Page 30 of Game Winner
I lay my hand over his to hold him in place. “Just something that’s been in my head for a while.”
“Since he met the two of you,” Gavin sings, then jumps out of my reach, laughing, as I launch myself at him.
“Really?” Soren tugs me back with him and Tyler. His grin, with the same smugness he gets when he keeps the opposing team from scoring, grows. Which, if I’m being honest, is kind of sexy.
“And on that note, we’ll say goodnight.” Heat flushing through me, I grab his hand and Tyler’s and head for the exit.
The frigid night air is a slap in the face. Bracing against the cold, I lead the guys toward my car. Soren’s is parked behind it.
“We really inspired a song?” The wind steals Soren’s question.
I unlock the car, embarrassed because we haven’t been together that long, and I’ve never written a song inspired by someone I’m dating. “It’s nowhere near ready. I’ll play it for you when we have something more cohesive.”
“Can’t wait.” Tyler pops a kiss on my lips. He then blows a kiss to Soren and climbs into my car’s passenger seat.
Tyler and Soren are together so much more because they live and work together, so Tyler getting in the car with me as for the drive to my place means a lot. Like he wants to make sure I don’t feel left out in any way.
The whole way home, thoughts of the night skip through my mind. It didn’t go the way I thought it would, but it’s ending the way I hoped.
With them.
“I like your view.” Tyler stands by the large window in my living room, looking at the city nine stories below.
“And I like your space.” Soren sets the small bronze brontosaurus beside the hunk of amethyst on my bookcase, then wanders past my drum kit to check out the watercolor of the Twin Cities above my couch.
Casting a critical glance around my place, I set three beers on the coffee table.
My apartment is small. A living room, kitchenette, one bedroom, and bath. Everything is modern thanks to renovations to the seventy-year-old building before I moved in, but it lacks the character of their house. No interesting moldings or glass doorknobs, no built-in cabinets or stained glass.
“I’m comfortable here, and it’s convenient for work. My commute’s pretty short.”
Tyler taps the drum’s high hat. “This looks a lot different than the ones I’ve seen you use on stage. Are these practice drums?”
“It’s an electronic kit so I won’t piss off the neighbors too much. Even with that, I’m careful about what times I play and for how long. My regular kit is in Gavin and Everett’s basement.They’re the only ones who have a house, so practicing there makes sense.”
He looks up, twirling my drumsticks like he’s trying to match what he’s seen me do on stage. “Are they close by?”
“They don’t live too far from your place.” The single house, which Everett inherited from his grandmother, is a big upgrade from the shitty, unsafe housing he used to share with his former band.
“What about Layne?”
“Layne’s place is smaller than this.” I gesture to my cozy space and grin when Tyler sets the sticks in exactly the same spot as he found them. “He lives above the music store where he and Gavin work. The one Sage goes to all the time.”
Soren holds the labradorite paperweight Layne gave me for Christmas up to the light, turning it to catch the play of colors. “I don’t know what I was expecting your place to look like. Maybe a lot of black leather and chrome, a bearskin rug, and music equipment all over. Not dozens of books and rocks and dinosaurs.” Smiling, he sets down the stone.
I glance at the tufted brown leather reading chairs I bought from the secondhand bookstore when the owner retired, the navy blue couch and cherry wood coffee table from my parents, the library lamps and bookshelves Layne and I found at an estate sale. My apartment looks like it belongs to someone older and more established than I feel. It says natural history nerd, not twenty-six-year-old rocker. “Are you disappointed?”
He strides toward me and cups my face in his hands. “Never.”
“It’s a surprise. A good surprise. I like all your layers.” His head dipped toward his chest, Tyler comes closer. Pink tinges his cheeks.
Grasping his hand, I pull him into Soren and me. The connection between us is a living, breathing thing.
Soren slides his hand up my back, and Tyler brushes kisses along my jaw. When Soren’s mouth settles on mine, Tyler trails kisses over his cheek and neck, and Soren sighs into me. He tastes of beer and smells like pine and cedar.
My pulse beating in the rhythm of desire, I slide my arms around them. The air thrums with anticipation, and I think inspiration isn’t far away. “I’m happy you’re here.”
Soren wraps his arm around Tyler, drawing us closer together. “Nowhere else I want to be. Here and now, with both of you.”
