Page 89 of Cheap Shot

He’d been bored out of his fucking mind this week. He’d done rehab and puttered around the house working on little projects that didn’t require too much physical effort.

He’d even called his parents.

Luke’s dad and wife number three had just gotten back from a vacation in Arizona, so Luke heard all about that. He didn’t see what the point of going there just to golf and go out to dinner when they could do that in Nevada where they lived but his dad seemed happy so that was good.

His mom and stepdad were unhappy with the work being done on their condo. From the beginning, Luke had seen red flags and knew they were going to have issues with the contractor, but they hadn’t listened to him when he’d tried to tell them that,so now he just nodded and made noises so they’d know he was listening.

But after he hung up, he went back to being bored out of his skull.

He’d called his agent and crunched some numbers and did a little more work on his business plan for the bar he hoped to open someday. But that had only held his attention for so long.

Same with baking and audiobooks and podcasts and TV and …

The guys on the team were either playing in the North Atlantic Tournament or had left town to enjoy the week off on a beach or whatever, so he couldn’t hang out with them. But he was stuck here in town rehabbing his stupid leg and had apparently reached a level of boredom where he’dvoluntarilyinvited the dude he was hooking up with over.

Okay, so maybe the weed brownies had made that idea more appealing. Honestly, he’d been surprised Sebastian had agreed to come at all. But now that he was here, it wasn’t so bad.

“So why aren’t you working today?” Luke asked. He’d figured it was a long shot that he’d even be free until later.

“My employees badgered me into taking the afternoon off,” Sebastian muttered.

Crawford laughed. “Seriously?”

“I know.” Sebastian rubbed his hands over his face. “You probably think I’m a terrible boss, but I’ve been working an insane number of hours lately. I hired someone new and we finished orders for tomorrow early and I let them all talk me into going out and doing something.”

Luke shrugged. “I mean, I’ve never really worked a job like yours so I dunno. But wedefinitelygive our coach and GM shit at times. Hell, Gavin was a chronic over-worker until he met Dakota. We used to chirp him about living in his office at HCI.”

“Yeah, that’s my fucking problem.” Sebastian tipped his head back and rolled his neck. “I’m good at working. Not so good at turning it off. Just before you texted, I was actually thinking about smoking a joint or having an edible, so this worked out great.”

“How are you feeling now?”

“Pretty chill.” Sebastian’s gaze flicked down. “How’s your hamstring?”

“Better. I’m off the Toradol but I’ve still gotta take it easy for a bit. I probably won’t be able to actually fuck you today,” Crawford admitted.

“It’s cool. Blowjob or handjobs are great,” Sebastian said. “I don’t need to get fucked every time. Hell, I don’t evenlikegetting fucked every time.”

“Good to know.” Luke focused on the TV again.

The commentators were still jawing away. It felt like the pre-game show had been going on forever but maybe it was the weed making time go syrup-y slow and easy.

“Huh. Team USA has a pretty queer roster, doesn’t it?” Sebastian said a little while later.

“I guess?” Luke said, because he never really paid attention to that shit.

“Well, you’ve got O’Shea—uh,KellyO’Shea—Shane Hurst, and Trevor Underhill from Evanston. Dustin Fowler and Matt Carlson from Toronto. And then Graham Pennington …”

“Yeah,” Luke agreed. “True.”

“I guess Team Canada is pretty stacked too though,” Sebastian mused. “With Gabriel Theriault, Jonah Brewer, Felix Hale, Nico Arents, Rafael Moon, and Tanner Clayton playing. Hey—how does that work with Arents, anyway? I thought his dad was Dutch.”

“Dual citizenship,” Luke explained. “He was eligible to play for the Central European Team too, but he was born in Canada and has lived there most of his life.”

“Yeah, makes sense he’d choose to play for Team Canada then,” Sebastian agreed. “I know less about the Nordic guys, although I know Leif Rassumussen is gay. The shitty gossip rags at the bodegas always had pictures of him at events with some hot model dude on his arm or whatever.”

“Let me guess,” Luke said drily. “You’re cheering for the Nordic team to win this today?”

“Well,obviously,” Sebastian said with a laugh. “Rasmussen’s alternate captain for my team.”