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“So you liked the stats so much, you asked him out?” Donny looked enthralled.

Then again, considering what Carlos had said about our junior teammate’s interest in public play, it was entirely possible he was just using all this for inspiration.

“Hardly.” Luke rolled his eyes at the memory. “He ran into me, sent my lunch tray flying, and I ended up underneath him on the floor.”

“Which I’m sure you were complaining about,” Donny said, slyly.

Luke winked at him.

“Anyway,” Coach interjected, sharply.

“Let’s just say the stats were promising,” Luke continued, ignoring him, “but the real convincing came when he bought me another meal to apologize.”

“Clothed, presumably,” I asked, making a very conscious effort not to catch Coach’s eye.

“During the lunch, yes,” Luke agreed.

“Oh god.” Coach covered his face with his hands.

Maybe the memory of the conversation between us in his office was too fresh, but I couldn’t help but take pity on him.

“Brayden’s going on a date, soon,” I declared. “With Adam, my roommate.”

The expression on his face was one of pure betrayal. “Freshman entrapment,” Brayden muttered, mutinously.

“Payback for services rendered, more like,” Jefferson told him.

Carlos smirked; it was not lost on me that he’d been quite happy to help Brayden manhandle Adam, the very first time I’d brought him to meet my team bros. “Have you decided where you’re taking him?”

The sigh sounded long-suffering, even though it’d only been a matter of days since Brayden had agreed.

“Not yet. He’s fussy.”

I scoffed, feeling defensive of my friend. “No, you just don’t want to take him somewhere the two of you might be seen. Like he’s good enough when you’re horny, but not to be seen in public with.”

“There’s a reason,” Brayden told me, with something close to a glare, “why I don’t date, lil bro. And it’s not like I see you and Jefferson headed out to eat together.”

I frowned, nonplussed by his segue. “We get food all the time.”

He stared at me, like he couldn’t quite decide if I was being serious or trying to bullshit him. Then snorted.

“You’ll figure it out one day, lil bro.”

Glancing at Jefferson, I expected to find him looking as confused as I felt. In fact he was looking intently at Brayden, as if the two of them could communicate telepathically or something.

“Another burger, anyone?” Carlos slid the big platter into the middle of the table, breaking what had become a weirdly awkward silence. He winked at me and my puzzled expression.

“I’ll never turn down more meat,” Donny declared, reaching out.

“That’s certainly what they say about you,” Carlos observed, and the smutty joke was enough to puncture what was left of the lingering tension.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

“What was with Brayden’s weird comments?” I asked Donny as the two of us swept paper plates into a trash bag. Apparently janitorial tasks fell to the youngest members of the team, or at least that was what the older guys had insisted.

“Which ones?”

I frowned, memory replaying. Wishing there was a way to just show the junior what my mind’s eye was seeing: the intensity of the look Brayden had given me, and then the equally raw glare that he and Jefferson had exchanged.