Page 45 of Instigator

My jaw drops. “The Brandon Walker? Star pitcher, winner of two league MVPs and four fucking Golden Glove awards?”

I don’t get starstruck very often, but there’s a reason he’s won so many awards.

He nods. “His husband does my meal prep, and for most of the team. Sometimes we get coffee. They’re pretty chill.”

“Holy fuck, I hate you.” The words fall from my lips without thought. I don’t actually hate him. I’m jealous as fuck.

But Aidan snaps his mouth shut. “Oh. Okay.”

Whereas before he might joke and tease me back, this time he thinks I mean it literally. Crap, crap, crap.

“Shut up. Brandon Walker?”

Again, he nods, this time more cautiously.

“Okay, here’s the deal. You don’t get to rub Brandon Walker in my face, and I won’t taunt you about spring training. We can just be quietly jealous of each other.” I make sure he can see my grin since we’re face-to-face.

“I accept your terms,” he says.

“Is it weird? Being a baseball fan when you’re a hockey player?”

He chuckles. “It’s the backstory behind my screen name. WishIWas—I wish I was a baseball player.”

“Enough to give up hockey?”

“Not a chance. I love hockey. It’s my everything. But I’m allowed to have more than one great love in my life, and baseball is my dirty mistress.” He winks. “I’ve been known to take in a basketball game with the guys, but it’s not my favorite. Hockey is and always has been my number one.”

“I’m an equal-opportunity sports nut. Except NASCAR. That’s just loud noises for no good reason.”

Aidan grins. “Do you like rugby?”

“I stopped watching when Viv retired. Before, I used to go to her games.”

Viv Gallagher is his teammate Gonzo’s sister-in-law, and she was a member of our book club before she moved to Colorado so her fiancé could go to veterinary school.

“We go to support Cari. It’s a fun time. Maybe, uh, maybe you could come with us?”

Cari Gonzales is Gonzo’s little sister and a member of the Boston Revolution. She’s friendly with Hailey, and I’ve met her at a few of the hockey games or after a rugby game, but we aren’t close.

“Who exactly is us?”

“Me, Hailey, and Ryan.” His face flames red again. “I get it if you don’t want my sister knowing about this, though.”

Fuck. His sister is my colleague at the foundation. The same woman who’s been none too subtle about trying to set us up.

Is Aidan hot? Yes. But Wish doesn’t do flings, and I don’t do relationships. As lonely as I am, I can’t give up that much of myself again. Not without risking everything I am and everything I want. I can’t imagine a world in which I could conceivably sleep with Aidan without him wanting more—not when I’m unable to give him what he undoubtedly wants.

Men like him want marriage and babies. They want skinny, perfect blond waifs with zero personality, whose lives all revolve around their star athlete hubbies.

Although… my friends are proof that not all hockey players are like that. Audrey, Rachel, and Bex are all plus-size, and only Hailey and Vanessa are blond, the color natural for both. Riley has as vivacious a personality as all the rest.

Maybe my assumptions are a stretch. I still can’t believe someone like him would want someone like me. There’s no way it would ever work.

“I’ll think about it,” I finally say.

“Cool.” Our game has lapsed, and he tilts to one side as his batter swings, then lets out a soft grunt when I toss the pitch and the bat connects.

We play in mostly silence for a bit, interspersed with our usual teasing banter. But there’s a heaviness in his words, a tension between us.