Page 7 of Away Game

“Come on, Fin, let me help you out. If it helps you make the right decision, I won’t say a word the entire way.”

I let out a bark of a laugh. “I’m grabbing my keys and locking up. Do you know how to get to Pigeon Hawk Lane from here?”

“I know the way. Once we get closer, you’ll have to direct me, though. I’ve never had any use in finding myself out that direction.”

While I grabbed my gear from the car, West threw my jack and four-way in the back before he went back to his truck and turned it on. Hopefully, the piece of shit truck would be warm after being turned off for the last ten minutes.

When I got to the door, it felt like I was about to rip the door off its hinges, trying to open it. I wasn’t sure once I got it open if it would even close.

“It’s old, but it gets the job done,” West said as he patted the dash.

When I turned to look at him, I could have sworn he was blushing, but maybe it was from standing outside in the near arctic temperature.

“As long as it gets me home and the heat works, I don’t care.” I placed my gloved hands in front of the vents and instantly felt the heat through my gloves.

“This thing heats like a beast. In no time, you’ll be sweating your balls off.”

“Good, they could use a sauna treatment.” I chuckled—another rarity for me.

I hated how at ease I felt with him after being in his presence for only a short amount of time. I didn’t understand why he had this effect on me. It was unlike anything I’d ever felt around anyone before, and I hated it was with him. Why couldn’t it be with one of the many girls who threw themselves at me?

At first, I thought it was the fact that they made it so easy to let me shove my cock down their throats that made their actions a turnoff, but I knew that wasn’t the case. While I knew if a girl was pretty or not, they weren’t what got me amped up. It was one person only, and he was sitting right beside me with no idea how he tormented me whenever I was around him.

Ever since Lo said West was gay, it was all I could think about. Had I already known, and that’s why I had this abnormal attraction to him? No, that wasn’t it, but I had no idea what it was. If I had, I would have kicked his ass and made sure he stayed as far away from me as humanly possible until my dying day.

I couldn’t like him. Not in that way, or at all, for that matter. My parents would disown me, would stop me from receiving any money from my trust fund, and my college tuition would be up to me to provide. Nothing and no one was worth going through that hell.

In the fight to keep my mouth closed and my body’s response to him a secret, I held myself rigid on my side of the truck.

West was true to his word and kept silent until he slowed the truck to a complete stop. I looked up from staring out the side window to find a road closed sign in the middle of the road.

I would have told West to go around it, but there were barricades on both sides. Even though I hated it, I would trust the CALTRANS to know if the road was passable or not.

“Fuck, the road’s closed.” He slammed his hands on the steering wheel and muttered under his breath. “It’s the only way to your house, and the snow is only getting worse.” He let out a resigned huff. “You can stay at my place tonight, and hopefully, first thing in the morning, the roads will be clear.”

Looking out my window at the rapidly falling snow creating almost whiteout conditions, I knew I didn’t have much choice in the matter. I swung my head back to stare at him. It was either have West leave me out on the side of the road or stay at his house. The plus side was I could at least torture him all night.

“Fine,” I gritted out.

“Don’t sound too excited about it. You know I’m doing you a favor here, right? I could have left you back at your car for you to die of hypothermia.”

I rolled my eyes. “You wouldn’t have done that.”

“And why not?” he asked, sounding annoyed.

“Because you’re too much of a nice guy.” I didn’t tell West even I wouldn’t have left someone in need of help in the weather we were having.

He turned the truck around and drove for a few minutes before he responded. “I’m not always a nice guy.”

“What’s the last thing you did that made you an asshole?”

West took his eyes off the road for a few seconds and stared at me as if I knew the answer to my own question. When I widened my eyes at him and shook my head, he blew out a breath and looked back at the snow-covered road.

“Outside the Lucia’s when… when you know,” he stuttered quietly and then chewed on the inside of his cheek.

Knowing he was embarrassed by catching Candy blowing me had me smiling like a Cheshire cat. I loved it.

“When what happened outside the diner? It’s not a place I often frequent, so who knows what all happens when I’m not there.” He was the reason I always suggested someplace else to eat when the guys or the team wanted to grab something to eat.

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