Unrivaled, page 18
He let them carry him off, leaving Grady alone with Tanya and Logan.
“You want a drink?” Tanya offered into the sudden awkward silence.
Perfect icebreaker. “I knew I liked you.”
The house they’d rented was on the beach, with a beautiful pool area and an airy open-concept design. Grady and Max had the ground-floor bedroom, while the other four were upstairs, so Grady had a small amount of insulation from the Lockhart family circus. The bright sunshine and warm weather meant it didn’t quite feel like Christmas, but someone had strung fairy lights over a potted palm tree on the patio. Grady approved of swapping out eggnog for margaritas and sangria and didn’t care who knew it.
If it weren’t for his phone buzzing like crazy in his pocket, he might have forgotten to miss Jess at all.
Grady let himself out of the kitchen and took the call in the bedroom. “Hey, Jess.”
“I can’t do it,” she hissed.
Alarmed, Grady closed the door. “Do what? Is everything okay?”
“No!” She was still speaking in a shouted whisper. “Half the girls canceled at the last minute, so they put us in a smaller chalet!”
Uh-oh. “Who’s ‘us’?”
“Me, Amanda, and Polly.”
Grady winced. Her, her ex, and her ex’s new girlfriend. “Yeah. That could be awkward.”
“That’s the problem.”
“That it’s awkward?”
“No. Polly keeps being nice to me.”
Oh, the horror. Before Grady could be a smartass, Jess went on. “Like, okay, she was the one who organized the whole trip because Amanda was having this crisis about turning forty, I guess. So we’ve been emailing back and forth a lot. And she’s been nice the whole time. And funny.”
“Well,” said Grady, at a loss. “How dare she.”
“I’m being serious.”
If Grady was the only one who could end up in a friends-with-benefits arrangement with a guy he regularly referred to as Shithead, Jess was the only one who could complain about a woman being nice to her. “Is she, like, Canadian nice, or Minnesota nice?”
Jess groaned. “I don’t know, Grades. She made me a hot chocolate and put my hair in a crown braid. It looks awesome.”
Grady didn’t see the problem. “Is that weird?”
“It is when it’s your ex’s girlfriend!”
“She probably wants you to like her. You and Amanda were always close.”
Jess blew out a long breath. “I guess. I just wish she’d be annoying and unlikable. And ugly.”
Under the circumstances, Grady decided not to point out she’d barely even mentioned Amanda, the love of her life. Let Jess realize she could finally get over it in her own time. “Gosh. Stuck in a ski chalet with two people who are nice and easy to get along with. How will you ever survive?”
She blew a raspberry. “You’re the worst.” And then, predictably, changed the subject. “How’s Florida?”
“Hot. Loud. Chaotic.” Like Max, really. “It’s like being on vacation with a hockey team.”
“Hopefully it smells better.”
There was a shout and a loud splash from outside, and Grady glanced out the bedroom window into the yard. “I gotta go. Shithead’s niece and nephew just pushed him into the pool.”
“You weren’t kidding about the hockey team thing. All right, I’ll talk to you later, Grades. Have fun.”
“Don’t let anyone be too nice.”
He was tucking his phone back into his pocket when Max came in. He must have left his T-shirt and jeans outside to avoid tracking water through the house, because he was wearing only boxers and a towel slung around his neck, and he was still dripping wet.
“So the kids are definitely Lockharts,” Grady said, slightly later than he should’ve because he was having trouble keeping his eyes on Max’s face.
Max threw the towel at him. “Careful or you’re next.” He gave Grady a once-over, his gaze lingering on Grady’s crotch. “Want to help me shower off the chlorine?”
CHRISTMAS EVE unfolded in a flurry of activity. Grady couldn’t remember the last time he’d spent a holiday with so much to do.
He and Max exchanged hot, sloppy hand jobs in the shower. Max came when Grady bit the side of his neck, spurting hot and slick over Grady’s fingers. Grady followed right after him, head spinning.
They spent the next few minutes drying off and unpacking, and then Logan asked Max to watch the kids in the pool while the others prepared dinner. That lasted a few minutes until Nora let Gru outside and he tried to launch himself into the water.
In a flash, Max stood up, cursing, and intercepted the dog with an arm around his middle. Gru yelped and struggled, frantic to get into the pool. “Nora!”
“Fuck! Sorry!” Nora slid the door open again and Max deposited Gru back on the other side of the glass.
Grady glanced at the kids—both in the shallow end, both gaping at their aunt, wide-eyed. “Aunt Nora!”
“I mean fudge!” Nora said. “Sorry.”
Max closed the door again, but Gru just sat on the floor, barking his head off.
Grady kept his eyes on the kids as he asked, “What’s his problem?”
Max sighed. “We’re not sure. Either he has severe FOMO, or he’s convinced that any human in a body of water is drowning and he has to rescue them. Either way, Gru plus swimming equals claw marks.”
Poor Gru did seem distressed, from the sounds he was making. “That’s… sweet but inconvenient. You want me to take him for a walk around the block? Maybe he’ll forget about it.”
“That would be great. Thank you.”
It took a handful of treats to get Gru to leave the house, but once they did, he was happy enough to sniff along the sidewalk and pee on every third bush.
“Seriously, again?” Grady asked.
Gru gave him a look like he was actually being quite restrained.
When they got back to the house, the kids were still in the pool, but Grady lured Gru to the bedroom with another treat and then figured, Fuck it. Gru didn’t know if Christmas was today or tomorrow, and besides, it wasn’t like Grady had only bought him one present. He pulled the brand-new Minions bed out of his suitcase and presented it to the dog. “What do you think, buddy?”
There was a loud laugh and a splash from outside, and Grady thought the jig might be up, but then Gru put tentative paws on the bed and curled up.
Success!
Grady gave him another treat and went back to the kitchen to investigate the dinner situation. “What smells so good in here?”
Linda clacked a pair of stainless steel tongs at him. “Fresh New Brunswick lobster.”
As if on cue, Grady’s stomach rumbled and his mouth watered. Suddenly he remembered that he’d skipped lunch. However—“Wait, you brought a live lobster across the border?”
Linda chuckled. “Oh, Grady, honey, don’t be silly.” She patted his shoulder and turned back to the stove. “We brought seven.”
Grady might weep with joy.
“Christmas Eve tradition,” Max told him. He and the kids had just come in from the pool. His nose was starting to turn red. “Grandpa was a lobster fisherman.”
What a great tradition, Grady thought. It had only been him and Jess for the past ten years, plus the occasional partner if one of them happened to be in a relationship. The first year after their parents died, Jess tried to make a full turkey dinner, but the bird was half burned and half raw and they ended up ordering Chinese. Grady thought it was kind of funny at the time, but that night he heard Jess crying in her room. For the next year, he spent his limited free time learning to cook so he could take care of Christmas dinner.
They still ordered Chinese every Christmas Eve, though.
Maybe he could convince her to switch to lobster.
“Grades? Hello?” Max waved a hand in front of his face. “Stop looking at my mom like you’re going to propose. You want a beer?”
“I just really like lobster,” Grady said, though he could feel himself flushing. He didn’t want to explain the direction his thoughts had gone. It would bring down the mood. “And yes, please.”
Miraculously, that was Grady’s only lapse of the evening. For the rest of the night, Max’s family kept him busy eating, laughing, and following their absurd sibling rituals. Before dinner, for example, Max and Logan had to arm wrestle for the kids’ benefit, because “My dad’s older, so he’s stronger.” Milo said this so matter-of-factly Grady had to tamp down on a laugh.
“But if they already know that, why do they arm wrestle?”
Carly rolled her eyes. “Because boys are stupid.”
“Carly,” Logan scolded.
“What? Aunt Nora said ‘fuck’—”
“And Aunt Nora’s in big trouble,” Tanya said. Nora nodded along, her expression a passable impression of remorse. “We don’t use that word. Try again.”
With a long-suffering sigh, Carly corrected, “Because boys are ridiculous.”
As Max fairly obviously threw the arm-wrestling match to make his brother look good in front of his kids, Grady couldn’t disagree.
At that point Big Max directed them to set the table, and everyone was too excited about food to dwell on the outcome.
Grady had never tasted a lobster so perfect—tender, juicy, flavorful. Thank God it came in a shell that made it impossible to shove the whole thing in his mouth, or he would have embarrassed himself. “Why is this so good?” he hissed to Max while he was cracking open a stubborn claw.
Max glanced up from his plate. A smile lurked at the corners of his eyes. “Same reason your omelet was.”
Oh, that asshole. “You ruined lobster for me,” Grady accused under his breath.
Max patted him on the thigh under the table. “Payback’s a b—a you-know-what.”
The two of them pulled dish duty after dinner, since everyone else had helped cook. Grady didn’t mind—there was a dishwasher for the plates and cutlery, and washing a few pots seemed like the least he could do. It might have felt strange if not for the time Max had spent at his place in November. Grady had gotten used to working with and around him in a kitchen.
He’d switched to drinking wine with dinner, which had the effect of making everything feel soft-edged and pleasant. The kids’ laughter drifting in from the dining room added to the ambience. Whatever they were doing involved a lot of teasing. It reminded him of him and Jess.
“Hey.” Max bumped his shoulder. “You okay?”
Without meaning to, Grady smiled. He must’ve been lost in thought again. “I’m good.” Then he frowned at the pot he was drying. “This still has potato on it.”
Max flicked dish suds at him. “I just make ’em wet. You make ’em clean.”
Grady wiped his damp face on his sleeve. “Really.”
Max grinned. “What are you gonna do about it?”
For a second, Grady considered the hose attachment to the sink. But when Max caught him looking at it, Grady upended the last of the water in the pot on his head instead.
Max squawked and reached for the dish sponge.
“Are you boys behaving in there?” Linda called from the dining room.
“No!”
A moment later she appeared in the doorway. “Oh, for goodness’ sake. Children.”
Grady hid the damp dish towel he’d been scrubbing in Max’s face behind his back.
Linda rolled her eyes. “Oh, leave the dishes for now and come play a game with the other children. Carly refuses to start without you, Max.”
“You gotta come and be first lobster!”
Grady raised his eyebrows.
“I’m always first lobster,” Max said loftily. He tossed the sponge back in the sink. “Come on. I’ll introduce you to the next tradition.”
In the dining room, Carly had already set up a board game on the table. Milo, Nora, and Logan sat around it, and Max gestured for Grady to sit next to him. “So, back when Logan and Nora and I were kids, Grandpa was in charge of keeping us entertained while everyone else cooked. And if you recall, Grandpa was a lobster fisherman….”
Apparently, the object of the game depended on your token. The lobster was trying to get to the sea. Everyone else—a butter pat, a lemon wedge, a trap-looking thing Max kept calling a “pot”—was trying to get to the lobster before it escaped. There were multiple paths, but you had to move your full roll in a single direction. The lobster only had to get as far as the sea, but everyone else needed an exact roll to catch the lobster. If they did, the lobster player was out and the one who’d caught him became the next lobster.
“I get to be the butter,” Carly announced. She narrowed her eyes at Grady and then selected a token and handed it to him. “Uncle Grady, you can be the lobster cracker.”
Nora stifled a laugh, and Logan cleared his throat and looked away. But Grady was torn between a sudden fascination with the redness in the apples of Max’s cheeks and his own complicated reaction.
Uncle Grady. Obviously he wasn’t, but what was he going to tell her? And it would be weird for a kid to start calling an adult by their first name, right?
He wasn’t touching the significance of the lobster-cracker thing.
Fortunately, Linda chose that moment to swoop in with the wine bottle. “Who needs a refill?”
All the adults raised their glasses.
The game was raucous. Despite a few close calls—Grady had been sure it was over for Max when Logan and Milo cornered him down a dead-end path—eventually the lobster prevailed. By that time they’d finished another two bottles of wine between the seven adults, and the kids were begging Uncle Max to tuck them into bed.
“I should take Gru for his nighttime pee,” Max said regretfully.
Under the table, Gru perked up his ears and wagged his tail.
“I’ll take him,” Grady offered. Max should enjoy as much time with the kids as he could. Clearly they had a mutual admiration society going on. Besides, Grady wanted some time alone with his thoughts.
He couldn’t count the number of invitations he’d declined to his teammates’ family holidays over the years. Even before he grew fed up with the Firebirds’ management, he’d held a part of himself back from the team. Now he was starting to understand how that had impacted his life.
He barely had a relationship with most of his teammates. Plenty of the other players’ kids called other guys on the team “uncle,” but none of them had ever called Grady that. Carly was the first—the niece of the guy Grady had cheerfully remembered punching in the face not that long ago.
What had happened to him?
Grady thought he knew. When his parents died, he buried himself in hockey and used that as his armor against his feelings. There was no time to grieve when there were games to win. The only person he let in was Jess, because she was already family. That way he only had one person to lose—like there was a cap on potential suffering. And Jess was enough.
Until she wasn’t. Until Max slid past his defenses like some kind of Trojan horse, and now here Grady was, being treated like family by his rival’s parents, siblings, and niece and nephew, and thinking about how much Jess would love it. About whether it would be okay if he invited her along next year.
And now Grady was casually assuming he’d be welcomed back, when there was nothing at all casual about that assumption.
Gru butted against his leg, and Grady realized they’d reached the end of the sidewalk. He bent down to ruffle Gru’s ears. “You’re a good boy.”
Gru nudged Grady’s hand with his wet nose in acknowledgment.
When he returned, the house was mostly dark but not yet quiet—everyone must be upstairs. Max wasn’t in the bedroom, so Grady picked up his wineglass and took it out to the pool, where he sat with his feet in the water.
The holidays were hard. 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. He wanted to know what his mom would have thought about him, if she’d be scandalized to know about Max’s tattoo or if she’d think it was hilarious. Would his dad be upset Grady was sleeping with one of his rival team’s star players?
Jess might know. She’d gotten to interact with their parents as an adult. Grady wondered if it had felt like a more familiar, comfortable version of this—warm and safe and inviting and joyous. Full of love, even if it wasn’t for him.
Except—wasn’t it? Max treated Grady with the same teasing affection he had for his family. He’d invited Grady here to join them. He listened to Grady’s stupid problems with his team, to his recaps of dates Grady had no business going on, and to Grady’s guilt over Jess’s disastrous love life.
He invited himself to Grady’s house when he was lonely. He let Grady walk his dog. Everything Grady had wanted but never let himself reach for, not just sex but companionship, family, Max had put within his grasp. And he hadn’t asked for anything in return. And the way he looked at Grady sometimes, when they were high, when Baller went to Anaheim instead of Grady, when Max fucked him the first time—
Four months ago, Grady could never have been comfortable on a night like tonight. Too many strangers, and he didn’t have much experience with kids. He knew he came across as standoffish.
But it was easy to be around Max. To loosen up and let himself have fun.
Grady would’ve said it didn’t make any sense, except he had the sneaking suspicion it did. Max had offered to help him navigate dating like a person instead of a prickly, perpetually annoyed asshole. The thing was, Grady was still a prickly, perpetually annoyed asshole. But Max treated him like a person anyway, and Grady didn’t want to give that up.
Before the horror of the realization could fully dawn on him, the patio door slid open. “Hey. Mind if I join you?”
Grady wished he did mind. He shook his head. “Water’s nice.”
“How can you tell?” Max teased as he sat beside him. “You’re barely touching it.”
Without meaning to, Grady leaned over until their shoulders touched. His heart was still pounding too fast, but the panic receded. Max was loud and sometimes crass, but never cruel, and his arm against Grady’s was warm and solid, just like the rest of him. “Didn’t want Gru to freak out.”
