Less Than Ten Years Earlier
Hannah Michaels
THE GAME WAS the perfect way to start the night.
Sports weren’t my thing. And I definitely knew nothing about the rules of basketball. With no father figure in my life, no one had ever taught me anything other the difference between a homerun and a touchdown, and I never cared enough to teach myself.
Not really interested, I went to the basketball game anyway. Ethan and Jace’s excitement was contagious enough to make me curious.
And what a game it was. Michigan State ended their three-game losing streak, giving its NCAA Tournament hopes a boost. Jace told me that.
Every single Spartan in the arena nearly lost their mind at the end of the game, including both Jace and Ethan.
All of our hearts were pumping and our adrenaline was certainly rushing. Somehow I had become invested.
The guys were still high-fiving each other as we walked through the door. Not me. I wasn’t sure I could feel my fingers. The cold had settled in my bones as we had waited for the bus, and my teeth had yet to stop chattering. Each of us had bundled up to battle the weather, and it took a while to remove our outerwear.
Watching the two men, I took notice of the things that made them alike and different.
Both of them loved sports, but they went about their enjoyment of the events entirely differently. Jace always got riled up. Ethan wasn’t as vocal. He didn’t yell as loud, or cheer as hearty. He didn’t curse, or shout at the ref. He took the game in stride, whereas Jace took it almost personally if his team lost.
It was all about personality. And both guys always stayed true to who they were.
Jace was still so worked up that he practically tore his coat off his shoulders. When he flung it over the sofa, I couldn’t help but stare at him.
The soft black knit of his sweater clung to his broad shoulders and his worn jeans hung low on his hips. He was incredibly sexy. After removing his beanie, his hair looked like he’d just rolled out of bed, and God, that was so sexy. The hat and gloves he’d worn joined the coat, and after toeing off his boots, he headed toward the refrigerator.
As I hung my coat over a barstool, I watched as he jammed the cap off of a beer by hitting it against the side of the counter.
When he looked up and caught me staring, I quickly swung my gaze toward Ethan, who was still at the front door tucking his hat and gloves in the pockets of his coat. When he was finished, he hung everything in the closet, and then bent down to untie his sneakers.
He was wearing a turtleneck with his Michigan State sweatshirt over it and his standard khakis. The preppy style he carried always remaining true. So much so that even his blonde hair didn’t seem to be bothered at all by the removal of his hat. His cheeks, though, they were red from the cold, and it was adorable.
The things that attracted me to Ethan, his dependability, his kindness, his easygoing temperament, were the exact opposite of the things that attracted me to Jace.
The good to the bad.
The boring to the exciting.
The reliable to the uncertain.
Everything had a balance.
I just hoped after tonight, I would be able to keep mine.
“Beer.” Jace’s hot breath blew across the back of my neck as he reached around me and handed me a bottle. When I took it, he let his fingers linger near mine for about a half a second before he kept walking and offered a bottle to Ethan. “You?” he said.
I shivered in his wake, and it wasn’t because I was cold.
Ethan took the beer. “Just one. My parents are coming up tomorrow morning to drop the old station wagon off, and my mother hates it when I’m hung over.”
Jace flopped on the couch and yanked his legs up to rest on the coffee table. “A set of wheels. Sweet.”
That was news to me, but that didn’t bother me. What did really bother me was that Ethan’s parents were coming tomorrow, and he hadn’t even told me. I’d never met them, and I guess he hadn’t planned on me meeting them then. I referred to him as my boyfriend, but I realized right in that moment that he never referred to me as his girlfriend.
I shook it off.
It didn’t matter.
Maybe it was better.
We were still newly seeing each other, and besides after what we were about to do, I wasn’t sure what you would call us.
Then there were my feelings for Jace.
Never spoken out loud, but still felt none-the-less.
With his shoes lined up neatly near the door, Ethan looked around the family room. For the remote, I was certain. “Yeah, I have that clerkship starting next week, and my folks wanted to make sure I had a way of getting there.”
“Janice and Bill are smart parents,” Jace commented, taking a pull from his bottle. “They must know how much you hate to spend money on public transportation, and that chances are good you wouldn’t show up when you were scheduled half the time with as slow as you walk.”
Clicking on the television, Ethan balked. “First of all, fuck you. And secondly, that’s bullshit. I take the bus all the time.”
Jace chuckled. “Yeah, like when?”
Finding a pro basketball game on one of the sports channels, Ethan sat in the chair closest to it. “Like five minutes ago, you dickhead.”
“That was only because Hannah and I insisted on it. Otherwise you would have saved the two bucks and walked, and froze your nuts off, I might add.”
Ethan ignored him. There wasn’t much for him to say to that. It was true; he didn’t like to spend money. His family was by no means rich. They were middle class all the way, but that still made him the wealthiest of the three of us.
Doc Martins were always a major pain in the ass to wear, and since mine were second hand, they weren’t in the best shape. I was still trying to unlace one of them when Jace glanced over at me. “Need some help there, Hannah?”
“I’m good,” I said in frustration, about ready to grab a pair of scissors and cut the laces right down the middle. I really should have gone for function over fashion and worn my fur-lined snow boots because in addition to the malfunction, my toes were about as numb as my fingers.
The tip of my boot was resting on the end table on the other side of the couch, and my fingers were yanking at the knot when Jace stood to his full height and came around. Patting his thigh, he said, “Put it here. I’ll do it.”
I did as he said.
Jace ran his fingertips down the back of my calf, and when he reached my laces, he took a moment to figure out where they were knotted. Once he had, he got to work, and before I knew it, he was unlacing them. “There,” he said, and put his hands on his hips.
“You must have magic fingers,” I commented, and then immediately blushed.
He raised a brow and whispered, “You’re about to find out just how magic they are.”
Ethan had his back to us, his attention on the game, and I found myself flirting back. “I’m looking forward to it,” I said in a hushed tone.
Jace was biting his lip, and I almost lunged for his mouth. I’d wanted to kiss him from the second I first laid eyes on him, and the moment was so close—if only Ethan would focus on something besides the television.
In my socks, jeans, and sweater, I hadn’t dressed for seduction, but the way Jace was staring at me, I felt sexier than I ever had.
“I can’t believe the Bulls just lost,” Ethan said quietly. “There goes the season.”
Wrapping my arms around myself to try to get warm, I flicked my gaze toward the television and waited for the rampage from Jace. The Bulls were his favorite team, and he would never accept defeat. When the banter never came, I glanced back at Jace. I wasn’t even certain he was listening to Ethan because his gray eyes were still fixed on me.
After a beat, Jace glared over toward Ethan, who was watching the highlights. “Hannah’s cold,” he said, his voice loud but not hostile.
Ethan turned the television off and got to his feet. Setting his bottle down, he walked over to where I was standing behind the couch. He snaked his arms around my waist and pulled my back close to his chest. “Are you cold?” he whispered in my ear in a seductive tone.
I was facing Jace, Ethan’s head was down, his mouth still at my ear, and Jace’s entire body went taut. I thought about reaching my hand out and pulling him toward us, but I had no idea how this threesome thing was going to work. The last thing I wanted to do was put an end to it before it even started.
It was in that very moment, with Ethan’s arms around me, and Jace looking at me like I was the end all, be all, that I knew for certain I was with the wrong guy. The problem was, breaking up with Ethan wouldn’t get me Jace.
They were best friends, and I already knew they wouldn’t let a girl get between them. And I would never want that anyway. Jace would have to walk away from me if I walked away from Ethan. That would be the only way their friendship wouldn’t be impacted.
If I wanted Jace, I had to go through with the plan.
“Yes, I’m cold,” I whispered back to Ethan.
Ethan lifted his head. “Hey, Jace, you still have that small space heater in your room?”
Jace nodded, but said nothing. I started to worry he was going to do something stupid, like punch Ethan in the nose, or walk out the door.
“What do you say we take Hannah upstairs then and warm her up?” Ethan said, initiating what we had all previously agreed upon.
My eyes pleaded with Jace to say yes, and as soon as he noticed my wide eyes, he responded to Ethan. “Yeah, man, sounds like a plan. I’ll run up and turn it on if you want to lock up.”
Again, he wanted to make sure Ethan thought the whole thing was his idea, and in a way, it was.
Or that was what I told myself.