“You said it likeToronto.” Mo said it normal. Exactly like Dawson had. Exactly like Dawson had expected it would be pronounced.
“And?”
Mo and Aidan exchanged another glance. “It’s not . . .well, it’sToronto,” Aidan said, a little apologetically.
“That’s what I said,” Dawson said.
“No, you pronounced thet,” Aidan said, chuckling under his breath.
“Do you . . .not?”
“Not if you want to sound like you actually know what the fuck you’re talking about,” Mo said bluntly.
“Huh. Okay. So . . .Toronto?” Dawson slid thenright into theo, like thetdidn’t exist.
Aidan gave him a supportive nod. “Yeah. Better.”
“Better,” Mo agreed. “And yeah, it’s good to be back. I never wanted to leave.”
Aidan pursed his lips together. Dawson remembered when Aidan had lost his mind, acting in a completely uncharacteristic way, and had held out on hisowncontract, threatening not to play until the Thunder had given Mo his own matching contract.
But they hadn’t and Mo had ended up going across the country instead, signing for tons of money with the Raiders.
“You shouldn’t have had to,” Aidan muttered under his breath. Probably still feeling some kind of way that his bid to keep his best friend around hadn’t panned out.
“We’ve talked about this, dude,” Mo said. “It was for the best, in the end.” His expression turned sly, teasing. “I bet Levi would agree with me.”
Aidan straight up blushed. Not something Dawson was used to yet. Maybe he’d never get used to it.
“Oh, that’s so damn cute,” Mo teased. “That’s probably why he didn’t bring Levi. He was worried he’d be bright fucking red the whole time.”
“No, he didn’t bring Levi ’cause he wants us to be friends,” Dawson said to Mo.
Aidan flushed even redder, but before he could refute the accusation, Mo said, “Yeah, that was pretty obvious.”
“It was not obvious,” Aidan argued.
“Dude, you came prepared with icebreakers,” Dawson said.
Mo laughed. “You told me he’d known you a long time. He does know you, Flynn.”
“Oh, Iknowhim,” Dawson said.
“Is this going to be a whole thing now,” Aidan complained, like again, this hadn’t been his whole plan this whole fucking time. Of course, he probably hadn’t intended for Mo and Dawson to become friendly by ganging up onhim.
“Oh yeah,” Mo said. “You knew him in college, yeah? At Michigan?”
“Yep,” Dawson said. “Met our freshman year. Dorm living, baby.”
“Daws,” Aidan tried to interrupt again, but that was not happening.
“Oh, I bet you’ve got some good stories.”
“Let me tell you about Halloween, sophomore year,” Dawson said, leaning forward.
Mo was already smiling, anticipating how bad it was going to be.
“I can’t believe you actually remember anything about that night. You were drunker than I was,” Aidan grumbled.
