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The point is you could have someone if you put the effort in. Your personality leaves a lot to be desired, but you’re rich and you have a nice face. Plenty of guys would hit that.”
“Grades, I mean this with all the love in my heart.” She reached across the table and took his hand. “But you’re an overcompetitive asshole. What nice guy is going to sign up for you?”
So maybe Max had had an idle fantasy or three about how to help Armstrong unwind. Or, honestly, not—he’d probably be equally good in bed cranky.
Grady needed to stop thinking about it. He had a game tomorrow. He couldn’t be up all night dissecting what it meant that Max Lockhart gave him a hand job and he liked it. It meant he had a dick and enjoyed having someone else touch it for once. The end. Focus on the game.
Fortunately Max had plenty of experience antagonizing men into doing what he wanted. Getting a guy to fuck you and slap your ass wasn’t all that different from getting one to crosscheck you and punch you in the face.
Grady didn’t think so either. Clearly he could not date someone who thought palm oil was an acceptable ingredient in ice cream.
“How far along are you? Does Hedgie know?” “Like six weeks, no he doesn’t, and don’t tell him.”
There’s no way I would tell one of my friends I was pregnant BEFORE I told my husband.
Max hadn’t said anything particularly personal, apart from that whole baby thing. Grady wasn’t and would never be his baby.
We’ll see about that.
Besides, it worked, so Grady either didn’t notice that it reeked of desperation or didn’t care.
🤣 it’s giving desperate
Then Grady said, Do you actually take guys mini golfing? Fuck, did Grady fuck up a slam-dunk date like mini golf? Max couldn’t wait to find out how.
Instead, he had a whole flight of tiny glasses. He could knock back six miniature beers in a row, but that would make it obvious that he was ditching,
But like how r u striking out this bad all over. I dont get it. do the guys in philly just suck Oh my god that’s it isn’t it Its not u. its philly Sorry bud
“What is this place?” Max walked in and spread his arms. “This… is a gym where they train for American Ninja Warrior.”
“You’re a good hockey player. I like how controlled you are on the ice, how tough it is to make you lose your cool. I admire that. It makes you challenging to play against, and I like challenges.”
“I like the way you leave everything on the ice,” he said quietly. “You don’t take work home with you. I envy that.”
“This is nice stuff.” El whistled. “Somebody must like you a lot. It’s, like, fifty bucks a bottle.”
The nice shampoo from Ulta is all $50+ a bottle. It’s the base standard for nice shampoo.
Like Max hadn’t gone and fallen completely in love with him, after sliding into it by reluctant degrees over the past month and a half.
It was a beautiful pass—tape to tape, with Coop acting as a screen until suddenly he wasn’t and Grady had a clear shot. Half-clapper, top shelf, where Mama keeps the peanut butter.
There is so much of this type of hockey talk in this book that I cannot even decipher what this supposed to mean.
Grady didn’t even want to coddle him, and just because he didn’t want Max to get hurt didn’t mean he liked him. Hockey was just better when everyone was at their best. That was it.
He propped himself up against the headboard and put his phone on a pillow on his lap, since holding it at the wrong angle made everything hurt.
As someone who recently pulled a muscle in their neck, I feel for you homie.
“I hope it works out for the two of you.” Grady’s mouth dropped open. “For who?” David lifted a shoulder, easy nonchalance. “You and whoever you were thinking of when you looked at Starry Night Over the Rhone.”
And he was giving up on dating, and in part it was because he didn’t want to be with anyone but Max.
a man who Max was in love with and who could not find that out. Max’s life was officially the worst.
He always found himself missing his parents more than usual. Only now he found himself missing them in a different way. He wished they could’ve met Max.
Grady let Max pull him up and lead him inside. He left the weight of his shell by the pool with his wineglass.
There was no way it was a coincidence that Jess’s ex-girlfriend and her new girlfriend had planned a vacation where everyone else had canceled, insisted Jess take the room with the bigger bed, and then coincidentally discovered that the heat in their bedroom didn’t work.
They are trying to trick her into a threesome!
“You’re either in a porno or the first-ever lesbian triad Hallmark Christmas Special.”
Grady turned onto his side and bit his lip, and Max took a deep breath. Time to lay the cards on the table. “We should talk—” “Do you think we can—” Their eyes met. Max felt his cheeks go warm even as Grady flushed too.
He felt kind of stupid about that. It seemed obvious in retrospect that he’d spent the past few months falling for Max.
Grady didn’t know what else to tell her, or how. He feels safe? He’s kind and generous and makes me laugh? He helps me remember what it’s like to be able to rely on someone other than you?
“Think I just cracked you like that lobster you like so much.” Grady’s mind went blank. Oh God. You crack me open.
This is such a weak third act miscommunication. You know Max has a lobster tattoo so that statement could have been reference to that.
Is that how this works. In the middle of a game.
Grady slid his thumb over to the three dots in the top right corner. He only hesitated for a moment. Then he hit Block Contact.
This is fucking dumb
This was so stupid. What did he want to say? I wish you hadn’t been traded. I miss you. I was looking forward to spending the rest of my life getting you to pretend you’re annoyed with me. I know all this started with a stupid bet, but I think I’m in love with you. I think you’re in love with me too.
“However. What if he didn’t? What if he didn’t say anything and you ghosted him and he has no idea why? How are you going to know if you don’t confront him about it?”
Thank god for someone making sense
Would it be better, though? If Max had loved him and Grady had fucked it up, would knowing be better? Grady didn’t know.
“I know it was a coincidence, but he thinks I told Hedgie something really personal and then he used it against him on the ice.”
Which is stupid
Why was Grady so fucking determined to believe the worst of Max? Hadn’t Max treated him well enough to deserve the benefit of the doubt?
You have!
The first question was how he could get Max to hear him out when they both knew he didn’t deserve it.
“Max—” “Fuck you,” Max said. “You spent months convincing yourself I’d fuck you over, but guess what, Grady? You not only fucked yourself, you fucked me too. I thought we were going to—but you disappeared without a trace. You didn’t even have the stones to say something to my face. You’re a coward.”
Get his ass
“You’re an asshole,” Max said. “Who just stops talking to someone they—?” “Someone they love?” Grady’s voice cracked. Fuck. Fuck. “Now you say that to me?” Max’s hands shook and his eyes burned. “Now?” “I should have told you in Miami, but I’ve never—it’s been fifteen years since I said that to someone who wasn’t my sister.”
As long as Grady was willing to put in the work, Max was too. And there was one good test to find out. “Say it for real.” “Max.” Max swallowed hard and held his breath while Grady paused. “I’m in love with you.”
“I thought he was going to Miami.” Sonia shook her head. “You must’ve missed the news. They flipped him to Anaheim an hour ago.”
Oh did they!
“How have you kept this quiet for so long when your face does that when you talk about him?”
Max stood on his front step, hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched. Out of the corner of his eye, Grady barely registered an SUV in the driveway. The person in the passenger seat waved jauntily as it backed out. Grady ignored it. His heart thudded in his chest. “Hi,” he said stupidly. Max said, “I love you too.”
They’d wasted so much time. Grady wouldn’t waste another second.
“I love you, you know,” Max said finally. He brushed a kiss over Grady’s tattoo. “In case it wasn’t obvious.”
“Hey! I’m moral support.” “Lockhart.” Their PR person poked their head out into the hallway. “You’re up.” Bishop crossed himself. “Go with God, my son.”
I love baller
Maybe it’s really fucking embarrassing when a nineteen-year-old tries to defend your honor in a stupid macho sport!”
Dumb
