The End Zone (Atlanta Lightning 2)

Whoa…we? Had I just said I wouldn’t be at Thanksgiving with my family if Jeremy couldn’t come? But instead of taking it back, I just shoveled another bite of food into my mouth.

“Yeah, of course your friend can come, Darren. We didn’t mean it like that. The more the merrier. Your friends are always welcome in my house. The two of you must be…close?” Momma asked.

“Yeah, we’re close.” I didn’t look up from my plate. I sure as shit didn’t let my gaze find Mia. She had some fucking power to know what I was thinking without me having to say it.

The table went quiet for a moment while we ate. I was still avoiding looking at anyone when Lee said, “He a white boy? Just wanna know if I need to be all proper and shit,” making the table erupt in laughter.

I knew he didn’t mean anything by it. He was just trying to break the tension. “Yeah, he’s a white boy, but you don’t have to be anything different than what you are.”

We finished eating, and I felt my family’s stare the whole time. No one asked me about it, though. Well, not until I was about to leave and Mia said, “I’ll walk you out.”

“Thinking I’m gonna get lost, or what?” She didn’t want to walk me out. She wanted to ask about Jeremy. But Mia wasn’t just my sister, she was my agent, which made things…difficult.

When we got outside, she said, “What’s goin’ on, D?”

“Nothing.” Which was obviously a fucking lie, but I didn’t know if I was comfortable talking about it yet.

“Well, I love you, and if you ever have something you want to share with me, I’m here. Always. That was me talking to you as your sister. Now I’m talking as your agent: is there something I need to know? I don’t want to be blindsided.”

She had a right to know, both as my sister and as my agent. And if this thing with Jeremy lasted and…fuck, if I had to come out as…someone with a man, it was something Mia and I would have to discuss. She’d been great through the whole process with Anson. Still, I wasn’t sure what to say exactly, and maybe that was an excuse, but I was going with it. “Not yet, okay? We’ll talk soon.” It wouldn’t do any of us any good for me to get ahead of myself.

“All right, but I got your back. Always.”

“I know.” She was a hell of a person to have by your side. Mia was fierce. She’d gotten it from our mom. “I’m gonna head out. I’ll talk to you soon.”

We hugged goodbye, and I left.

Like I usually did, I waited until I was in bed before video calling Jeremy. When his face showed up on the screen, he smiled widely. “Hey, you.”

My chest warmed at seeing him. “What’s up?”

“Not much. Was just sitting here waiting for this really sexy football player to call me.”

It was my turn to grin. “I like where this is headed. Tell me more.”

“His name is Anson Hawkins. He—”

“Am I gonna have to kick my best friend’s ass?” I teased.

“I’m kidding. He’s you.”

“He better be.”

It was only seven for Jeremy, but he was already in bed. I wished I could see his room in person. I wanted to hold him in his bed, the way I had in mine.

“How was your day?” Jeremy asked.

“Good. Practice, massage, ice bath; you know, the usual. What about you?”

“The normal here too.” He didn’t mention work or any cases. Now that I thought about it, he hadn’t talked much about it at all for the last few weeks.

“I have something to talk to you about, and then I wanna jerk off together again. After that, I’m exhausted. I need to go to bed.”

He chuckled. “I’m agreeable to this.”

My stomach twisted with nerves. I’d never invited someone to a holiday like this. Yeah, we did shit with Anson and other friends, but this was different, and I was positive my whole family knew it. “I don’t know if you have plans or not yet, but we play in Atlanta on Thanksgiving. We’re having dinner at my mom’s house on Friday. I was thinking…if you don’t have plans or anything, you could come in for the game and stay a few days. I told my family I wanted you to come for dinner.”

His expression changed, his eyes going slightly crinkly around the edges. “You…you told your family about me?”

Fuck. I should have thought that through. Of course he would go there. “No, not really. I said you were a friend, but I’m pretty sure they know. They’re not stupid, and I basically told them if you couldn’t come, I wouldn’t be there.”

“Darren, what the fuck! They’re your family. You can’t do that for me. You love them too much—oh. They didn’t want me to come?”