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He wasn’t sure that he would ever be ready to go back to the team.

Is that something he wanted to tell her?

What would she think about him?

“It’s good that you’re here to support your team.” She turned around on the swiveling chair and looked back at the lanes. “It looks like they’re going to have some fun tonight.”

He instantly missed her hand on his arm.

Instinct had him leaning in to reach for her hand.

Needy?

His hormones certainly were.

Every time she was close.

Every time she touched him.

When he could breathe in her scent.

He wanted it.

He wanted more.

He wanted her.

The screens above each team showed the team’s name and behind it the symbol of their military branch.

As he looked at all of them laughing and shit talking the team on the other side of the ball return, he felt the separation from his friends more keenly than normal.

When he was at the house, even when his other housemates were home, he could ignore certain feelings.

Out of sight out of mind was the closest he could come to the feeling.

This?

Being across a room, seeing the fun he’d used to participate in?

It ached.

A feeling he didn’t like added onto the grief he was still carrying like a rock strapped to his back.

A rock that was dragging him under the surface.

“So, what’s your highest score in a game?”

He heard the words, but it wasn’t until he felt the warmth of her hand back on his arm that he came alive again.

Buck looked down at her hand and covered it with his own.

If she’d pulled away or shown the slightest hesitation, he would have pulled away.

He didn’t want to pressure her.

He didn’t want to lose the one light he had in his life that wasn’t threatened by the shadows of his nightmares and the accident.

“You can tell me.” She leaned back in her chair, folding one leg over the other. Legs that were going to feature in his dreams later on. “I’ve played once or twice when I was at birthday parties growing up. I’m not about to judge.”