The question takes me by surprise, and I snort a laugh, but my thoughts go straight to my masked shadow. I don’t know how to answer. “Can I say it’s complicated?”
He laughs. “Isn’t it always?”
I shrug, trying to focus on the game as I take a sharp left, tyres screeching, then gunning the car down the freeway.
Noah laughs when I narrowly dodge an oncoming truck.
“Bro, you drive like you want to get wasted again.”
I flip him off.
His phone pings with an incoming text message, and he glances down at the screen.
“You keen for some pizza? Jasper’s getting some on his way home.”
I arch a brow. “You’re inviting me for dinner now?”
He shoves my shoulder as he taps out a reply to his housemate. “That’s what friends do.”
“We’re friends now?” I tease, cursing as I swerve to miss a cop car on the screen, mounting the kerb and?—
“Shit.”
The car flips twice, lands upside down, and explodes a second later.
Wasted.
I toss the controller onto the coffee table. “There better not be any pineapple on that pizza.”
“Definitelynot,” Noah says, slipping his phone away. “But seriously, Kincaid. For someone who’s into cars, your GTA game needs some work.”
I flip him off again and he laughs, picking up the remote and switching on the EPL highlights. He settles back on the couch, kicking his feet up on the coffee table, and I mirror him.
If you’d told me a month ago that we’d be playing GTA and watching the game, I’d have laughed in your face. I might be confused about my attraction to him, but I’ll take friendship with him any day over the animosity he showed me this past year.
My romantic life isn’t non-existent. I have my masked shadow, and while he’s clearly not comfortable about being out in the open right now, it doesn’t mean he’ll be that way forever. The sex and the chemistry with him are worth seeing how this all plays out, and I don’t have any immediate prospects outside the club.
Maybe life is messier than I’d like it to be, but I’ve got a new friendship with Noah, a scorching secret romance, and the space to figure out what I want. What more can a guy ask for?
Chapter 19
Zac
Sitting on the bench sucks, especially when your team’s losing two-nil.
It’s not Dane’s fault. He’s made some clutch saves during the game, and the goals that went through were the kind that leave a keeper stranded—wrong angle, wrong bounce, nothing he could’ve done.
Coach Johnson gives my teammates a good rev-up at half time, and they’re a lot tighter in the second half, but we still can’t find the net.
My knee bounces in the seventy-seventh minute as the ball goes out for a keeper’s kick. Dane plays it short to Ritter, who takes one touch before playing Noah, who’s powering through the midfield. He slips past two defenders and threads a pass to Logan, whose shot hits the crossbar.
Everyone on the bench releases a collective groan, but he wins it back a second later, chasing down a defender with an impressive slide tackle that’s all ball. He plays it wide to Jasper, who crosses it in for a goal.
The boys are playing with renewed vigour. They lock in and fight for the ball, and in the next eight minutes we getthree more shots on goal to Thorburn’s one, which Dane manages to save by the skin of his teeth.
As the clock ticks down, we’re desperate to at least tie the game. Thorburn has possession, and their striker’s coming in hot, but Noah presses him in an impressive one-on-one, and when he tries to fake, Noah steals the ball, ploughing up the pitch and breaking the line.
I jump to my feet, screaming as he dances around one defender, then another. His eyes scan the pitch, looking for an open player, but Thorburn are man on. Realising there’s no viable option, he burns up the pitch to the top of the box and takes his chance.
