Page 206 of On His Team

“We’ve been seeing each other for a little while,” I admit.

Lucy pulls back fast enough that her hair swings over her shoulder. “A little while?”

I smile at her.

“No follow-up questions.”

Her jaw drops. “Gianna.”

“Absolutely none.”

Mara lifts one hand. “I can answer them.”

I turn slowly toward her. “Do you value your life?”

Her grin gets wider, but she lowers the hand.

Eventually the room starts moving again, mostly because Stanley decides relationship revelations do not outrank sushi. Rowan carries everything into the kitchen, and people begin opening containers and finding plates while the noise shifts into ten different conversations at once.

I end up sitting beside Rowan on the couch. Actually beside him. My thigh is pressed against his, and his arm settles along the back of the couch behind me before eventually coming to rest around my shoulders. I keep waiting for the old instinct to kick in — for one of us to shift away when someone looks over, or for me to check whether Benson noticed. It never comes.

Nobody reacts like the building is on fire. The absence of that tension feels stranger than the tension ever did.

Stanley appears in front of us a few minutes later with a plate piled high enough that Aspen has already told him twice to put something back.

He points one of his chopsticks at Rowan. “So did you ask?”

Rowan looks at me.

I immediately start laughing. “Oh, no.”

Aspen turns toward us from the kitchen. “What?”

I cover my mouth, already losing it. “This is so much worse.”

Rowan shakes his head. “G.”

“No, they need to know.”

“They absolutely do not.”

I feel giddy. “They absolutely do.”

The room starts quieting again because apparently everybody can sense when new information is about to become available.

I grin. “I called him my boyfriend while we were hooking up.”

Rowan closes his eyes.

The house detonates.

Lucy immediately covers both ears.

Benson sits up straighter. “That is enough information, G. Christ’s sake.”

“It gets worse,” I say.

“G,” Rowan warns.