Page 81 of Unrivaled

“Believe me,” he said, “nothing Max suggested could’ve made the situation any worse.”

That, at least, Jess seemed to accept. “Okay, but dating a rival player who oncebroke your arm?”

“That was an accident.” Of that, Grady had no doubt. “Look, it just happened. Like I said, I found out Baller got traded instead of me, and Max could’ve been a dick about it, but he said he was sorry and the situation sucked and then he asked if I wanted to get high.”

“Grady!”

If she was reacting like that over a little recreational marijuana, he definitely wasn’t telling her he’d let Max fuck him bare. “Don’t even, Jess. You live in Colorado. It was pot. We ended up talking and he invited me to Christmas with his family.” Jess didn’t need to know she was the whole reason Grady had gone in the first place.

“Just like that?”

“I don’t know what you mean ‘just.’ We’d been sleeping together for months by then.” Grady squared his shoulders. “I get that you’re surprised—I was too—but Max is great. I mean, he’s the one who figured out what was going on with you and Amanda and Polly, right?”

From her expression, this hadn’t occurred to her. She looked like she’d bitten into a lemon. “I guess.”

Grady didn’t know what else to tell her, or how.He feels safe? He’s kind and generous and makes me laugh? He helps me remember what it’s like to be able to rely on someone other than you?Everything seemed too emotional, or too private, or too… damning. He didn’t know how to say those things to Jess without her taking it personally. She’d done the best she could raising him. He’d always be grateful for that.

So he settled for, “I like him a lot, okay? He’s a different person off the ice. I mean, he’s the same, but he doesn’t take any of it seriously, if that makes sense. I could learn a few things.”

Finally Jess cracked a smile. “Who are you and what have you done with my baby brother?”

“Hey,” he protested. “A guy can’t grow as a person?”

“A guycan, sure. But you?” Her smile softened. “I’m sorry I’m being so… whatever. It’s not like I don’t have teammates who ended up with someone from a rival team. But I thought the two of you hated each other.”

Grady shrugged sheepishly. “So did I. But Max never did.”

Jess reached out and squeezed his hand. “I worry about you, is all. Big-sister thing. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“I know.” Grady had worried about that in the beginning too. “He’s not going to fuck me over on purpose, okay? We had that talk way early in the….”Relationship.God, he’d been dumb.

Judging by Jess’s raised eyebrow, she thought so too. “Oh? What did he do?”

It didn’t seem fair to hedge now. “He brought up our, uh, off-ice activities on the ice. I said we could fuck around off the ice or on it but we weren’t going to do both.”

She snorted. “Nice phrasing.” Then she shook her head. “Okay, tell you what. I’ll reserve judgment until I meet him in person.”

“Great,” he said immediately, “because I invited him for New Year’s.”

“Grady!”

She was going to wear out his name at this rate. “Come on. It’s not fair if you get two dates and I don’t even get one.”

“Fine.” She shot him a small smile. “But I better not hear you having sex.”

“No promises.”

The next day Grady and the Firebirds played their best game of the season—maybe the best game they’d played in years. He was thrilled to get to do it while his sister and her girlfriends watched from glass seats. Barny stopped all twenty-seven shots for his first-ever career shutout, and the whole team mobbed him afterward.

There was no way Grady could skip out on the celebration, so he texted Jess that he’d be late and not to wait up.

Then he texted Max.Barny pitched his first no-hitter. Go easy on us tomorrow, we’re gonna be hungover.

send me a drunk naked selfie and ill think about it

No, he wouldn’t, but Grady smiled anyway.

The twenty-eighth dragged. Grady wanted to prove to himself—okay, and Jess—that he and Max were on the same page. Ever since she’d voiced her concerns, he’d been a little on edge. It was normal to be nervous before a define-the-relationship talk, right? And Jess had him second-guessing himself.

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