Page 67 of Away Game

“You really should have your man make you a proper lunch on game day,” Oz joked.

“I’ll get on that. Follow us,” West called, slinging his arm around my shoulders.

“Can I come with you guys?” Easton called as he jogged back over to us.

“No,” I answered at the same time that West answered with a ‘yes.’

Easton jumped into the back seat before I could stop him.

Wrapping my arm around West’s waist, I pulled him close and kissed him on the cheek. “I was going to give you a blowjob on the way there, and now…”

“Fuck, I should have known when you let Oz drive your car. Now I’m going to be hard all through dinner.”

“If you want, I can give you a handy under the table,” I laughed at the pained expression on his face.

“Let’s go,” Easton yelled from the inside of West’s SUV. “I thought you were hungry.”

“Sometimes brothers can be annoying,” West chuckled under his breath.

For the next few hours, we sat in a back room of an Italian restaurant where we all ate until we could barely move and talked and laughed about everything under the sun before we all got back in our cars and headed back to our house. Everyone would be leaving in the morning to go back to their lives, and while we’d see them again soon for the big game, we had no idea when the next time after that we’d see them.

When I pulled up to the house, West’s SUV was already in the garage. The guys piled out of my car and headed inside—everyone except for Oz, who sat in the passenger seat with a silly grin on his face.

“Why are we hanging out here when all our friends are inside?”

“Because I’m supposed to keep you here for a couple of minutes,” Oz placed his hand on my shoulder as if to hold me back. “When you walk inside, be happy. You deserve it.”

I swallowed thickly. “Is someone dying?”

“Far from it,” he laughed. “I think enough time has passed that we can go inside.”

Reaching for my door handle, I looked back at Oz with narrowed eyes. “Have I ever told you I don’t like surprises?”

“Can’t say that you have. Perhaps because everyone was always too afraid to do anything for you.” He tried but failed at biting back a smile, which piqued my curiosity.

“This better be good, or I’m going to kick your ass,” I grumbled.

“I’d like to see you try,” he laughed. “Now, let’s go before they think something bad has happened to us.”

An uneasy feeling settled in my gut as I opened the door from the garage into the house. I had no reason to think anything bad would happen. Things between West and I had been great, but maybe Oz was right, and I needed to step up my game. But surely West wouldn’t ambush me in front of our friends to say he wanted more out of our relationship.

The house was dark as we walked inside, which was strange. Was the power out? It wasn’t snowing, and the generator would have kicked on if the power had gone down.

“West?” I called out. “Where is everyone?”

“God, you really do hate surprises. Come on, you big baby.” Oz grabbed me by the arm and dragged me further into the house.

When we were close to the living room, there was soft light flickering from the shadows. With each step I took, I saw candles on every surface of our living room and up the staircase.

“Is the power out?” I asked, but my words cut off when I saw West standing in the middle of the room by himself. I wasn’t sure where everyone else was, but I didn’t care at that moment. “What are you doing?”

“I’m hoping to make our lives even better, but for me to do that, you need to take a deep breath.” I did as he asked, but my eyes skimmed around the room and my ears picked up the sounds of our friends whispering. West held his hand out, and without thought, I took his in mine. His thumb moved back and forth over the back of my hand in a soothing motion.

Taking his other hand in mine, I held on a little too tight. “Our life is pretty perfect.”

“Would you be opposed to it being better?” West bit his plump bottom lip as he looked nervous all of a sudden. “I want to be able to call you more than my boyfriend or lover. I want the world to recognize us for what we are to each other. I want to look down at your left hand and see my ring on your finger and your ring on mine, and I hope you want all that too because I believe you’re the one for me.”

Even after all I put him through.

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