Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 8

unimportant. And if the tone of Devin's voice when he mentioned Lee was any indication, now was the perfect time to defend him or they'd all be running extra laps just to make up for Lee daring to act outside of their coach's strict timetable.
    "He might be late," Sam said. "He's going for a job interview. Simply Sinful is right by the park, so he shouldn't be too late."
    "Good," Devin said. "I want to go over a few things with him before the next game." Devin turned a bright smile on him and Sam stumbled a step. "I looked through your play book. I still believe good rugby play is about acting on instinct, but I think we can implement a few of your ideas into our next game. We'll try some of them out today."
    Sam returned his smile. That was high praise coming from their picky coach. It was a wonder he'd gone through the play book at all. Dev's idea of a strategy was to yell at someone to go left and further out in the middle of a game, but the casual coaching style worked for the most part. Players felt safe to react in the moment and other teams found their unpredictable style difficult to counter most of the time. It didn't hurt that everyone was fast on their feet and a few of their larger players were rougher than most.
    "Instinct is fine, but sometimes you have to have a good game plan. Adaptable."
    "Yeah, speaking of plans, you know what he's doing, right?" Devin motioned ahead of them. Michael had taken off down the sidewalk, a figure in the distance that grew smaller by the second. He had almost reached Forsyth Park. "He's serious about this crazy plan of his."
    It's not that crazy , Sam thought. He rolled his shoulders, trying to loosen the knot between them. "I don't know what you're worried about. He can't set us up if we don't want to be."
    "I'm not worried," Devin countered. "I don't like that he's trying to push us together. It'll be awkward."
    "It won't be awkward," Sammy said. "We just ignore him. Though you're not so good at that, are you? Every time he brings Jessica home, you freak out."
    "His bedroom is next to mine."
    "By your own choice."
    "So you're saying you don't like me coming into your room in the middle of the night to escape the noise?" Just like that, Devin's small smile eased the tension between Sammy's shoulders. Instinctively, Sam smiled back and walked closer. He knew how much his psychology textbooks bored his roommate. He was sure Michael's love life was the only reason Devin sometimes joined him for his late night study sessions. He supposed Dev would put up with anything to avoid the sounds of Michael and his new girlfriend going at it half the night.
    Regardless, Sam enjoyed the intimate time with him, watching Devin lounge on Sammy's bed in his South Park pajama bottoms, telling jokes with a sleepy smile, his ear-length dark hair spread on Sam's pillow. There had been quite a few nights when Sam had been kept awake because Devin's smell was in his room, all over his sheets. More nights than he cared to admit, even to himself, when just the smell of Devin's shampoo alone had him taking himself in hand and wishing for a different reality. One where Sam didn't have to imagine that Devin's hand was in the place of his and Devin came to his room for a different kind of late night fun. He had to stop doing this to himself.
    "I'm saying when he gets up in the morning and sees you coming out of my bedroom, he gets ideas about what kind of roommates we are," Sam said. "You do have a lot of friends with benefits."
    "Used to," Dev corrected. "I don't do that anymore."
    "Got tired of it?"
    Devin shrugged. "Everyone's getting into relationships. Hard to play without a playmate. And to tell the truth, I don't hate the idea of being in something long-term myself."
    "So, why don't you? It won't be hard for you to find someone."
    "Good to know you think I'm hot." Devin grinned.
    Sam began fervently hoping Dev would attribute the sudden flush of his skin to the warmth of the day. And he thanked his lucky stars that Devin couldn't read him as easily as Mike had. That little quip about how good they'd be together hadn't come out of the ether, and Sam had blushed so hotly, he'd thought Dev would be able to feel the heat radiating from his skin. As it was, Devin felt nothing more than platonic friendship. And, apparently, annoyance with his cooking habits.
    "I think you have your own kind of gruff charm," Sammy said. "You know, for an attention whore with boundary issues." Though he'd said it with