“I might take you up on that,” he said softly. “But either way, I’ll see you in a few days.”
“Yeah. See you in a few days.”
Our eyes locked, and my pulse ticked up. The impulse to step in and kiss him was almost overpowering.
Not here, though. Not now.
“If there’s something here,”I’d told him, gesturing at each of us,“it’ll keep, okay? I’m not going anywhere.”
Trust my own words to come back and remind me to settle down. We’d get there. Avery still had a big hill to climb, and anyway, if we gave in to that kiss right now, we’d just have the whole damn road trip to lose our minds overbeing apart. I wasn’t sure either of us would get through that in one piece.
So I just hugged him again. “I’ll see you soon.”
“You will. Now go get on the damn bus before they leave with out you.” He gave me a playful shove. “I’m not driving your ass to the airport.”
I laughed and let him go. “You’re such a dick.”
He shrugged unrepentantly. “You knew what this was.”
Yeah, I did. And damn, it was good to see his snarky side coming out again.
I was going to miss that over the next few days.
CHAPTER 29
AVERY
I’d been out with injuries a few times in my career, including two stints on LTIR and a one-game suspension that I still maintained was complete bullshit. It all came with the territory of a sport like this.
The part I’d never been able to get used to—staying home while my team went out on the road. I could handle being alone during the off season or on days when we didn’t have games or practice. There was just something about beingherewhile my guys were outtherethat drove me fucking nuts.
And this time was so much worse. I spent the whole first morning wondering why I was so out of sorts, but then I got a text from Peyton and it all made sense. The text itself was benign; he was telling me Eminem was cheating at Hearts again, which… no shit.
But suddenly the pieces connected. My team was gone, and so was Peyton.
God, I missed him.
Texting wasn’t enough. FaceTiming wasn’t enough. I wanted himhere. I wanted to bethere.
Why, Avery? So you can pine after him when the best you can ever hope for is maybe a pity fuck?
Ugh. God. Yeah, I’d just embarrass myself, wouldn’t I?
I was suddenly restless. My house suddenly seemed too big and quiet. I needed to get the hell out of here and be somewhere besides alone with my thoughts. Especially my stupid thoughts about a teammate who’d scraped me up off rock bottom, and who’d politely insisted I hadn’t blown my chance with him even though—let’s be real—I’d blown my chance with him.
Most of my social circle was on the road right now, so my options were limited. The gym, maybe? A good workout was always a nice distraction.
Except I’d worked out this morning before therapy. Damn it.
I scrolled through my phone in search of someone to hang out with, and when I landed on Rachel’s contact, I had a direction. After texting back and forth a bit with her, I went over to help her out with some projects around the house. Those would definitely keep me busy.
She let me in and offered a hug, which was getting more difficult now that she was like eight months along. “Come on in. I’ll get you some coffee.”
“Don’t worry—I can work the coffeepot.”
She waved that away and led me into the kitchen. I didn’t argue as she made me a cup, but I did worry when, after she’d handed it over, she leaned on the counter and rubbed her back gingerly.
“You okay?” I asked.
