Page 63 of Mad Rivals
“Bradley? No more mule?” he asks.
“After last night, I don’t think I can call you a mule anymore.”
“I can still call you a tiger,” he says, and he raises a brow as my cheeks turn bright pink.
“Can I do anything to help?” I ask, changing the subject as I think about what I could call him after last night. Sex god?
He shakes his head. “You can help yourself to coffee, but I’ve got this under control.”
I go ahead and do that, and I perch on one of the stools at the counter so I can watch him do his thing. Once he gets the pancakes into the oven and sets a timer, he walks around the counter and drops his lips to mine for just a quick kiss. He rounds the counter to wash out the batter bowl, and he dries it and puts it away before he gets started on the sausage.
He’s meticulous in everything he does, and I could literally sit here sipping coffee and just watching him all day.
“When do you have to go to San Diego?” I ask.
“Midway through next month is when OTAs start, but I’ve got a trip booked for a long weekend this week, and I should get there a little more often to start bonding with my new teammates,” he says. He doesn’t turn to face me as he answers, instead keeping his focus on the food.
“OTAs?” I ask.
“Organized team activities,” he clarifies. “The ones in May are voluntary, but they’re sort of the unofficial kickoff of the season. My first chance to work out and start drills in the actual facility instead of at off-site gyms.”
It’s too soon to ask how that’ll affect whatever it is we’re starting. It’s too awkward to ask if we’re actually starting anything at all or if last night was an anomaly. It doesn’t feel like it was.
It feels like something passed between us last night that bonded us in a new way, and to be honest…I don’twanthim to go to San Diego. I want to have the time to explore whatever this is, even if we have to explore in secret because of our fathers and business and all the other crap in our way.
He sighs as he turns to face me. “My father said he’s opening a branch of Bradley Group in San Diego so I can work on my days off.”
My brows shoot up. “In San Diego? When?”
He shrugs. “I didn’t ask. I don’t know, but it’s just another way for him to keep tabs on me.”
I tilt my head thoughtfully. “VBC has a branch in LA, you know.”
“Really?”
I nod. “It’s not in LA itself. I forget the town. Aliso Viejo, maybe? It’s in the southern part of the greater Los Angeles area, so we all just call it the LA office.”
He tilts his head, too, as we both think that one over.
Neither of us says it, but the distance between LA and San Diego isn’t really all that far. Especially if he’s in the northern part of the San Diego area and I’m in the southern part of Los Angeles.
We could try to make it work. But it might be hard to sell my father on why I want to move to the LA branch considering I don’t have any work there when I do have a big project here.
“Do you get many days off when you’re in season?” I ask, changing the subject before we go down a road neither of us might be ready to tackle.
He shakes his head. “Tuesdays. Sometimes Mondays. That’s it apart from our bye week.”
“Is real estate development what you want to do with those days?” I ask.
“Fuck no. It’s my one chance to reset and recharge, to bond with teammates off the field, to participate in community events or charity or do whatever the fuck I want. Going into the office is not part of that plan,” he says.
My brows dip. “What about the SCS project?”
“I figure by the time the season starts, we’ll be on the permit phase, and that always takes forever.” He shrugs. “I’m hopeful I can get through the season without having to do much becauseall the plans will be in place, and we’ll just be working on the backend stuff that isn’t really part of my job description anyway.”
“So you’ll pawn it off on someone else?” I demand. “Who am I going to be working with?”
He chuckles. “Me. But, yes, I’ll pawn a certain extent of it off on someone else because I physically won’t be able to make certain quick decisions. I’ve already pegged Margot and filled her in on the basics.”
