Page 254 of Cross Checked
Briggs leaned toward Ryan and stage-whispered, “She says that like we’d let her leave.”
Ryan nodded seriously. “Team property now.”
Aura aimed her bagel at both of them. “Don’t make it weird.”
“It was weird before we got here,” Briggs said.
The ease of it hit me right in the chest again. No awkward morning-after energy where we suddenly pretended last night hadn’t changed everything between us.
It had changed everything.
And somehow we were both just… standing in it now.
In the middle of Hockey House. With Aura and Charm behind the counter like two tiny emotional assassins, Ryan drinking coffee like he was taking field notes, and Briggs sitting on the counter like he had purchased tickets to my humiliation.
Cade handed me a mug of coffee before leaning back against the counter beside me, one hand still resting low on my waist like he physically couldn’t stop touching me now that he’d started. Every few seconds, his thumb moved absentmindedly against my hip beneath his shirt, grounding me without even realizing he was doing it.
Aura noticed, of course, her eyes narrowing immediately. “Okay. So y’all’re in deep.”
Ryan’s gaze dropped to Cade’s hand on my waist and then lifted back to his face. “Oh, they’re buried.”
Cade took a sip of coffee completely unashamed. “Very.”
Heat rushed into my face again.
Charm looked between us dramatically. “You guys are giving disgustingly happy.”
“Actually nauseating,” Aura agreed.
“Honestly offensive,” Briggs added, then bit into a piece of toast.
Cade looked down at me. “You nauseated?”
I bit back a smile. “A little.”
“That’s fair. I’m very handsome this early in the morning.”
Charm gagged loudly.
Ryan gave Cade a flat look over his mug. “You look like you got mauled by a tiny animal.”
I choked on my coffee.
Aura pointed toward the hallway. “Do you know how horrifying it was hearing pre-sex fighting at like midnight?”
Cade’s brows lifted. “Pre-sex fighting?”
“Yes,” Aura said flatly. “There are phases now. We’ve mapped them.”
Briggs held up one finger. “As a house representative, I would also like to confirm there are phases.”
“Oh my gosh.”
Charm started counting on her fingers. “There’s flirty kitchen banter. Then laughing. Then suspicious silence. Then one of you says something emotional. Then more silence.”
Ryan added, “Then Mercer starts pacing like he’s about to call a team meeting.”
Aura nodded seriously. “Then either Bliss starts crying or Cade starts yelling things in that voice.”
