“You have an entire team. You don’t need them,” Harley said, an edge to his determinedly bored tone. He was staring directly at me in a way that made me uncomfortable because it was very much not-friendly.
Harley was nice-looking, too, with cheekbones so sharp you could cut a finger on them. I’d always acknowledged attractive people in my mind and sort of kept going afterward with my day, but this was the first time I was thinking about other men in the context of whether or not I found them… sexy.Fuckable.Brad’s muscles were nice, and he wasn’t the same as Zayden at all. Harley’s build was closer to Z’s, but he was far too cold to do anything but look at him. Brad and Z were completely different body types. Different personalities.
I didn’t get the same sort of… achy need from watching Brad or Harley that I did from seeing Zayden do something as simple as smile. I shook my head at myself. Maybe my entire sexual orientation wasn’t that difficult to figure out; maybe I was Z-sexual?
Brad hooked his arm around Harley’s waist, who kept shooting me nasty little glares for some reason. Harley’s quiet outrage had Z snickering, and I glanced at him fast. Z’s smirk let me know maybe he’d seen me checking out Brad’s chest. I gave him a shrug, and he only shrugged back, as if to let me know he’d also noticed the nice pecs on display. Despite the No Alcohol signs we’d walked past on the way to the seats from the parking lot, we were gathered with Busch Lights in our hands near a big red cooler decorated with unicorn stickers. Z, always the exception to every rule, downed a bottle of water, since he wasn’t a fan of alcohol.
“Come out with us,” Brad said for probably the fifth time, clinking his beer can against mine in a salute, even though I hadn’t been part of the game. “We always head out to the Sauce Pot after games.”
“We can’t.” Brad turned more toward me, squaring off, and I laughed. “Z wanted to go see a movie,” I said, not thinking, and I nearly groaned when Brad transferred that determined smile back to Z. I finished my beer in one long gulp as Z squirmed under the pleading stare.
“Come on, just a couple of drinks. It’s a postgame tradition. Nicky will definitely be going. And no one has a good time like our Nicky. Right?” Brad called in Nicky’s direction, but he was too busy leaning closer to a skinny, nerdy-looking guy in the bleachers who appeared positively mesmerized by him. Of course, Nicky had enough glitter and glitz on his body that maybe the poor man had been blinded and wasn’t sure what he was looking at by this point. A nervous grin flashed across his face, and he shook his head at Nicky, almost like he was doing it despite himself. Nicky pouted at him, and the man’s hands waved around, clearly an apology in progress.
Nearby some of the Unicorns were laughing and groaning as they shook the hands of the Grizzlies. I noticed an older man with gray hair minus a shirt. His tanned, cut abs put mine to shame, and I swallowed hard, glancing away. That was Wayne, the man Z had gone on a date with. My outlook for the day soured. Hell, I hadn’t realized how good he looked. Was it a rule of nature that every man Nicky knew was built like a minor deity?
When I glanced back, the sun must have shifted because Z’s hair glowed brighter, almost as if the whole world wanted to make him more beautiful, or maybe it was just my excitement at standing around near him today that made it seem that way. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Z nibbled on his bottom lip, and I could already tell he was probably going to sayyesto Brad because he had the worst timedisappointing people. He sent me a pleading look, but I stayed out of it because these were his friends and I didn’t want to start coming between them just because we were together now.
When Z’s indecision dragged on too long, I leaned down to whisper, “We can make a later movie. I’m happy spending time with you. Don’t care where it is.”
Z gave my hand a squeeze and beamed at Brad. “Okay. We’ll hang out.”
Brad pumped his fist and kicked down the lid on the cooler. “Unicorns, get your sparkly magical butts in your cars and let’s ride out!” he yelled, loud enough to be heard over the hubbub of conversations going on. The bleachers had emptied a while ago, so it was only the team left, for the most part.
Whoops and cheers answered Brad, and nearby—directly behind him, out of his line of sight—a short, cute man with a wide smile breezed past, hands out at someone else in a gimme gesture I was certain wouldn’t end well. I couldn’t tell what someone passed him because his back was slightly toward me. Earlier he’d nearly shaken my hand off while he’d introduced himself as “Madden Polunin. I’m a lawyer. That’s my person.” I’d missed who he’d pointed out with a jerk of his thumb. “You seem familiar. Do I know you? We’ll chat later.”
Madden dumped a bottle of what suspiciously appeared to be glitter into agrotesquefake unicorn head. When that dirty work was finished, he tossed the empty plastic container over his shoulder. A dark-haired man, who was bulked up with muscles, glared at the back of Madden’s head and bent immediately to retrieve the trash. As he moved I could see the name Slater on his jersey. Madden came up behind Brad. His much-taller friend stepped up along with him. Madden made a low hand gesture at me as if to tell me not to give them away. Slater lifted the unicorn head high in the air.
Glitter was theworst. I raised a finger toward Brad, and his eyebrows furrowed, but I wasn’t fast enough. I winced. The bizarre unicorn head was slammed over him before I could do anything about it.
“We got you!” Madden crowed. “You should see your face. Oh, wait, no one can. That’s what you get for having rainbow pizza delivered to my office. Do you have any idea how difficult it was to give away pizza with both broccoli and pineapple on it? Eat the rainbow my ass. Give me a bag of Skittles if you want me to do that.” Madden slapped Brad’s butt and danced away.
Harley swatted at Madden, and Slater, who I thought might be with Madden, grabbed him around the middle and pulled him out of striking distance, even though that was difficult with the way he was cackling and stamping his feet.
Brad sputtered and laughed. When he pulled the unicorn head off, he shone like the aforementioned rainbow, and spat. I winced when I saw there was glitter in his mouth.
Harley handed a grateful Brad a bottle of water, then spun toward Madden. “If you ever touch him again, I will claw your eyes out,” he said under his breath. No one seemed to hear Harley, or so I thought, but Brad hugged him, which had Brad getting swats next. “No, no, I don’t want it on me!” Harley shoved at Brad and rolled his eyes, but a smile twitched his lips upward.
Laughter rippled around the crowd, but not a mean sort, the kind that let you know all these people were friends and meant well.
It took a while for things to simmer down, and Harley actually backed Madden against his big boyfriend to snarl in his face for a few seconds, which I hadn’t been expecting. Z elbowed my side and raised his eyebrows, sharing a little smile with me.
“Okay, okay!” Brad yelled above the laughter and hooting. “Let’s roll out. We don’t want all the good beer to be taken at the Sauce Pot.” There were groans and laughter in answer, but everyone began to pack up with a renewed vigor.
Once all the equipment and coolers were stowed away in cars, we followed behind Nicky along a two-lane road until we reached a small bar in the middle of nowhere. The lot was gravel, so I wasn’t totally shocked by the state of the business. The building wasn’t very big, and the outside walls were weathered wooden siding stained clay red. The cheap sign stuck above the door on posts might’ve been handmade—The Sauce Potwas burned into the light-colored wood. A strong breeze would probably blow the whole thing over.
“I don’t know about this,” Z said, sucking in his bottom lip as he stared.
I barely had time to laugh as I brought the MINI Cooper to a stop, before Nicky yanked Z’s car door open and dragged him out. I shook my head and smiled as he leaned close to whisper to Z the whole way inside. Kwan walked along beside me, shooting shy glances my way, and I held out my hand.
“Dare.”
He shook with me then gave me a soft smile that made me think he’d been hurt at some point in the past. There was something vulnerable about him. “Kwan. But you know that, I think?”
I nodded. “Sure, but it’s polite to be polite. You didn’t seem involved in the introductions earlier.”
“I don’t mind people talking around me.” He shrugged.
“Well, I like to include everyone and make sure everyone is taken care of.”
