“That’s because people like him usually can.”
“You mean like he did with me.”
Devon took the exit for the resort. “For what it’s worth, I don’t blame you for choosing what you did over a friendship with me. I wish you would’ve called and let me know you were okay, but I get it. I never expected you to give up anything for me. It was just college. We were young and stupid and horny.”
“Hey, we were not stupid,” Hunter said, sending him a mock-serious look.
Devon laughed. “Fair enough. The other two we had in spades, though.”
Hunter smiled briefly and then peered out at the road again, his mood shifting, voice quiet. “I always planned to call you once I had my feet under me and didn’t have to depend on my family anymore.”
Devon eased off the gas and pulled onto the tree-lined road that led to the resort. “Majors not paying so well these days?”
Hunter frowned in Devon’s periphery. “I picked up the phone a few times but then didn’t know what I would say, so I didn’t call. Then things got busy with the team and I met Macy and . . .”
“And here we are.”
“Yeah.”
“No, I mean, we’re here. This is where you’re staying.”
Hunter looked up at the sprawling stone building as if registering that they had a destination for the first time. “Oh. Right.”
“Want me to pull around the front to drop you off, or did you already check in?”
“No, don’t. I mean, I haven’t checked in yet, but . . .”
Devon slowed the car and turned to look at him. “But what?”
“Do you want to come up?”
Devon lifted his brows.
“I don’t mean—shit, not like that.” He adjusted his ball cap in a way Devon had seen him do time and again on TV after a bad pitch. “I just mean to talk, to catch up. I know it’s late and you probably want to get home, but—”
“I can come up for a few minutes.” The words were out before Devon could evaluate them. Dammit. Going up to his room was all kinds of a bad idea. Hunter was obviously going through something, and Devon knew people did crazy ill-advised crap before they got married. He did not want to be that crap for Hunter. But he also couldn’t walk away from Hunter again, leaving things unfinished still, even if sitting here with him was like poking a hot knife into an old wound.
“Okay.” Hunter nodded, relief touching his eyes. “All right.”
Devon parked the car and waited in the lobby while Hunter got his room key. The check-in process took forever, and when Hunter stepped up next to him, he had a printed itinerary in his hand.
Devon eyed it. “What the hell is that?”
Hunter sniffed. “Apparently Macy signed me up for everything except a damn bikini wax. I thought I was here to relax, not to have a packed schedule.”
Devon took the sheet from him. “Hmm, a mandarin orange sugar scrub. That sounds like something I’d serve at the restaurant.”
“There’s also a rubdown with some sort of butter. Maybe they have a food fetish.”
Devon smirked. “If we were still friends, I’d make a really inappropriate joke right now.”
Hunter’s gaze met his, regret sitting there. “So no chance of us being friends again?”
Devon handed the paper back to him, some undefined emotion etching its way through his chest. “I don’t know, big man. Feels so complicated now. Plus, in case you haven’t noticed, you’re a pretty big deal. Probably not much room in your life for old friends.”
Hunter looked like he might say something else but then grabbed the handle of his luggage and turned away. They made their way to the elevator, and Devon tried not to think about the last time they’d shared an elevator, the way Hunter had held him, what had happened afterward. The years hadn’t dimmed that memory. Every moment was seared right into his DNA.
Hunter pressed the button for the fifth floor. “Truth is, there’s not much room in my life for anything lately. Including, you know, having a life.”