But Nate just grinned. “Yeah, you fucking do.”
“I don’t know what you think you know—”
Nate interrupted him. “You literally came toourcondo and ranted about how you fucked up. You aren’t going to at least tell youun-fucked it?”
“How do you know I did?”
“How do I know? How about ’cause Iknowyou, and despite all the ways that you try to pretend otherwise, you’re not a total asshole.”
“Wow, thanks,” Lane retorted.
“But more than that, ’cause you looked relaxed as hell when you and Trevor showed up yesterday morning. Youandhim, notably.”
“Why is that notable?” Lane asked, even though he already knew.
If Nate was going to come over here and act like a smug idiot who thought he knew everything, then Lane was at least going to make him work for it a little bit.
Nate rolled his eyes. “Because you’ve been on a sex moratorium for God knows what reason, and Trevor has never struck me as the kind of guy who hooks up a lot. So yeah, you both show up looking relaxed and glowy? I’m gonna notice.”
“We might’ve worked it out,” Lane hedged.
“Good,” Nate said, patting him on the back. “I hoped you would. See? Not the end of the world.”
Except that kissing Trevor and then touching him, watching the wonder and pleasure in his face, had felt like both the endandthe beginning of the world. Lane had stupidly thought that maybe if he was Trevor’s experiment, then he’d eventually be able to get over this and move on. But if all the sex they ended up sharing felt like last night, shaking Lane’s world to its foundations, then he wasn’t sure that was going to happen after all.
But he pushed that thought away,hard.
The game was about to start, and he needed to lock in—he’d promised Aidan he’d help keep an eye out not just for Trevor, but for Bryce and Max Jefferson who were starting in their first game, substituting for Mo and Jaden, since they were resting before the playoffs started.
“I gotta—” He gestured towards the field, and Nate nodded, pointing to his own earpiece.
“Got it,” Nate agreed.
Lane dragged his attention back to the field as the replacement captains jogged out for the coin toss. He didn’t need to be agonizing or angsting about this, right now.
The refs flipped the coin, the Thunder elected to defer, and the defense took the field.
It was evident, from the way the Giants’ offense moved the ball, that the Thunder was missing a few key pieces of their defense. Sterling wasn’t playing. Nate wasn’t playing. Atkinsonwasplaying, and he made a nice open field tackle, finally stopping the Giants past midfield on third down, forcing them to try for a long field goal.
They made it, but it was still a win, considering how many passes they’d let Jaxon Dart complete. How many runs they’d had right up the middle, slashing right into the heart of the Thunder’s run defense.
Out of the corner of his eye, Lane saw Nate frowning as he leaned over Atkinson, some of the other guys playing today huddled around the tablet that he was holding out, showing them a play. One they’d made? Or one they’d missed?
Regardless, Nate didn’t look very pleased.
Lane hoped that he wouldn’t have to be that kind of hard-ass with the offense.
The Thunder didn’thaveto win this game—there’d actually be zero advantage to doing it—but that didn’t mean anyone wanted tolose. Didn’t mean that they didn’t want the backups to play well. At any point, someone could go down, injured, and backup would need to come in. This was a good test and good reps for those guys who hadn’t gotten on the field as much this year.
“Hey, kill it out there, okay?” Lane called out as Trevor jogged past him. At the last second, he hesitated before smacking Trevor on the lower back, close to the ass, in the same way he’d have done a hundred other times. The same way hehaddone a hundred other times. On the football field, during the lastseventeen weeks, they’d found the most equilibrium when they played together.
Lane hated when the Thunder had drafted Trevor. But it felt weird just watching Trevor jog onto the field without him. Turned out that Lane might hatethiseven more.
Turning his head, Trevor glanced behind him, pinning him with a pointed, hot look. Like he knew Lane’s hand had hovered there for a single second and then dropped to his side without doing a damn thing. He couldn’t, of course, but he knew what Lane would’venormallydone, anyway.
Trevor didn’t call him on it though, and a few minutes later, the new version of the Toronto Thunder offense ran their first play.
Wes looked nervous, and like he was trying very hardnotto be nervous as he took the first snap.
