“Yes. I will make it better. I promise.”
“Why?” He turned his face up, and I stared down at his long lashes. “After everything I’ve done—every bit the asshole I’ve been—why do all this for me?”
“Because I like you.”
He swallowed heavily. “Oh. Well.” Silence fell, and for a moment, I thought maybe that was all I was going to get. Then he said very quietly, “I like you too.”
For the moment, that was enough.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
MICAH
The silence was overwhelminginside the house. They knew. They were nosy little fucks, so of course they were watching, and it had been a conscious decision to lean into Vanya, to take the comfort he was offering.
I knew it would blow my cover.
But I also knew that Vanya wanted to tell the world about us. That he wanted this to be an us. I was the one who had been fighting him. It was up to me to fix it. He deserved better, but rather than leaving him so he could find someone else, I could be the man worthy of him.
Maybe.
Probably.
With enough help and with getting Hunter the fuck out of my way. But that was a problem for later. Right now, holding Vanya’s hand as we walked into Caleb’s living room, I had a lot of crow to eat.
“So,” I started.
“We should have been taking bets,” Jonah said. “Alexio swore you two fucked in his car. Oh god, you actually did, didn’t you.”
My silence was his answer.
“I hate you,” Jonah said. “I told him you would never.”
Vanya cleared his throat, his fingers gently playing with mine as he shifted from side to side, bumping against me as he moved. “It was…not on purpose. And I cleaned up!”
I almost choked on my own tongue. “Anyway, do we have to have a big discussion about all of this, or?—”
“I think we need to focus on the fact that some monster is stalking you and apparently also vandalizing other people’s homes,” Tucker said, matter-of-fact. “I mean, that’s the real fucking problem, and one we can probably solve with a couple of well-timed fists to his fucking mouth. We’ve done it before.”
Amedeo gave a small laugh. “Oh god, more punching?”
I’d almost forgotten Jonah and the other boys had flown to California to knock Amedeo’s shitty ex on his ass. And to their credit, he hadn’t tried to contact Amedeo again after that.
But I didn’t think that was going to work with Hunter.
“This is more than him being a dickhead,” I toldthem. “I don’t even know how he’s able to do all of this.”
“Clearly, he has connections.” I recognized the soft lilt of Killian’s voice, which sounded so much like Tucker’s, except he was always so hesitant. “We need to figure out who he’s connected to.”
“I already solve this problem,” Vanya said. “My brother knows people. We just need to give him time.”
“Meanwhile, your house is fucked, and Micah clearly can’t go home,” Jonah cut in. “How much time does he need?”
“Just two days, but is okay. My sister get us hotel for the next few days. We can get scratched another game or two,” he said, and I shuddered.
Ben would agree, but he was not going to like it. I’d already been gone for too long, and asking for more time was pushing it. Our backup goalie was good, but he was so fucking green.
“I’ll talk to Ben,” Tucker said. “Coach to coach.”
