Now Aidan thought they were fucking all the time. What was going to happen when Wes pointed out that Ramsey hadn’t spent a single night in Nate’s bed yet?
Nate pushed that thought aside. If he spent any more time theorizing—daydreaming—about Ramsey in his bed, he’d be totally fucking useless.
The more pressing issue was why Ramsey hadn’t told him about tonight.
But sure enough when he reached the locker room and his phone, there was a text from Ramsey on it.
Hope you’re ready for our couple debut,it read.
Sure, yes, he’d known this was coming. It was the natural conclusion of the plan he and Ramsey had hatched together. Or, really, the planRamseyhad hatched and he’d been stupid enough to go along with.
But he’d thought he’d have time to prepare. To shove everything he wasnotfaking deep down and lock it away.
A few hours from now was not enough time to do that. Not even close. Of course, now that Nate was really thinking about the whole thing objectively, a few days or a fewweeksmight not have been enough time.
You could’ve told me,Nate texted back.
And then you’d panic and declare that you weren’t going.
As Nate stripped off his practice jersey and his pads, he made a face, annoyed at how well Ramsey had read him.
It’s gonna be fine,was on his phone when he came back from the showers.Just follow my lead.
That did not make Nate feelthatmuch better.
What he should do is demand that they make an actual plan. Set boundaries. Agree on a few very specific instances of PDA—like the hand holding they’d been practicing, for example—and stick to those.
But Nate was stupid and didn’t say anything, just sent Ramsey back a thumbs-up along with a,pick you up at 6:45.
Don’t be too eager,Ramsey teased, the text coming in on his drive back to his condo.
Nate groaned out loud in his car. But there was no way to avoid this, no way to temper it until it became less insane.
That ship had sailed the moment he’d given in to Ramsey’s insanity.
He parked in the garage, took the elevator up to his floor, checking the time as he let himself into his condo.
He had an hour before he had to grab a cab to Wes’ place to pick Ramsey up. Normally, he’d wear sweatpants and a T-shirt to go to Aidan’s to play video games, but this was supposed to be a date. He was supposed to be putting in effort for Ramsey—and Ramsey was a guy who looked likethat.Even the guys on the team who had zero ability to dress themselves would be able to look at him and go,yeah, whatcha doing about that, Big Dog?
Whatwashe doing about that? Well, he could throw some jeans on.
He’d just picked out a long-sleeved henley in a dark maroon color that he thought made his arms look pretty good, when there was a knock on his front door.
Nate wasn’t expecting anyone, but after he opened the door to Ramsey, he supposed he should have.
“Hey,” Ramsey said, his smile a small secretive tilt of his lips. “I thought it just made sense for me to come over to your place first.”
Nate wanted to be annoyed, but it was hard to be when Ramsey looked like that. Light blue knit cap pulled down over his blond curls, making his eyes more a stormy gray than blue, and his silver puffer jacket emphasized the broadness of his shoulders and the narrowness of his waist.
“At some point I’m going to regret giving your name to the doorman,” Nate grumbled, but Ramsey barely blinked as he ushered him inside.
“It makes sense,” Ramsey continued like he hadn’t said anything, “because if you picked me up, we’d have to bring Wes.”
“You don’t want to third wheel Wes?”
“It feels mean,” Ramsey said softly.
“Oh, because of Wes’ ex?” Nate didn’t know that whole story, but whatever had happened, it seemed Wes was still dealing with the fallout.
