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I quirk my eyebrows at her, but when she doesn’t expand, I question, “About what?”

She arches her eyebrows in return, but says nothing.

After a minute, I ask, “Do you want to show up together, or go separately?”

“Uh.” Her eyes grow wide as saucers.

“How about you go down and ‌say hello to everyone, and I’ll finish up a few things here?” I suggest. I don’t really have anything to do here, per se, but I’ll find a few things to do if that makes Lettie more comfortable.

“Okay, yeah. That works.”

She pulls away from my arms, and I suddenly miss the loss of her warm body. She straightens ‌her shirt then fixes her hair, pushing it behind her shoulders.

“Okay. I’ll see you down there,” Lettie announces as she turns to the door.

* * *

Half an hour later, the six of us are gathered around Sebastian’s dining room table, which is a first for me. I’ve eaten at his place dozens of times, and I’ve never seen this table used before, but I know my buddy is trying to impress his girl.

“Help yourself,” Sebastian says, referring to the French takeout he bought, trying to pass it off as his homemade dinner. Am I going to snitch on my best friend? Hell no.

I hide my smirk behind my beer glass instead.

“This is delicious,” Bryce’s girlfriend, Goldie, compliments. She’s full of energy and chatting to everyone at the party like we’ve known her for years. I’ve only met her twice before, but she’s easy to remember, especially with her golden locks.

“Yes, thanks, buddy, for hosting us,” I add, lifting my drink to my lips.

We chow down on our food, making small talk between bites.

“Oh, Annie! I forgot to tell you!” Goldie says as she’s holding her fork in the air without placing it in her mouth. “I got my dress over the weekend! Remind me to show you a picture later!”

“That’s awesome! What color did you get?” Annie asks.

“Red, of course!” Goldie takes a bite of her food and then turns to Scarlett. “Oh, Scarlett, are you attending the Revs’ holiday party this year?”

“Oh,” Scarlett says while looking at her feet. “I don’t think so.”

Sebastian has taken Scarlett to this event before, as well as to different work events in the past, but I’m assuming now that he has a girlfriend, he’s taking her instead. Although we didn’t always talk much, I always looked forward to seeing Lettie at these events.

“You should go with Calvin,” Goldie suggests.

Scarlett blushes slightly but says nothing.

“I don’t have a date,” I confirm, meeting her eyes. I often go stag to these kinds of things. I would love to go with Lettie. Actually, she’s the only one I would want to go to this holiday party with if I’m being honest.

I peek over at Sebastian and ask, “Is it okay if I go with your sister?”

“I’m good with that,” he says easily. “It would be great to have you there, Scarlett.”

I let out a silent breath of relief.

“I’d love to be there,” Scarlett says as she smiles over at me. “Is it before or after the holidays this year?”

Our team hosts a holiday party at the same downtown luxury hotel every year, and the only thing that changes is the date. It depends on our game schedule, whether it’s December or January, and since we already had our bye week and Thursday night game earlier this season, we are having our holiday party in January this year.

“After our last regular season game, which is on a Saturday in January, and the holiday party is on Sunday night,” I answer.

We are on track to make the playoffs this year, especially since we have one of the best records in the league so far. I’m also hoping we get the bye week for the playoffs the following week, but there’s only one in our conference to grab. We have a solid chance of being the top seed, but it only takes one slipup for that bye to move to an opponent. The game can be brutal that way.