Reconnecting with my friend and taking a much-needed break.
That, I could do.
There’d be time enough for deeper talk, which was probably best left till we were back home. Ryan would be able to disappear from the attention and microscopic lens he lived under here to the normality of the Sunny Coast. Sure there were Aussies who followed pro basketball, but with him being so out of media attention, it was less likely he’d be recognized.
“We have a lot to talk about,” I started, “and I think you have stuff you need to figure out too, but that can wait till we’re back home, yeah?”
His gaze was searching. “Okay.”
“But,” I said, the words already forming in my brain, the last things I wanted to share, but I had to, “what happened yesterday can’t happen again. I’m your friend. You need to keep to those boundaries.” Each word was just as much for me, but it wouldn’t help either of us to admit that. “Let’s just enjoy the next few days, okay?”
“I can do that.” His reaction was so easy to read, his relief visceral, but it weighed heavily on the dejection he struggled to shutter.
“So, plans?”
He bobbed his head once, and the resolve seemed to sweep over him, something I understood all too well. It was the only way I’d be able to survive the next few days in the States.
* * *
Ryan’s friendsseemed to take their cue from Ryan. Not a word was mentioned about what happened, which was more than okay with me. It was proving difficult enough to shrug everything aside, so I latched on to each meaningless although entertaining conversation I could.
Jayden finished off his omelet with a belch. Sutton reacted immediately by smacking him in the gut.
“Jesus, manners. Let your momma hear that coming from you.” Sutton rolled his eyes, and I laughed at the pair of them, tempted to call him out on his own belch yesterday, but the more I thought about it, the less convinced I was that he’d been actually drunk.
“Shit, man, don’t play the mom card.” Jayden rubbed at his stomach.
“You know she likes me better than you, so just keep acting like a pig.”
“You two been friends for long?” I asked. Their friendship and how they interacted were different from how they interacted with Ryan. Sure, they were all friendly, but Sutton and Jayden seemed tight.
“This fool?” Sutton quirked his brow in Jayden’s direction. “He ain’t my friend. He’s too much of a pain in the ass for that.”
Wide-eyed, Jayden slammed his hand against his chest. “You wound me, asshole. Don’t listen to Gale here,” he directed at me, and my mouth twitched at Sutton’s sneer when Jayden said his first name. “Galehere is a big softie, especially when it comes to his love for me.”
“Their bromance is legendary,” Ryan added, eyeing his two friends with a smirk.
“You see, legendary.” Jayden nodded, apparently pleased by the description from the self-satisfied grin and puff of his chest. “But to answer your question, Nate, Sutton here and I go way back. Met at basketball camp when we were fourteen. Sutton now kinda stalks me.”
I expected Sutton to interject, but when I glanced his way, he was side-eyeing Jayden with the barest of smirks and offering an eye roll.
“We kept in touch and ended up playing for the Leopards out west for a couple of years, and a few years back, we landed here. Well, not LA, but Minnesota.”
“What Jayden here failed to mention was I got contracted first for Minnesota. He puts in special requests with his agent to make sure we’re on the same team or at least close by.”
I grinned at how deadpan Sutton was and quickly followed up with a chuckle at Jayden as he went off on some sort of diatribe.
Ryan’s soft “Hey” pulled my attention away.
I raised my brows at him, my smile still in place. The slip happened almost instantly, however, before I could control it. The hurt and memory of the kiss slammed in unbidden, though, as soon as my gaze caught on his.
Fuck, I was a fool and had all but set myself up for this gigantic fall. That said, I couldn’t regret last night’s kiss or just how hot it was. While there were no regrets, it didn’t stop me from wishing things were different.
The only tell he gave that he may have seen my reaction was the slight hesitation before he said, “We have to head off to a short team meeting before the guys head back. You okay with coming with me? It should only take an hour, then we can do something.”
It took more effort than I thought to get control of myself and bundle away my hurt enough to try to let go—or at least bury it down for a few more days. “I can wait, but I think we then need to head to one of the theme parks.”
Biting hard on my cheek was the only way to school my features. The arsehole wasn’t a fan of theme parks when we were kids, but I loved a good roller-coaster ride.
