Page 58 of Love at First Rep

“It’s based on longitude and latitude and accounts for the curve of the earth,” Garrett answered.

“Wait, are you saying the earth is round?” Cole said mockingly, breaking into laughter and drawing chuckles from everyone.

“Number four: Which two states end in the letter Y?”

“Wyoming!” Josh whispered, his face bright. A second later, his grin dropped. “Wait, no, that starts with Y. I mean—ugh, you know what I mean.”

Rafe winced, sympathetic to Josh’s frustration, especially since they were in New Jersey, one of the two states in the answer. Riley leaned into Josh’s space and whispered something in his ear. Rafe could only guess what he said, but judging by the way Josh’s face flushed, it was something Rafe didn’t need to overhear.

The team continued to dominate throughout the night, earning them a spot in the top three. For the final category, the three groups were asked to send up one representative for a question in math.

“Not it,” Cole said.

“Why would we pick the English teacher for a math question?” Riley asked.

Members of the other teams made their way to the DJ, and a choked voice came from across the table.

“I might teach math, but I do not want to go up there,” Lucas said, his face flushing as he gazed at the DJ booth with a mix of ire and fear in his eyes.

Rafe didn’t think Lucas was afraid of anything. He turned to see what had him spooked. Over at the DJ booth, the other team representatives chatted with the DJ. A brown-haired woman in jeans and an athletic T-shirt, her hair in a high ponytail, stood next to a handsome man in his thirties who held his head high, a cocky smile on his face. He had dark hair and bright eyes and a chiseled jawline. It surprised Rafe that Lucas didn’t want to get near him. Maybe they had some history that Lucas didn’t want to deal with. When Rafe faced Garrett, he appeared equally confused.

“Oh, hey, it’s Jordan Davis,” Chase said, unaware of the tension coming from Lucas. “He’s our boxing instructor.”

“It is?” Tobias said as he turned toward the DJ booth.

“How do you not know your own employees?” Chase asked. Rafe expected Chase to laugh, but instead he was sympathetic as he tucked a tiny lock of dark hair behind Tobias’ ear. “Don’t goalies know everything about everyone?”

“Not if we do our best to avoid people,” he responded quietly, drawing sniggers from the others.

“Carson, you should do it,” Hunter piped up. “You’re a math whiz. You got this!”

Carson squirmed in his seat and groaned as the rest of them tried to encourage him. Hunter reached across the table to squeeze Carson’s shoulder—damn he stretched far—and it gave him the confidence he needed.

“Fine, I’ll go,” Carson said begrudgingly as he stood and pushed in his chair.

Once Carson reached the other competitors, the DJ set a paper and pencil on the table in front of each of them.

“For our final question of the night, to determine who takes home the fifty-dollar gift card to Hero’s Pub, the three of you will have thirty seconds to write the digits of Pi as far as you can, adding a point to your team’s total for each digit.”

Carson focused as he held his pencil over the paper and waited for the DJ to continue.

“The time starts in three, two, one, go!”

The entire room fell silent as they watched Carson scribble for the entire thirty seconds. The other two participants stopped writing after about ten seconds and gaped at Carson for the remaining time.

After the DJ called time, he studied each person’s sheet, comparing it to the screen in front of him, likely checking the accuracy of each person’s answer. The wonder on the guy’s face as he marked Carson’s sheet made Rafe snicker. When he finished, he straightened and grabbed the microphone.

“I have the final tallies for tonight’s game. The ‘Brainy Babes’ named four digits, bringing their total for tonight to sixty-four points. Team ‘Here for Food, Stayed for Trivia’ named five digits of Pi, bringing their total to sixty-seven points.” The DJ paused as people in the bar shouted six-seven. Rafe had no idea what it meant, and it seemed to leave most of the group confused. Only Lucas and Cole understood it, and they groaned and shared a commiserating smile. Must have been a kid thing since they were both teachers. Rafe forgot all about it as the DJ continued. “And the ‘Gym Rat Pack’ named a whopping seventy-one digits of Pi in thirty seconds, bringing their team total to one hundred thirty-six points. ‘Gym Rat Pack,’ you are the winner!”

The table went wild as they all stood. Well, except for Tobias, who only smiled and clapped. Rafe couldn’t make out what anyone said, the noise a cacophony of cheers and taunts as all of them applauded Carson’s complete domination of the final round.

Hunter dragged his hands down the sides of his face, groaning as he said, “Oh my God, he’s so fucking hot.”

Rafe guffawed. Apparently, Hunter had a thing for intelligence.

Arms wrapped around him, and Garrett planted a big kiss on Rafe’s cheek.

When Garrett pulled away, Rafe turned to face him and was again blown away by the beauty of Garrett’s smile. Rafe begged the universe to help him keep it.