Page 226 of The Fake Date Agreement

Ryder turns to Reid, and for several seconds, he doesn’t speak.

Reid scratches his hair. “So, you see yourself quitting that factory job you hate, and maybe…” He grunts when Ryder drags him into a painful-looking hug.

“Thank you, little brother. I never thought…”

I have tears in my eyes when Ryder’s voice cracks. Ryder squeezes him again, and I blink back tears because I know what it is to be scared to hope that your dreams will ever come true.

“The only reason I have any of this is you,” Reid says, hugging him back just as hard. “The only thing I regret is not being able to do this sooner.”

Later, when we leave for drinks at the campus bar, Ryder is wearing his new jersey with ASST. COACH stamped on the back.

I’m a little confused when Ryder says to Reid, “I’m hoping for Tobie’s sake that you’ve outgrown the sand-throwing phase.”

I look at Javier.

He shakes his head. “You don’t want to know.”

“Yeah.” Reid twists around to wink at me. “I’ve matured. I have a different way of showing a girl I like her now.”

I blush red-hot when I remember his visit to my room, and Caleb laughs and wraps his arm around me.

Chapter 56

Tobie

Marc did not graduate.

He dropped out or transferred. Or whatever. I didn’t spend my graduation looking for him or worrying about him. I spent it laughing with my dad and the three men I love.

I thought about calling the cops on him, but Caleb just wanted to move on. Considering he was the one most hurt by Marc, I decided to drop it as well.

Max came to our graduation, though she refused the offer to join us for dinner afterward. She’s happy for me and the guys, but she was not the least bit comfortable being around the rest of their teammates.

Dinner with all the families started off awkward. The awkwardness soon melted away as Caleb, Reid, Javier, and I talked about the future we all wanted. Maybe it’s an unconventional way to live, but we love each other, and we’re determined to make things work.

After graduation, we flew by private plane to a luxury villa in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, that Javier rented for our month-long summer vacation before the draft at the end of June and the start of their preseason training at the end of September.

They’ve all signed with one of the best sports agencies in the country and have heard more than a few whispers from their agents that they could start their professional careers with the West Virginia Raiders, an NHL team in Virginia.

Grad school doesn’t start for me until the fall, so we have time to spend together. That means getting the guys settled in Virginia, if the draft goes the way we expect it to, and then getting me situated in Michigan, which thankfully, isn’t a million miles away.

The guys have hit the gym the way they like to most mornings, and when I go looking for breakfast, I find a notebook on the white marble kitchen counter. I’m still trying to figure out the roughly drawn diagrams when they return. “Is this one of your hockey plays?”

They freeze in the kitchen doorway, eyes bouncing between the notebook I’m holding and me.

“Caleb?” He’s the one most frozen, and this looks like his handwriting. My eyes return to the diagram. “I thought there were six players on a team. And there are only four drawn here.”

I’ve been learning more about hockey, but this diagram doesn’t make sense.

I’m sure I overheard them talking in the kitchen before they left. Had they been working on this? “Caleb?”

He sets his gym bag down, and sweat glistens on his bare chest, briefly distracting me. “We’ve been planning.”

“For?”

Javier walks over to the refrigerator and opens the door, pulling out three bottles of water and tossing one at Caleb before turning to look at me. “The something more you said you might want.”

My fingers tighten around the notebook, and the crinkle of paper draws my gaze back to… “Oh!”

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