Page 87 of End Game

“So? Mack hangs around us all the time, but she’s not in love with Wes or Amir or Greg,” I rationalize.

Miles winces at the mention of his younger sister. “That’s different.”

“How?”

“You and Diana are friends, best friends. Mack is a freshman. She’s still finding her friend group.”

“She has no friends,” Tucker corrects. “She hangs out with us and with Wes, and that’s basically it.”

“So you’ve noticed that, too?” I roll my eyes. “Diana thinks Mack and Wes would be a good couple.”

Miles grimaces. “She’s too young, and he doesn’t date. And even if she wasn’t and he did, she knows better than to go out with my teammates. That’s off limits.”

“And Diana is off limits for me,” I finish. “She’s my best friend. I don’t want to lose her over a failed romantic experiment. So my options are stand by while someone else swoops in and steals her heart, or—”

“Or you move on,” Tucker says.

“How did that work for you?”

“It didn’t,” he says flatly. “I tried getting with someone else, but it only made me feel worse about myself. So I didn’t date, didn’t hook up, and if we hadn’t gotten back together, I still would be alone and celibate.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

He shrugs. “I didn’t want anyone else. I wasn’t going to pretend otherwise. She’s it for me. She always has been.”

Miles looks to me. “Is Diana it for you?”

I’ve been in love with this woman since we were fourteen. I’ve wanted to take our friendship to the next level for close to a decade, even before either of us were ready for that. She’s the only person I want to hang out with, in a romantic setting or a purely platonic situation. When I think about my future, all I can see is her. I want to spend the rest of my life making her happy. I want to raise kids with her. I want her.

I let out a heavy exhale. “I think so, yeah.”

“My advice? Figure out for damn sure,” Tucker says. “If she’s it, and you let her pass you by, then you’re going to spend the rest of your life wondering what could have been.”

“There’s that saying, if you love her, let her go,” Miles offers. “It’s bullshit. If you love her, stand up and tell her. Don’t hide it. That shit deserves to be said out loud, and she deserves to hear you say it.”

“And if she laughs in my face?”

He pins me with a stare. “Do you really want to be friends with someone who would laugh in your face?”

Well, no. Not really. And I don’t think she would actually laugh. Maybe giggle nervously because she doesn’t know how to react.

“Incoming,” Tucker mutters, and turns around in his seat. He greets Sam, Mason, and Diana with a bright smile. “Good morning, ladies. Good morning, Princess.”

“Hey,” Diana says. She nods at him before she slides into the seat next to me. “This seat taken?”

“Only by you.” For now and for forever.

I’m glad she’s making friends, and I’m doubly glad she gets along with my friends and their girlfriends. Miles, Tucker, Wes, Amir, and Greg have become like brothers to me, and Sam and Mason are like my kid sisters. We’re all one giant family, infinitely more supportive and loving than my actual family.

Diana tucks into her breakfast. She looks gorgeous today, with her wavy hair pulled back from her face in two thick braids and shimmery pink shadow on her eyelids. Her eyeliner is particularly sharp. She loves a good cat eye, or so she’s told me half a dozen times in the last six weeks. Her dark green sweater nearly swallows her whole, and her dark brown boots go all the way up to her knee, emphasizing her long, muscular legs.

Fuck.

“The lasagna was good last night,” she says casually. “Do they serve it often?”

“Every Tuesday.”

She gives me a crooked smile. “We’ll have to go back there next week.”