The Summer Proposal by Vi Keeland

I grinned. “You wanted to make sure you pulled the biggest price tag ever, didn’t you?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Like you would’ve done any differently.”

“Thirty-five thousand, huh? You must be a hot commodity. I hope I don’t get a big fat bill later.”

Max leaned to me and lowered his voice. “I’ll take it in trade.”

The game started, and within the first five minutes, I saw a side of Max I’d never seen before. He and Tomasso yelled and screamed. They jumped up out of their seats a hundred times, and when they did sit, they sat on the edge. They were completely focused on the game. Max had started with his hand resting on my thigh, but I had to ask him to remove it, because every time something happened in the game, he squeezed so hard I was definitely going to have finger bruises. He’d had no clue he was even doing it. But I found his intensity and passion kind of sexy.

I leaned over to Jenna when the two of them jumped to their feet to yell at the ref during the second period. “These two are hysterical. I’ve never seen Max like this.”

“Is this the first game you’ve been to with him?”

I nodded. “Why do I find it kind of hot?”

Jenna wiggled her brows. “Wait until you get home later. They need an outlet for all that adrenaline coursing through their veins. Unlike with their own games, it doesn’t matter if their team wins or loses. So it’s a win-win for us.”

When the buzzer sounded at the end of the period, the guys practically collapsed into their seats. Max suddenly seemed to remember I was there.

He leaned over. “You good?”

I smiled. “I’m great.”

“Oh my God!” Jenna tapped me on the shoulder. When I looked over, she was pointing at the Jumbotron. My eyes widened upon finding my own face plastered on it. The camera zoomed in closer on Max and me. While I tried to figure out what the heck was going on, Kiss Cam started to flash on the bottom of the screen.

“You have to kiss!” Jenna laughed.

I turned to Max, who shrugged. “Works for me.”

Rather than lean over and brush his lips with mine, he stood and yanked me from my seat. He wrapped an arm around my back and proceeded to dip me dramatically before planting one hell of a kiss. People were hooting and hollering all around us, and when he pulled me back to standing, we were both laughing and smiling from ear to ear.

“Always the showman,” I said.

“Can’t help it. These days I have something worth showing off.” He winked.



• • •



The following day was the last full day of our staycation. Tomorrow morning we’d be checking out and going back to our respective apartments, and then Monday was back to work for me. Even though we had the rest of the summer to have fun, a feeling of melancholy set in. Max’s agent had texted him last night and said he wanted to get together to go over the terms of the contract he’d been negotiating. Max had tried to push it off until next week, but his agent had said it needed to be done this weekend because of some meeting the owner of the other team had on Monday. Max told him he could only give him an hour and asked him to meet him for breakfast in the lobby of the hotel.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come?” he asked. “You could at least eat while we talk?”

I was still lying in bed, naked with a sheet draped over me, enjoying the view while Max got dressed. “I’m good. I’m going to answer some emails while you go to your meeting.”

Max walked over and pulled the sheet off, then smacked my ass before leaning down and pressing his lips to mine. “Alright but stay naked.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Once he was gone, I propped some pillows behind me and scanned through my messages. Ten minutes in, my phone buzzed. The name I saw made my chest heavy.

Gabriel.

I sighed. Over the last week, I hadn’t thought about him too much. When Max was around, it was hard to think about anything else, especially another man. The morning Gabriel had called the office, I’d sent him a long text telling him I was fine but taking a much-needed break from work and I would call him when I had time. But even though I’d spent plenty of hours lounging around each morning and evening since then, that time had never seemed to come.

Now there really wasn’t a reason not to answer since Max would be gone for a while. So I sat up a little straighter and swiped.

“Hello?”

“God, I missed your voice,” he said.

I sighed heavily. “It has been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Longer than we should have let it go.”

“How are things?”

“The same. Teaching, writing…one day just rolls into the other.”

“How’s the book coming along?”

“I write four or five pages, throw away three, so I guess it’s progress.”

“I suppose it’s better than not writing,” I said.

“What about you? Tell me about this time you took off of work. I never thought I’d see the day. When your office told me you were out for two weeks, I got worried. I don’t remember you taking two days since you started your company.”

“Yeah, I know. I guess it was time.”

“So what have you been up to?”

“Mostly doing things around the city that I’ve always wanted to do and never made time for, like go to the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building.”