Page 32 of Lucky Sucker

“Ok.” I took the pad to see the names he’d already written. There were a lot of names. I had to looked up at Wren, amazed his brain worked. I read some of them aloud. “Puckaneers, Ice Capades, Orca Overlords, Killer Whale Kings, Yarnstorm, Crochet Crushers.”

“That one is my favorite,” he said.

“Well, yeah, I guess if you only drafted from the Orcas you could have them, but isn’t the whole point of the fantasy league to create the team you want, not one that already exits,” I said. “I do like Puckaneers.”

“I also liked—” he wiggled, almost pushing himself over the bed to point at a name on the notepad. “Puck and Purl.”

“Do you mean pearl?”

“No,” he giggled. “Purl is a type of stitch, usually for knitting, but you can get the same type of effect with crocheting.”

“Aren’t they the same thing?”

He fell forward in shock, right onto my lap. Thankfully, my laptop was already on the floor. “No,” he said, curled up on my lap as I held him. “They’re two different things. Crochet is done with hooks, and knitting is done with two knitting needles.”

I stroked the back of his neck with my thumb. “Then I think you should go with the name that fits you the best,” I told him. “So, Puck and Purl or Crochet Crushers.”

He stared at me in this position and smiled. I leaned in, craning my neck to kiss him. His warm skin on my lips was nice to feel. Flushed red, he pressed the back of a hand against his forehead. “Can we open a window?”

“I should’ve asked before I did that,” I said.

“No, I fell into your lap, I kinda let it happen because I maybe wanted to see how it would feel.”

Cradled with my arm holding his head up at one side and my other arm hooked around his legs, he was like a baby in my arms. “And how does it feel?”

“Safe.”

“Good. You should feel safe with me.” It was all I wanted him to feel.

“I think I’ve decided on my name,” he said.

Puck and Purl was his team’s name, citing that he didn’t know if he had the time to create crochet players for each of his picks. I was once again surprised by his skillset. I didn’t even know people could make stuff like that, I thought they were all done by machines. I shouldn’t have been too surprised given the orca he’d made Jack and the one he carried around everywhere with him.

“I know I want you as my first pick,” he said. “Can I input that now?”

“Looks like you’ve got to wait until the 10th when the pick open,” I told him, looking over the website where I’d filled in his data. “But you actually can include the names of the players you want in the notes.”

“Oh god no, I don’t want people seeing who I want.”

“For your eyes only,” I said before typing my name into the notes. “I’m thinking Liam and Jack are great picks as well.”

Wren batted his lashes at me. “Is that you trying to tell me they’re going to be playing most of the games?”

I held my hands up. “I’m not saying anything.” I mimicked a padlock across my lips.

A knock came at my door, followed by someone trying the handle, and opening it. Zachary stood there in sweatpants and an undone zip through hoodie, showing off his body, not to me, but in the face of Wren.

“Everything good?” I asked.

“Heading out on an evening run,” he said. “Forgot you had company.”

“I’m leaving soon,” Wren said.

I reached out to touch his lap. “Aren’t you gonna stay over? Barely had time to show you the ceiling projector.”

He shook his head. “That wasn’t the plan,” he had a slight giggle. “But I do need to leave soon. So, you should go out for a run. I don’t want to be the reason why you’re not training.”

Zachary had walked inside. We had very few boundaries as a team. “Oh snap, people keep asking me about the fantasy league,” he said. “Are you going to pick me?”

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