Mess Me Up (Bear Bottom Guardians MC 1)

I turned my glare on the younger man.

He was the quarterback and in his prime. But, I was a lineman—or at least had been—and I’d taken down bigger pricks than him for my entire career.

Plus, big I may be, fast I was.

“How about you shut up about my Izzy, and you go fuck yourself,” I suggested.

Linc’s lips twitched. “’Your Izzy?’”

Linc had seen us together last week in town and had immediately latched on to the idea of Izzy and me. He’d sent me a text that night telling me that he was happy I’d returned to the land of the living and that he’d see me at the pick-up game.

He also threatened that if I didn’t come, he’d find a way to make my life hell.

I knew he would, too.

Linc was a big part of my life and the reason that I had the MC at my back in the first place.

He’d also been on the team with me and was one of the only ones in the world that knew that Matias had cancer. He knew why I’d really quit and he’d been the one to show me a way to deal with my separation from the team in a healthy way—by prospecting with the MC.

I swallowed hard, trying not to get emotional with the stupid kid.

He had a good head on his shoulders, and I was happy that I counted him as a friend.

I flipped said friend off as a few of the other guys started to laugh. “Want to play a pick-up game, old man?”

I shifted to see another former teammate, Joe Hoyt, a running back, toss a ball at my face.

I caught it like I hadn’t stopped holding a football for over a year and shot it back at him like a missile.

Joe caught it and grinned, tucking the ball under his arm.

I’d honestly never intended to play the pick-up game, but I’d worn shorts and a tee just in case they happened to talk me into it—which they were attempting to do.

I wanted to play.

“I’ll go ask if Iz minds.” I paused. “We were supposed to go grab food after this.”

“Tell you what,” Joe said, smiling wide. “I’ll go ask her myself.”

Joe was off before I’d even told myself that it wasn’t a good idea.

“Joe Blow isn’t going to be nice,” Linc teased.

I sighed and turned, heading off to intercept the man that I knew damn well wasn’t going to let me leave without playing a game.

But he must’ve fuckin’ sprinted there after he’d left our huddle, because he was already hanging off the railing, talking to her.

Izzy was staring down at him like he was a worm, though, making me chuckle as I started to jog lightly toward them.

When I arrived, it was to hear the tail end of Joe’s conversation.

“…my mother’s going to be alright, but I’m really sad. I need my friend to play with me to make me feel better,” Joe finished.

I rolled my eyes heavenward.

Joe was the biggest pain in the ass on the entire team, and every one of the guys liked him.

He was around thirty, but he acted like he was fifteen at times.

And man, the outrageous stories he came up with were sometimes works of art.

“So, what I’m understanding is, your mother was hurt last week in a fall, and you need to play a game of football with Rome to make you feel better,” she said.

Joe nodded down at her. “Yeah!”

“But I’m hungry, Joe,” she teased. “If I sit here for another minute more, I’m going to die of starvation.”

Joe frowned, and I felt my shoulders shaking as I tried to keep the laughter quiet.

She was working him like a pro.

I smothered a grin with my hand.

“Okay.” He paused, looking around. His eyes stopping on an unsuspecting woman who was handing out water bottles. “Hey, Water Girl! Do you have any of your cookies?”

Jolene, or the Water Girl, as she was always referred to but who was actually the sports nutritionist for the team, frowned. “Joe Blow, I’m going to kick your ass if you keep calling me Water Girl.”

Joe held up his hands, and he started to fall backward off of the railing.

Both Izzy and Jolene started to gasp, but Joe caught himself before he could fall more than an inch or two.

“I’m sorry, WG. I’ll stop…for now,” he offered. “But tomorrow, I’ll likely forget, and you’ll have to remind me again just like you did today.”

Joe had a steel trap for a mind. He knew every freakin’ play he’d ever ran and didn’t have a single problem remembering anything. Yet he and Jolene had danced around each other like two dogs scrapping for the last piece of chicken.

Joe and Jolene had always been the two people that everyone on the team wondered why they weren’t together. I never understood why they didn’t just hook up and get whatever it was between them over with—or started.