“Don’t hold it in next time,” Trevor said, tipping his head down so he could brush a kiss over Lane’s mouth.
“Okay,” Lane said.
Chapter 16
Lanewasstilltryingto get his shit together after the semi-disastrous date in which hehadn’ttold Trevor that he loved him when Aidan cornered him the next morning just outside their offensive team meeting.
“What?” Lane barked as Aidan leveled him with a frank stare and didn’t even say anything.
“Oh, grumpy this morning,” Aidan said, corner of his mouth quirking up.
Okay, maybe the date hadn’t been fully, totally disastrous, but it had gone sideways enough that he hadn’t known if he should say it or not. Sure, his mom had told him that the perfect moment didn’t exist, but Lane had been waiting for this for too long to settle for just some night when they were hanging out on the couch, Trevor’s head tipped over onto his shoulder like it belonged right there.
“Maybe,” Lane huffed out. “What do you want?”
He’d been so sure that he was planning the perfect moment—that bar had topped every list Lane had found of the mostromantic spots in Toronto. And it had been romantic, just not the kind of romance Trevor wanted.
Lane either, when it came down to it.
That was the biggest frustration, actually.Hehadn’t even wanted it, not like that, and it had been so fucking obvious, but he’d never seen it, not until it was too late.
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed how quiet you’ve been in meetings the last few days,” Aidan said.
Ugh, of course Aidan was going to pick at this thread.
“Maybe I don’t have anything to say,” Lane retorted. That wasn’t entirely true—but he hadn’t been looking all that hard, also. A fact he was trying not to feel guilty about.
“Do I look stupid?”
There was only one way he could answer that question.
“Of course not,” Lane insisted.
“Then don’t pretend I’m stupid,” Aidan said flatly. “You’re sharp, you see things. I’ve let you slide with it, because for some reason you’re weird about it—”
“Wow, thanks,” Lane interrupted sarcastically.
But Aidan just rolled his eyes. “You’re weird about it, not me. Youshouldbe thanking me for letting you get away with this shit for all this time.” Aidan’s expression shifted then to something much more serious. “I’m not joking—if we want to win this game, we need every single fucking advantage we can get. And that includes you.”
“I’m not an advantage.”
“Aren’t you?” Aidan questioned.
“I’m not right every single time. That was . . . that was lucky, on Sunday.”
“Sure, a little bit of luck, but also skill and the right analysis of the situation at exactly the right time,” Aidan said.
Lane wanted to argue that nothing was a guarantee and what if he guessed wrong? He’d been wrong before. Not justonce or twice, but lots of times.Rightlots of times, too, but somehow that didn’t make him feel any more like he should be volunteering his opinions.
But Aidan was clearly done playing around. He’d softened and mellowed this season, thanks to Levi, but notthatmuch.
“Come on,” Lane huffed out.
“You want to win? Because I fucking want to win,” Aidan said. He patted Lane on the shoulder. Less of a love tap and more of aget your shit together, dudesmack. “Think about it.”
“Sure,” Lane retorted.
Aidan turned and went into the room.
