Messy Love (Stumbling into Love 3)

“Something like that,” Jonathan replied.

After Mark told us goodbye, I leaned in close to Jonathan’s ear. “You liked it.”

He shrugged. “My friends wouldn’t have…fuck, I don’t know. Some of them would have come, of course, but it wouldn’t have been the same.”

It didn’t sound like Jonathan had the best type of friends. What kind of friends didn’t cheerlead for you? But then I also wondered if Jonathan had ever given them the chance. He’d spent most of his life so locked up. Maybe if he’d been more open, he would have gotten different behavior in return. “Well, now you have a whole posse at your disposal.”

“Yikes, that’s a little scary.”

“I know, man. I know.” I squeezed his shoulder.

We picked up our bags and made our way to our friends.

“Holy shit. That was awesome.” Eli gave me a hug, and I kissed his temple.

“Thanks, E.” I watched Jonathan over Elijah’s shoulder as he and Will fist-bumped.

“Good game, big brother. I can’t believe you’re on a gay baseball team.”

Jonathan gave a small shrug. “You and me both.”

I could believe it. Jonathan wanted this. He wanted more.

Everyone chatted for a few minutes about the game and some plays and stuff like that, before I said, “Hey, remember that time you guys treated me and my roomie to lunch for kicking ass in our game?”

“Remember that time you were obnoxious?” Shaw teased.

“So basically like you are all the time?”

He lunged at me, and we play-boxed for a minute. I was so glad he and I had found our way and become friends.

Jonathan gave me a playful headshake, as if I’d done something other than…well, be me.

We used our phones to look up restaurants in town and decided to meet up at a pizza place not too far away. Jonathan and I had ridden in together, of course, so they headed out while we used the bathrooms at the field to change and freshen up. “I brought wet wipes.”

“Huh?” I couldn’t see Jonathan, he was in a stall, but I knew he had that wrinkled-forehead look of confusion on his face.

“To clean up, dork-ass.”

“Dork-ass?”

“You don’t like it?”

“I love it. That might be my favorite name you have for me.”

“Ha-ha.” I used some wipes, then tossed the container over the stall to him.

Not much later, Jonathan pulled his truck into the restaurant parking lot, and I asked him, “You ready for this?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be. I’m not gonna lie, it would be much more comfortable if it was just me and you at home.”

Okay, fucking swoon. He had no idea what it did to me when he said shit like that. I’d never felt so twisted up and soft for a guy before. “More the reason we should be here. It’s just like hanging out with the team.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“It’ll be just us for dinner, though. I’ll even cook since you drove and have to do the dishes.” Not that we’d need much. It was already almost two, so we were having a late lunch.

“Deal,” Jonathan replied.

We got out and headed for the restaurant. Jonathan held the door open for me, and we went inside. Our crew had a long table toward the back, and we made our way there. They’d saved two spots for us, one by Will and the other next to Elijah. Jonathan and I would be across from each other.

I sat down, and Will said, “Cups are on the table. There’s a machine up front for drinks.”

I reached for mine, but Jonathan interrupted. “I got it. You want Mountain Dew or water?”

“I’m a little dehydrated, so no soda.”

“Yeah, me too.” Jonathan grabbed my cup and disappeared. I could feel Will’s eyes on me, maybe Elijah’s too.

“This is your second game?” Shaw asked.

“Yep,” I replied.

“I wish we had women’s queer teams,” Kira said.

“You don’t even play sports,” Ali countered. They were girlfriends and clearly crazy about each other.

“So? That doesn’t mean I don’t want a team,” Kira replied.

“There’s a roller derby one,” Brooklyn told them.

“No shit?” This from Ali. “That sounds fun.”

The three of them started chatting as Jonathan set my drink in front of me. I winked at him.

We looked at the menus and ordered a few different choices—a cheese, a pepperoni, and a veggie pizza.

“Wait, do you want wings?” I asked Jonathan. “You like the barbecue ones better than buffalo, right?”

“Yeah, anyone else?” he asked. When there were some yeses, he threw in a couple of orders of those as well.

“You guys are two and zero?” Jameson asked.

“Yep. We kick ass. Jonathan won the first game for us.”

“I hit one home run.”

“But it was the one that won the game.”

“But yours today put me on dish duty.”

I noticed everyone looking at us, so I explained the bet. From there we talked about the team and going out after the last game.