Lanehadplayedinbig games before.
The Thunder had even made the playoffs the last two years, but they’d lost in the first game last year, and the year before? They’d only made it one round further.
He’d played in playoff games in college too, even made it to the quarterfinals in his senior year.
But everything was different this season. Not only were the Thunder the number one seed in the AFC with all the expectations that brought,Trevorwas here with him.
Not just on his team. Not just living and working with him. Butwithhim, in the kind of way that Lane had never quite allowed himself to think about. Never allowed himself to evendreamabout.
And they were going to the playoffstogether.
Every time Lane looked over at him in a meeting or in the locker room or on the field, on the days leading up to the game, there was an added dash of pressure and also excitement. Hewanted to win the game, not just for Aidan and Levi and Nate and all his teammates, but forhimself. For himandTrevor.
Lane was afraid he knew why, but he’d been working so hard for so long to not think of Trevor that way, it was difficult to shift into the mind frame where it was not onlyokay, it was encouraged.
Aidan came up to him after the walk-through, the day before the Piranhas playoff game, and said, “You got something you want to tell me?”
“About the game film?”
“No,” Aidan huffed out in annoyance. “Though I wouldn’t be mad if you had something magical to slice the Piranhas defense in half. But actually, no, about you and Trevor.”
“What about me and Trevor?” It wasn’t easy to pretend that nothing was going on, because it felt increasingly likeeverythingwas going on, and as hard as it was to fool their parents, it was harder to look his QB dead in the eye and lie.
Which was why he hadn’t actually managed it yet.
“Please, I might be stupid sometimes, but I’mnotblind.”
“Can I record that?”
Aidan barely cracked a smile at that. Not a good sign. “Don’t change the subject.”
He still didn’t have the right to tell anyone anything about Trevor’s sexuality, and he’d have rather died than out him without Trevor’s permission, but hecouldtell Aidan about his half of it.
“You know when our parents got married, right?”
“You were teenagers, yeah?”
Lane nodded. “Trev and his dad had just moved to town. Tom saw my mom in the grocery store line, and that was it for him. First time I saw Trevor, I thought who’s this super hot guy, I wonder if I could get him to talk to me. Didn’t know who he was, just knew I was crushing hard on the guy in the gym who keptlooking at me. Then one night, my mom introduced me to her new boyfriend and her son, and yeah, there he was.”
“Shit,” Aidan said.
“I know everyone thinks we don’t like each other—butGod, I’ve always liked him too much.”
“That was what . . .” Aidan scrunched up his face as he tried to do the mental math. “Five years? Six?”
“Six, yeah.”
“And you’ve liked him this whole time,” Aidan stated.
Lane nodded. “Kept away, tried to make it go away,God, so many fucking times, and now . . . well, now it’s never going away.” He didn’t have to tell Aidan explicitly why. He had a guy, he knew why that might be.
“Right.” Aidan paused. “Did youstillwant it to go away?”
“Not now. Now it’s . . . well, it’s good? I’m glad I like him.” Lane never thought he’d be grateful for this complicated tangle of feelings that had made everything more difficult, and never, ever easier.
“Wait,” Aidan said. “Hold the fuck up.”
Lane, who’d just been about to escape, stopped. Anyone else, he’d have just kept turning away, but this was his QB. And he’d learned, long ago, one of his first lessons in the NFL, that you didn’t turn your back on Aidan Flynn.
