Fair.
The rest of the team’s in the dark. Which is fine. For now.
It’s the Friday before Christmas break. The semester’s done. I’ve got two more practices before I can go home for a few weeks and pretend like everything in my life isn’t currently tangled up in this boy I’ve been denying myself for years.
I glance around the floor and take a slow sip of my drink, letting the burn settle. The bass vibrates up through my boots. I turn toward Peter and gesture at the dance floor.
“Let’s dance.”
He grumbles a little but follows me out to the floor. It’s different being in a gay club and seeing all the couples grinding on each other or making out for anyone to see. Normally, if the guys drag me out, it’s to a club that is not of the gay variety. And yeah, there is making out and grinding that happens there, but not the man-on-man sort. It makes me wish Logan was here, and that we could be like them.
Still, I dance with my friends. It’s ridiculous. All elbows and shoulder jabs and dramatic arm flailing from Daniel, who somehow thinks he’s choreographed. Luke joins in with a theatrical twirl that nearly takes out a poor guy passing by, and Peter spins like he's lost in a fever dream.
I laugh.Reallylaugh. Not the stiff, polite kind I’ve been giving my dad on our check-ins. Not the forced chuckles I used to cover tension in the locker room.
This is the kind that comes from inside. The kind I almost forgot how to let out until recently.
And then?—
My heart stumbles.
Because I seehim.
Logan. My fucking whole world.
On the edge of the dance floor, framed by a strobe of shifting neon, wearing a smug little smirk. He hasn’t spotted me yet—his eyes are scanning the crowd, and when they land on me, his whole face softens.
That soft. Sweet. Dangerous smile.
Daniel notices, too. Of course he does, he’s observant. He leans over and shouts near my ear, “Is he gonna stand there looking pretty or come dance?”
Logan starts toward us without an invitation.
My breath catches. Because he’s here. And I know he only came for me.
Daniel elbows me. “You’re smiling like a damn idiot.”
“Shut up.”
“Mmhm.”
I turn to face Logan as he reaches us, and Peter claps him on the back like they’re old friends. Eli waves with his drink held high. Max nods, too cool as always. No one says a damn thing about how Logan’s eyes never leave mine.
“Hey, Captain”
“You made it,” I say.
He leans in close, like he needs to speak over the noise. “Wouldn’t miss it.”
Logan doesn’t step back.
Not right away.
He lingers too close, his fingers brushing mine in a way no one would notice unless they were looking. But I notice. I always notice.
And tonight I don’t want him to stop.
I take the last sip of my drink and set the empty glass ona passing tray. “You gonna dance with me or just stand there being hot?”
