Tate chuckles. “I would love to.”
We walk to the door, and he opens it for me, gesturing me inside. The shop isn’t busy, and the young woman tells us to take a seat anywhere, and that she will be with us shortly. I head toward the corner, and once we reach the table I’ve chosen, Tate steps past me to pull out my chair.
“You’re such a gentleman, thank you,” I say as he takes his seat across from me.
The young waitress makes her way over to us with menus and water glasses. “What can I get you to drink?”
“Coffee, black,” Tate says without hesitation.
“Same,” I add, handing her the menu back. “And I’ll have the eggs benedict with bacon, crispy.”
“And for you?” she asks Tate.
“Eggs over easy, wheat toast, and fruit on the side,” he says, then glances at me with a slight smile. “I’m guessing you’re not a big health nut.”
I laugh. “Is it that obvious? I’ve learned that life’s too short for boring food.”
“Old habits,” he says with a shrug.
I study him across the table; he seems like a different person from when he is at the chases.
“So,” I say, leaning forward slightly. “Assistant coach. That’s a big deal, right?”
Tate takes a sip of water. “Yeah, my injury kind of derailed my playing career, so coaching was my Plan B.”
“That must have been hard,” I say, and I mean it. Knowing what it’s like to have life derail your plans.
“It was,” he admits, running his finger along the rim of his water glass. “Still is, sometimes.”
Our eyes meet across the table, and there is something in his gaze that makes my pulse speed up and my cheeks heat.
“What about you?” he asks. “What’s your story? Besides nearly getting into a fistfight in a parking lot?”
I grin. “That’s actually a pretty accurate representation of my life lately. I moved back home after my job didn’t work out. Now I’m figuring out what to do with the rest of my life. Maybe content creation?”
“Content creation,” he repeats. “What kind of content?”
I take a sip of my coffee, buying myself a moment. I can’t exactly tell him I’m Maskedsnack. “I’ve been thinking about getting into social media management. I used to do some marketing stuff before I moved back home, and I’m decent with content calendars.”
“Social media management.” He nods. “That’s a solid field. Are you looking for full-time work or freelance?”
“Either, really. I’m not picky at this point. I just need something stable that pays the bills and doesn’t make me want to throw my phone out a window.”
He smiles. “Fair enough. You strike me as someone who’d be good at it. You’re articulate, and you think fast on your feet. I mean, that comeback in the parking lot was pretty impressive.”
“Thanks,” I say with a laugh. “I’m working on channeling that energy into something more productive than verbal sparring with random assholes.”
Tate grins wide at that. “So how’s it been,” he asks, “living with Landon and Levi? That’s got to be... a lot.”
I wrap my hands around my coffee mug, considering the question. “It’s been complicated, honestly. We have history—and not all of it is good. They came back into my life unexpectedly, so living with them is like living in this weird space between the past and the present.”
“I’ve been told some of the story, given you wanted to skull-fuck Anastasia in my foyer,” he says, followed by a chuckle, so I decide to give him the whole story.
“They’re my ex-boyfriends,” I say. “It’s complicated because I was with both of them at the same time. We were together, all three of us, and then... I left. Cut them off completely. I came back here thinking I’d moved on, and now we’re trying to figure out how to be friends or family or whatever we’re supposed to be.”
“That does sound complicated.”
“Understatement,” I say with a laugh. “But they’ve been good to me since I’ve been back. Better than I probably deserve, given how I handled things. Leila, their sister, helped me see that I might have made a mistake by not listening to their side of the story.”
