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“You’re so damn pretty,” he murmured, his fingertips brushing one last time across my jawline.

“So are you,” I teased.

He laughed and righted himself in his seat. “What do you want to eat? I’m starving.”

I buckled my seatbelt and fished my phone from my bag. “I’m fine with whatever,” I answered, typing out my usual check-in text to my family.

Everyone got one, so there weren’t any hurt feelings. My parents, grandparents, and baby sister. It didn’t matter that we were still in the same town or that I visited every few weekends on top of seeing them at half our home games. They were adamant that I keep in touch. Ryder and Cade usually came along when I went since their house was right across the street. That Friday, in fact, we were heading back together.

“‘Whatever’isn’t an answer,” Ashton prodded as he pulled out of the lot, glancing over at me.

“What are you in the mood for?”

He grinned. “You.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s dessert.”

“Then we really need to find our main course.”

I smiled at the flirtation, telling myself, for what felt like the thousandth time, that this was what I needed. Something easy, predictable, and soft enough not to bruise me. He didn’t unravel me with a single look or make my lungs forget how to work when our eyes collided. He didn’t lace through every half-formed thought and dream like an inescapable ghost. He didn’t have possession of parts of me I’d buried so deeply I pretended they didn’t exist—the parts that had always, without question, belonged to my best friend. That’s why I was with him.

And exactly why I never should have been.

CHAPTER TWO

RYDER

I wrapped a towel around my waist, using another on my hair as I stepped out of the shower. Covering up wasn’t mandatory. Most of the guys let their dicks swing free without any shame. It didn’t bother me one way or the other, but I liked to spare myself the interest in my piercings. No matter how many times I explained the process, someone always asked about it once they caught a glimpse, and I had better things to do than discuss having my dick pierced.

The usual noise filled the locker room: laughter, lockers slamming shut, the low hum of post-practice energy winding down. My muscles still buzzed from the workout I always got on the field, a steady ache settling in my shoulders and legs. The shower shoes Sanjana always cycled in for me squeaked against the floor as I walked, each step pressing into sore calves and thighs that felt stretched tight but solid, in a good way.

From the showers, Dougie’s unmistakable voice echoed through the steam, belting out anN-Syncsong in a dramatic falsetto. A chorus of groans and laughter followed, but that didn’t stop him from going all in. A few of the guys caved and sang along like a fucking choir, their voices ranging from surprisingly decent to completely off-key. Same shit, new day. Dougie always picked a different song, anything from country to heavy metal. The man was a living-breathing jukebox.

I moved to my locker, grabbed my lotion, clean clothes, and deodorant, feeling every pull and flex in my shoulders as I gotdressed. Cade and Xander were on either side of me, talking about some chick who wanted a two-man.

I was too busy trying to ignore the fact that there was one person notably missing. Ashton had showered fast, said something about meeting his girl, and then got the hell outta there. If I had her waiting on me, I wouldn’t have even bothered with the locker room. I’d have insisted we shower at home, so we could both unwind differently. Together. But I wasn’t the one she was going home with.

Not tonight, anyway.

I popped the cap on my lotion, ignoring the rest of the room. A locker slammed. Someone laughed too loudly. Cade was saying something to Xander that I didn’t catch. “You look like you’re about to kill someone,” he leaned over and warned.

“Do I?” I glanced at him with an easy grin, smoothly correcting my expression.

“Sure do, kiddo,” he quipped, closing his own locker.

“Kiddo?” I laughed.

“Which one of you is older again?” Stu, one of our defense players and a dead ringer for Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, asked as he came around the corner, ass naked and still dripping wet because someone didn’t teach him how to use a fucking towel.

“This fool,” I replied affectionately, motioning toward my brother.

“A whole four minutes,” Cade boasted.

Xander laughed, well aware of our true family dynamic. Cade wasmonthsolder than me, not minutes, but hood-twins were frowned upon in the uppity town of Hemlock Heights.

Legacy tended to be everything, and our father didn’t want anything to tarnish ours, so we ran with us being twins. Fraternal, of course. It was a necessary compromise. Better than explaining how we were both blood brothers and cousins since our dad was fucking two sisters. My mother lovingly raised usboth. We were close as brothers could be, cut from two different molds. My hair was black as night; Cade’s was between dirty blonde and brown depending on the time of year. My eyes were light, and his were dark. Where I thrived on control, Cade chose chaos. I was calculated and strategic; he was impulsive, always looking for the next adrenaline rush.

We balanced each other out, and the world only saw what we wanted them to. He might have been off the rails at times, but he had his own kind of brilliance, too, a way of navigating life by breaking the rules, while I made sure things fell into place. Above all else, he was fiercely loyal to those he loved. Especially me. We didn’t always see eye to eye, but I knew Cade would get his hands dirty on my behalf in a heartbeat, no questions asked. I would do the same for him.

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