Down by Contact (The Barons 2)

I crawled into the bathtub after Mel left, soaking in the water and willing my body to relax. It wasn’t likely to happen, but between the tension in my back and neck, and my constant teeth grinding, headaches had plagued me for days. My every thought and dream were full of nightmare scenarios where Adrián was harassed by his teammates due to Rocky egging them on, where he lost his endorsements, and also where he blamed me for it all. Regretted our game and our talks, and the way fucking had subtly shifted to simply wanting to spend time together. To maybe extending us spending time together beyond the end of our coaching at the Center.

The security system chimed, signaling Hendricks was home. In the past, if we had a night we’d take the opportunity to go out. Now, he spent a lot of time at Jasmine’s house and only went home to chill. Kicking back and taking it easy had never been my thing when there were so many hot queer dudes and easily conquered straight dudes to plow through the next morning, but now I could see the appeal. Especially if Adrián was kicking back with me.

“Knock, knock,” Marcus hollered. His footsteps boomed up the stairs. “Where you at?”

“In the bath!”

Marcus barreled in with Gavin right on his heels. Gavin had a black eye and a broken nose from the previous week’s game, but it didn’t seem to faze him. The dude was a warrior. If there was such thing as reincarnation, I was positive he’d been a fucking Viking or a Spartan in a previous life.

“What you need an ice bath for?” Marcus demanded. “You’ve been sitting on your ass for weeks.”

“Fuck you. My trainer’s been tearing my ass up for weeks in preparation for me hitting the turf again next week.”

Gavin sprawled on the sleek silver couch, long legs extending so far they still nearly reached the tub. But even with three football players in the room, it was still the size of Adrián’s master bedroom. The contrast of his apartment to the mansion I shared with Marcus was ridiculous, but . . . I liked the space. I liked the grounds, the pool, the personal bowling alley and movie room, and the fact that my bathroom was basically a spa. I’d been waiting for the time when I could invite Adrián back and take him on a tour, but that was likely never going to happen.

“How’s fuckboy?”

I sank lower in the water, but it was just a tub of ice so it did nothing to cover me. “Stop calling him that.”

“Why?” Gavin demanded shrewdly. “He your boyfriend?”

“No.”

“Then why do you care?”

“Because he’s not that bad, all right, man? I told you before.”

Gavin, rubbing his thumb over his split lip, glared at me. “I hate when transparent people think they can lie and that I’m stupid enough to believe it.”

Marcus laughed. I sneered at them both.

“Fine. You want me to admit it?” I kicked the button to drain the bath and threw a leg over the side. “We were starting to like each other, and that stupid picture was of us.”

“So his bisexual cat is out of his bisexual bag?” Marcus asked. “Guess he’ll figure out how it feels now.”

I snatched my towel and wrapped it around my waist, scowling. “Funny you should say that, M. I thought I wanted him to know how I felt, but now I just feel awful that he’s in this position. When it comes down to it, I don’t want him to be ostracized from his team. Can you fucking imagine how training camp would have been if the Barons were less tolerant?” I asked Gavin. “The jokes would have been unreal, and your ass would have been upside someone’s head on day one.”

“That is a fact,” Marcus said. “Some dudes acted a little funny, but at the end of the day most people didn’t really talk about it.”

“I told that to Noah, and he said them pretending it never happened is also a microaggression,” Gavin said. “I want to fuck the shit out of him when he starts ranting about social justice. Is that normal?”

“That’s how I get when Jasmine does it, so I vote yes.”

Marcus and Gavin gave each other pound, grinning. I rolled my eyes and walked out of the bathroom. “I don’t have the guts for y’all’s happy-and-in-love shit right now.”

“Because your boy Bravo doesn’t want to be happy and in love with you?” Marcus asked. “We were trying to comb social media for clues, but his accounts have been ghost town. Not a word about anything since you dismissed the rumor that you were bumping NFL uglies.”

I’d noticed the same thing and hadn’t known what to make of it.

“I’ve never seen you this bummed out,” Gavin said. “I’m starting to think you’re legit in love with this guy despite him being an actual worse asshole than me.”