Page 67 of Perfect Storm
But no matter what Aidan said to defend Levi, Zane wasn’t happy about Levi demanding the switch. He wasn’t happy with Ned for giving in to it either. Even if it was only on a trial basis.
Aidan knew how shitty life could get if your coach didn’t have any faith in you. It hadn’t happened in the NFL, but for a year at Michigan, there’d been a coordinator who’d wanted hishandpicked QB to be the starter, and he’d done everything he could to topple Aidan from his spot.
He hadn’t won then, but Aidan wasn’t stupid enough to think that if Zane wanted Levi gone, he wouldn’t eventually be gone.
“I don’t need your protection, but the opposite is sure as fuck true. It’s why I’m here. That’s myjob,” Levi said, sounding wounded and offended.
He didn’t even know it, but he did need Aidan’s protection, no matter how good his contract had been. No matter how aggressively the Thunder had pursued him during this summer, all it took was getting on the wrong person’s bad side, and suddenly, Levi would be traded before the deadline.
Lots of teams would salivate over getting a lock down tackle.
Rightorleft.
“Levi,” Aidan warned. He didn’t want to tell him about what he’d heard.
Maybe if Levi had over-performed expectations, Zane would’ve shut up and dealt with it. But Levi hadn’t. He’d done well—but basically exactly as expected, playing the way anyone would if they were being switched to a slightly different position.
“I don’t get why you’re being a dick about this,” Levi complained. “I’m not gonna just roll up tomorrow and tell Coach, sorry, that was just too tough for me. I’m aBanks. We don’t do that shit. Neither do Flynns. You should understand, better than anyone else.”
Aidan understood all too well. But he also understood that this year, which might’ve been hellish for him, yet another without Mo on the field with him, and now, not even in his inbox or over the phone, had been better than he’d ever imagined, because of the guy next to him.
And he wasn’t going to let that guy go without a fight.
“I do understand that, but you gotta trust me here,” Aidan argued.
“I do but, bro, I am literally on the field to protect you. That’s my whole job, my whole existence.”
Aidan made a face as he pulled into his parking spot in the garage. “I can see we can’t be reasonable about this.”
“I’m not the one being unreasonable,” Levi continued as they got out of the car, pulled their bags from the trunk. “You’re being ridiculous.”
Aidan wanted to yell at him that he wasn’t disposable. He couldn’t just use himself up and then be okay with being tossed away.Aidanwasn’t okay with that.
“Not the first time I’ve heard that,” Aidan muttered. Riley had said it to him plenty, but back then he’d deserved it. He wasn’t being overprotective of Levi. He was just plain fucking protecting this good thing he’djustgotten.
God, two months ago, he’d never have even imagined he’d be in the trenches, fighting for Levi Banks, but here he was, and he wasn’t going to stop, not anytime soon.
“Maybe sometime you’ll actually listen,” Levi retorted. They stepped into the elevator, and he crossed his arms over his chest.
Aidan’s temper flared. “Menot listening! I’m fucking telling you . . .you know what? Never fucking mind. Just ask yourself if Toronto feels like Seattle. The shit you pulled on the regular in Seattle isn’t going to fly here.”
Zane was good, but he was tough and liked having things just the way he wanted them.
Levi elbowed him as they stepped off the elevator onto their floor. “Are you fucking joking? I wouldn’t haveeverpulled this shit in Seattle.” He dropped his bag on the floor just inside the living room. Aidan wanted to complain that wasn’t the right place for his shit, but Levi was still going and didn’t seem like he was going to stop anytime soon. “It wouldn’t have ever even occurred to me to say anything. I’d just have showed up, everysingle fucking day, and done the job I was given. But here—butyou—it’s different.”
Levi looked at him then, and something in his face reminded Aidan of that morning in his Michigan kitchen. A wanting he’d kept trying to find there and hadn’t ever seen since then.
“What do you mean?” Aidan asked, licking his suddenly very dry lips. He should go into the kitchen, find some water. He was probably dehydrated. But he was rooted to this spot on the floor. Staring at Levi like he was about to hear all about the shape of the missing puzzle piece.
But Levi just rolled his eyes. “You know what I fucking mean, bro.”
Aidan really didn’t. He wouldn’t have asked otherwise. He never asked questions he didn’t already know the answer to. And he really didn’t know the answer to this one.
Anger flared to life inside him. Hot and molten, lurching through him in waves, in a way that he never got pissed off anymore. Because he never let it. He certainly never let it overtake him, not like this. But it was doing it now, places inside him flaring to life, and his hand shook as he ran it through his hair.
He wanted to push Levi. He wanted Levi to tell him the fucking truth, for once.
He wanted him to stop flirting so meaninglessly and flirt withpurpose. Withhim.
