The grin I had on my face disappeared. “Nothing.”

“Don’t nothin’ me. You said that thing about not likin’ him for a reason, and I kept fuckin’ forgettin’ to ask you about it. What happened?”

When the hell had I acquired an older brother? I wondered before the tall blond, who looked nothing like me, waved his fingers in a ‘come on’ gesture that had me scowling. “It isn’t a big deal.”

He simply moved his fingers again, and I realized in that moment, he wasn’t going to let this go. He’d put his Aiden britches on, apparently. I figured the sigh that came out of me was well deserved. I dropped my head back, slowly lifted it, and peeked at him with one eye.

“He’s a douche bag. You know that,” I went with, opening my other eye. “And he tried coming onto me once.”

Zac blinked those baby blue eyes. “When?”

“Maybe a year and a half ago.” It was definitely a year and a half ago, but who needed to be specific? “I was out with Diana at a bar and he was there. He was drunk. He recognized me… and then he just started being obnoxious, trying to kiss me and be sneaky and touch my butt. Just douche-bag stuff.”

Reaching up, my friend tugged at his earlobe and shot me the fakest smile someone as genuine as Zac was capable of. That didn’t put me at ease. At all. “No shit, sugar.”

I waved him off. “It isn’t a big deal. I just try to stay away from him now. I shouldn’t have even brought it up.”

His eyes had kind of glazed over and he seemed to daze off, looking at something over my shoulder.

“Yoo-hoo. Zac?”

His eyes strayed back to look at me, focusing, a real smile finally reappearing on his mouth. “Sorry.”

This guy didn’t have a rude bone in his body; the fact he’d zoned out didn’t sit well with me. I narrowed my eyes at him. “What were you thinking about?”

He threw my words back at me. “Nothing, Mrs. Graves.”

“Stop it.”

The next week went by pretty quickly. I had a lot of work to do, and when I was called and requested for an emergency babysitting job by Diana’s brother, Rodrigo, because she couldn’t get out of her appointments, I didn’t say no. I couldn’t say no. I really liked his boys, and even if Rodrigo was an idiot who refused to believe his sister could lie to him, he was still a great guy. It just so happened that I found a little toy his kids had that made me laugh, and paid them five dollars for it.

My mom had called once to ask if I was planning on coming for Thanksgiving dinner, and I gave her the same response I had every Thanksgiving since I was eighteen. “No.” I’d stopped bothering to make excuses why I couldn’t make it. My little brother wasn’t going to be there, and him begging would have been the only reason I’d show up, but he’d never do that to me. She didn’t say a word about Susie or the other two demons I shared genetics with.

Before I knew it, it was Wednesday and the house was empty. With a Thanksgiving Day game against the Three Hundreds’ top rivals, the only roommate I had who was still in town was gone all the time.

So I was surprised on Wednesday afternoon when my phone beeped from its spot next to me on the desk.

It was Aiden.

Aiden: Game tomorrow?

Me: Sign me up, but just one ticket this time. Please

Aiden: Only one?

Me: Yes…

Zac was gone and Diana had let me know via text message that she was going to see her parents in San Antonio for Thanksgiving and that if I wanted to come along she wouldn’t purposely wreck her car on the drive there. I texted her back, letting her know I appreciated her generous offer but was fine with staying in Dallas because I was planning on seeing my little brother who was playing a game nearby on Friday. I figured on Thanksgiving Day, I could get ahead on doing some T-shirt designs I’d been inspired to do instead.

Aiden: There’s no one to go with you?

Me: < -- Forever Alone -- >

Aiden: < Forever Annoying >

Me: You’d miss me if I was gone, sunshine.

I’d barely hit ‘send’ when I cursed, then sent him another message.

Me: Thanks for the ticket.

He didn’t respond, but when I got out of the shower that night and found something in the team’s colors wrapped in clear plastic on my bed, I stared at it. And when I ripped off the packaging and shook it out to see that it was a brand new Three Hundreds jersey with GRAVES written on the back, I smiled so hard my cheeks hurt.

Taking a peek at the clock next to my bed, I saw it wasn’t nine yet and made my way to Aiden’s room, the master bedroom down the hall. His door was closed when I got there, but I knocked, listening for him on the other side.

Sure enough, “Vanessa?”

“It’s Muffin.”

He made a noise I couldn’t distinguish. “Come in.”

I turned the knob and slipped inside, leaving it open behind me. Sitting on the edge of his California king-sized bed, Aiden was busy rubbing a towel over his head. The first thing I noticed was how smooth his jaw was. Without the beard, he looked younger… nicer. I’d only seen him freshly shaved a handful of times in the past since he usually did it at night and it all grew back in while he slept.

“Did the light go out in your room?” The smug-ass dragged a towel over the back of his neck as he asked.

“You’re so funny.” I rolled my eyes so he knew how irritating I thought he was. “Dummy.”