Page 42 of Perfect Storm
“Like yours is any smaller,” Levi retorted after he’d swallowed.
“But it’s going good, yeah? Aidan treating you well?”
Levi didn’t really want to touch the subject of Aidan Flynn with a ten-foot pole. Which was why he had ignored Landry’s offer to talk this morning with a quicksorry I’m busytext and taken up Logan on his instead.
“Yeah, of course,” Levi said, hoping that generic answer would smooth over any of Logan’s concerns.
“Good, ’cause he can be kind of an ass,” Logan said. Levi could hear a hint of his brother’s disapproval even over the phone. But then, Logan had never made any secret of how much their eldest brother’s best friend annoyed him sometimes.
“Come on, he’s not that bad,” Levi said. Part of him couldn’t quite believe he was defending Aidan, because before he’d never have done it, and surely that would make Logan think something was up. But the other part of him actually believed what he was saying, because now that he’d had the privilege to get a bit closer to Aidan, he could see what Landry had always seen: his loyalty, his protectiveness, and even his bone-dry sense of humor.
Then there was that he was screaming fucking hot, too. That didn’t hurt.
“Are you okay?” Logan asked, sounding mystified. “Aidan’s not that bad?”
“He’s mellowed,” Levi argued, even though he thought the opposite might actually be true. Sometimes Aidan reminded him of a polished diamond, all deceptively sharp edges, working harder than everyone else on the field while still attempting to look like he wasn’t. Levi didn’t want to be dazzled by Aidan’s facade, but it was hard not to be.
“Sure.” Logan didn’t sound convinced, but at least he’d accepted it.
“Things all good in Florida?” Levi changed the subject before Logan decided he had more to say about Aidan.
“Oh yeah,” Logan said. “We’re kicking ass here. Taking names. Dylan says hi, by the way.”
“Your boyfriend’s hot,” Levi said, because he knew it would annoy Logan.
He huffed out a breath. “You’re just saying that to get under my skin.”
Levi chuckled. “Or maybe he’s just hot.”
“But you don’t have tosayit,” Logan complained.
“Sure I do. What, do you not think Dylan’s hot?” It was too much fun to wind Logan up like this. Made it hard to resist.
“You know I do,” Logan said flatly. “Anyway, he says hi. He’s doing good too.”
“If everyone’s doing so good, why did you want to chat?” Levi wondered. He pressed his keycard onto the outside door to the apartment tower, letting himself into the lobby. A glance at his watch told him he had five minutes with Logan before Aidan had said they were leaving.
“I’m worried aboutyou,” Logan said, annoyingly self-righteous. “You fitting in okay there? How’re the other guys on the line? I know Griff some, he always seemed like a stand-up guy.”
“Never gonna stop worrying about your baby brother, huh?” Levi joked, but his heart was warm as he hit the button to the elevator that would take him upstairs so he could grab his bag from the condo before practice.
“Something like that,” Logan said.
“The guys are good. You’re right about Griff.” Levi paused. Wondering if he should say something. Logan was his brother, sure, but he played for the Piranhas, who didn’t need any advantages to be competitive.
“You sticking at right tackle?” Logan asked before he could say something.
Damn, it was like Logan knew him. That wasn’t so surprising, but it was amazing and also kind of frustrating to be known like this, inside and out. “You saw the speculation.”
“Kind of hard not to,” Logan said.
Levi hit the button for Aidan’s penthouse floor hard, swiping his keycard on the reader so it knew he was allowed to go up that high.
They’d had an open practice two days ago, and the media had seen Ross Acker struggle on a few plays to protect Aidan’s blind side, and since then, there’d been approximately a hundred articles about how their newly signed blockbuster right tackle, Levi Banks, had played left tackle more than adequately during the handful of opportunities he’d had.
Levi sighed. “The guy already kind of hates me.”
“Is it gonna be a problem?” Logan asked.
