Page 76 of Perfect Storm
Aidan chuckled. “Hey, Dom. This is Levi, a friend and a new teammate. Had to bring him to try the best pizza in town.”
Dom’s dark eyebrow arched. “Then why’d it take you so long to come see me? You’ve been back in the Six for ages, dude.”
“Training. You know how it goes. If I thought I could get away with it, I’d be here every week, you know that.”
“You athletes,” Dom said with a resigned sigh. “Depressing.”
“You can’t tell me Jones and Reynolds or, God forbid, Matthews or Marner come here regularly,” Aidan said.
“No, and they know better.Theyget recognized.” Dom shook his head. “Can’t believe more people don’t recognize you.”
“It’s a blessing,” Aidan said, sounding like he meant it.
“Good thing you’re not a hockey player,” Dom said wryly. “What can I get you two? Your usual?”
Aidan looked over at Levi, who was in the middle of trying to figure out if Dom might be gay—and even more, if Dom somehow had a crush on Aidan and that was why he’d immediately demanded to know who Levi was.
Then, of course, Levi wondered, because he couldn’t fucking help himself, if Aidan had ever brought Mo here. He wasn’t going to ask though, because obviously he must’ve. Mo had been one of Aidan’s best friends. His best friend on the Thunder, for sure.
“I always get their supreme pizza, and the garden salad to start. You good with that?” Aidan asked.
Levi nodded.
“Glass or two of chianti, too?” Dom asked hopefully.
Aidan just laughed. “I wish, but no. We’ll just stick with water.”
Dom made a face but disappeared a second later behind the swinging kitchen door.
“Been coming here for awhile,” Levi observed.
“Yeah. Dom’s a . . .well, a friend. He comes to Thunder games sometimes. I get him tickets to my suite. He’s originally from California, and don’t tell anyone, but he says hockey just isn’t the same.”
Levi was not going to ask. He was absolutelynotgoing to ask.
“Just a friend?” he asked anyway.
Aidan’s expression morphed from shock to astonishment to amusement. “Are you for real?”
Levi wanted to tell him he was just joking. That he hadn’t meant it. But he kinda had. “In my defense, bro,” Levi said, painfully aware at how un-casual he sounded, “youareAidan Flynn.”
“Yeah, okay, but you know—well, youknow,” Aidan retorted without much heat.
He did know. Aidan had been in love—wasin love?—with Morris Jeffries. And two months ago, he’d told Levi that he’d never done anything with a guy before.
But that didn’t mean Dom didn’t wish that things were different.
“I promise,” Aidan continued dryly, “I’m notthatmuch of a prize.”
That was a complete fucking lie. Aidan was hot and funny, in a lunatic, overachiever, dry sort of way. He was rich and a famous quarterback in the NFL, even though he was doing it in a city that cared way more about the Leafs and their never-ending quest for a Stanley Cup.
“The craziest part of that sentence is that I think you might actually mean it,” Levi said, shaking his head in disbelief.Because Aidan was a lot of things but he wasn’t the kind of guy who pretended not to be awesome so someone would argue with him.
“Of course I mean it,” Aidan said, shooting Levi a confused look.
Levialmosttold him that just because Mo hadn’t wanted him didn’t mean nobody else did, but he’d done a very good job of keeping the guy’s name out of his mouth so far and he wasn’t about to break now.
“Besides,” Aidan added, “Dom’s got a boyfriend.”
