“Good riddance,” Diego shouted after him. “I never liked that guy,” he turned his attention back to Jace. “Shifty, y’know? You know the look. The guys who’d shoot their granny for a nickel if they thought they could get away with it.”
Jace blinked. “I’ll… take your word for it. Thanks, man. Thanks for stopping me from doing anything stupid.”
Diego grinned at him, dropping the bad cop act as though he’d never done it. Jace couldn’t help but respect his ability to scare the crap out of people.
“Anytime. You guys do enough stupid shit anyway. And Jace? I’m not saying that what Rafe said was true, but if, say, there was any possible doubt that you and Noah were the real thing? You might wanna start gathering evidence that you are. Pictures are real good for that.”
Jace nodded. “Understood.”
Diego knew. The rest of the team probably didn’t know either Jace or Noah well enough to form an intelligent opinion, but some of them would have believed Rafe. And some of them would have taken him to be the jealous asshole he clearly was.
That put them in an awkward position, and one they’d eventually have to address. Sooner rather than later, probably.
Jace finally went to his locker to get dressed. He heard Noah follow him.
Noah had said he loved Jace twice. Even though he knew Noah had only said it to defuse the situation, he was still processing how it felt to hear. How much he’d liked hearing it.
It was natural to want to be loved. Maybe that was all there was to it, but it felt like more. It felt important for reasons Jace couldn’t put his finger on.
“Thank you for standing up for me,” Noah said. “I’m really glad you caught him, or I could’ve… broken my neck or something.”
“Did you know he had a thing for you?” Jace asked. It didn’t really matter, but he was curious all the same.
Noah shook his head. “No, I had no idea. I didn’t even know he was interested in men. I didn’t know much about him at all, but we worked well together.”
“Yeah, which screws us up for the bout this weekend. No one else even comes close to being as good a pivot as Rafe was, I’ll give him that.”
Noah wet his lips. “I might know a guy,” he said. “Someone I’m fairly confident I can work with.”
“Who?” Jace raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t been aware that Noah knew anyone who did roller derby outside of the team, but then he didn’t exactly know every detail of Noah’s life, either.
“My ex. He was actually the reason I took up roller derby. I met him at a game he was playing in and quickly realized that derby boys were really hot. We kind of… drifted apart and mutually broke up, but I was hooked by then. He only lives a town over, and he owes me one. I’ll talk to Coach about it before we go.”
Noah patted Jace’s shoulder and then stepped away to open his own locker. For the first time in his life, Jace took the opportunity to take a peek at Noah while he was changing. He was facing away, so Jace only got a view of his ass. He knew enough about asses to know it was nice, but looked away again before he could really study it.
Diego was right about getting some kind of proof. Photos of them being cute together, maybe a couple where they were kissing. It’d be a good excuse to kiss Noah again. Just in case Rafe got the idea of actually reporting them.
He’d talk to Noah about it sometime. Not now, while they were both still in shock.
“I can’t believe someone would actually harbor a secret thing for me like that,” Noah said suddenly. Jace had thought the subject was closed, but apparently not. “I can’t imagine what he saw in me or why he thought he needed to keep it a secret. The worst possible case scenario was me saying no.”
“Some people don’t take rejection well. He was waiting for you to decide you wanted him.” Jace shrugs. “I get that part. You’re smart, accomplished, and attractive. It’d be scary to ask you out. The part where he then started hurting you? That bit I don’t get.”
“It would be scary to ask me out?” Noah said. He seemed surprised by the suggestion, but to Jace it seemed obvious. Noah was the guy you crushed on from afar but left for someone way cooler than you to date.
“You’re the male version of every girl I’ve ever been too scared to approach,” he said.
“There are girls you’re scared to approach?” Noah seemed surprised by that, too. That was flattering.
“Hell yes. What if they laughed at me? Way safer to admire at a distance.”
“I have… literally never had that thought.”
“Because you’re the scary one,” Jace explained. “You know you can have basically whoever you want.”
“I…” Noah trailed off. “Wow. Maybe I am the scary one. This is news to me.”
Jace chuckled. “Well, you’re all mine now.”
