“No.”
“I don’t know, I think you’d be okay out there,” Ramsey said.
Nate rolled his eyes. “Don’t fucking do that.”
“Do what?”
Cam had a feeling things were rapidly going south. He could feel Aidan on his other side, tensing, ready to step in if the situation soured even further.
But Nate only barked out a chuckle. “That look doesn’t work on me.”
He turned and walked out then.
Cam would’ve been so upset, but Ramsey didn’t even look bothered. Just beamed one of those bright supermodel smiles. “Not sure what he’s talking about,” he said conspiratorially.
The second period was starting shortly, and Cam grabbed him and Dawson another pair of beers and they settled back in their seats, this time Aidan with them.
“That was weird,” Aidan said, leaning forward to tuck his bottle of water into the cup holder in front of him.
“Was it?” Dawson asked.
Aidan made a face. “You were there; you know it was. Don’t even try to pretend it wasn’t.”
“Oh, I was there. I wouldn’t say it was weird though. Or even remotely surprising. Nate and Ramsey interacting? It’sbeen pretty much the same since the beginning. Maybe it’s even gotten worse. You shouldn’t have made him come.”
“I didn’t,” Aidan claimed.
“I don’t remember him putting his hand up in the locker room,” Cam pointed out. Maybe Daws was right and Aidan wasn’tthatscary. Especially when he was so obviously terrible at reading the room. When he thought what had happened wasweird.
It was, as Dawson said, not weird. And not particularly surprising.
“I just thought . . .” Aidan ran a hand through his hair and made a frustrated noise. “I want them to get along. Wes is always telling me how isolated Ramsey is. I want to include him.”
“He’s not your teammate, bud,” Dawson said.
It was a little harsh, even for one of Dawson’s grumpy moods. And Dawson must have known it, because he sighed and added, “I get that you want to help him. It’s admirable. It is. But he and Nate aren’t going to get along. Just . . .when you want to invite him, don’t invite Nate.”
“That’s not a solution,” Aidan said stubbornly.
Cam wondered if that was how he sounded right before he’d puked into the bush all those years ago. Determined not to be drunk and messy, and yet still knee-deep in a boxwood.
“Looks like a solution to me,” Dawson retorted.
“Nate’s one of the captains of this team,” Aidan countered. “I can’t just not include him. Besides, it wasn’t evenmethis time. It was Wes.”
“I didn’t have Wes picking up your worst-big-brother-tendencies on my bingo card,” Dawson said.
Cam cackled and Aidan glared. But not hard enough to make Cam regret laughing. Especially not when Dawson shot him a smug grin.
“I’m just saying, Wes is Ramsey’s friend, right? So ifheinvited him, it must be fine.”
“Bro, it did not look fine,” Dawson said.
Aidan sighed heavily. “I know.I know. Which is why I said it was weird.”
“No, your little arranged playdate between me and Mo was weird. This was . . .” Dawson hummed under his breath and then turned to Cam. “What did you call it the other day?”
“Pulling each other’s pigtails?”
