found Alex watching him with a faint smile.

“Really.” Lee inclined his head. “Can’t say whether you made contact with the ball, but you did touch me. Could I have fought harder to stay upright? Maybe, yeah.”

Alex seemed to take a moment to digest this, then he bumped their hands together. “So you admit that the ref’s call could have gone either way?”

“Possibly.” Lee let a deliberately smug smile curve his mouth. “It went my way, though.”

Alex coughed. “Teacher’s pet.”

Ha.

“Gladly. From what I remember, the ref was fit.”

“Taking one for the team, Taylor?” Bright amusement coloured Alex’s tone, and Lee far preferred it over the quiet hesitation that had been brought on by Alex’s parents. Duke or not, if Lee ever got the dubious pleasure of meeting Alex’s father, titular reverence would be the last thing on his mind.

“Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, Beaufort.”

“That’s Earl of Clydesdale to you, mate.”

“In your fuckingdreams, mate.”

“Oh, rest assured…” Alex let his voice dip down, honey-smooth. “My dreams are far more interesting than that.”

Bloody hell.

“Can we go back to when we expressed our mutual appreciation for our friendship?” Lee asked weakly, and Alex sent him a gleaming smile.

“But why?”

“Because it’s safer.”

“Less fun, though.” Alex looked as though he’d surprised himself with the statement.

“You sayin’ that life isn’t just eat, sleep, train, repeat?” Lee drawled because let’s face it, they were two peas in a pod—neither of them would be here if they hadn’t put in the extra hours. For Lee, that made sense given he’d had little else in life to make him feel competent. Alex, on the other hand? He could have done anything. Why choose a side path that veered off the well-paved family road?

“Of course not.” Alex wiggled his fingers. “That’d be blasphemy.”

“Glad we’re on the same page, then.”

“Definitely. Which book, though?”

“The Unbearable Lightness of Being.”

“You just picked that for the title.”

“Guilty as charged.” Lee glanced up at the palm trees above their heads, darkly silhouetted against the sky. “Hey. Feel better?”

Alex’s response came with a slight delay, a smile shining through his voice. “I do. Thank you, Lee.”

“My pleasure.”

For a second, it looked like Alex was going to say something else. Then he simply nodded, shifting closer by the smallest margin so their arms brushed every few steps. Lee could have moved away to make a point.

---