The Endgame (Atlanta Lightning 1)

Jeremy laughed. “Out of your ass, huh? I would have gone with eyes.”

“Shut up,” I grumbled, then looked away.

“I don’t mean to make light of your situation. The truth is, it’s not going to be easy. At least with Bobby, he’s out, so we don’t have to hide. I’m always here for you, whatever you need. Maybe he’ll get traded to a team in California.”

“Maybe.” But I knew he didn’t want that. Anson wanted to be in Georgia, or at least somewhere close to his family. “He’s coming to spend a night in DC next week.” Now that Jeremy knew, it was nice to have someone to talk to about everything.

“Ugh. I’m so jealous.”

“Your husband is hot.”

“Yeah, but Anson fucking Hawkins.”

I laughed. “Keep your hands off. He’s mine.”

A couple of hours later my cell rang with a video call. Jeremy was gone by then. “You were hot on TV earlier,” I said as soon as I accepted.

“Aren’t I always hot?”

I shrugged. “You’re all right.”

Anson snickered, then said, “I miss you.”

My stomach flip-flopped, and I wondered if I did indeed have hearts flying out of my ass or my eyes or anywhere else. God, love sucked. “I miss you too.”

It was late for Anson, and he settled in his bed, held the phone close, and asked, “What did you do today? Tell me everything.”

“Everything?” I cocked a brow.

“Yep. Don’t leave anything out. I want to feel like I was there.”

Jesus, this fucking guy. He was going to wreck me.

I did exactly as he’d asked. I told him about my day, my work, Jeremy coming over, even made up a few fantasies about thinking of Anson and me together.

His eyes were heavy. I knew he’d had a big workout, and he must have been exhausted from that. “Go to sleep, Bashful. We’ll talk soon and see each other next week.”

“I don’t want to hang up,” he admitted. “I want to be with you. I want us to be like everyone else. I saw Elias and Carly today… We were at Mom’s. I wished you could be there. I wish they knew about you.”

I closed my eyes, tried to focus on breathing. I didn’t get it, how he could care about me that much. I wanted everything he’d said, wanted to know his family, wanted them to know me, wanted to be accepted like Carly was, but the truth was, I might not be. Not only because I was a man, but because…well, because families and I didn’t go so well together. Not if my own was any indication about how I’d be with families in general.

“I want that too,” I finally replied. “I’ll stay with you until you fall asleep.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I want to.”

He gave me a small grin, then closed his eyes. I did as I said I would, and waited until he was completely out before I ended the call.

The following week, I got everything ready for Anson to come and see me. He was worried about my apartment there, about needing to get past security to get inside, so I’d agreed to a hotel room.

I ran into my father on my way inside the Capitol. He’d walked right by me, like I wasn’t his son. It didn’t typically bother me anymore, but that day, it did.

The day lasted longer than I’d thought it would, and we weren’t given recess until midnight. When I checked my phone, there were multiple messages from Anson. His agent had set something up for him. He’d come to DC, but he only had hours instead of the whole night. Originally, I’d told him I should be done between five and six. His flight back to Atlanta left at two in the morning, so his last message was to tell me he had to go to the airport. My late day had made us miss each other.

This was going to be harder than I’d thought, and foolishly, I’d assumed it would be easier on me than him. Who knew what that said about me, but I acknowledged the truth—it was me who didn’t know how I could keep this up.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Anson

April

West and I still hadn’t been able to see each other after our schedules screwed us last month. It was frustrating because now that I had him, I didn’t want to be away from him, but I would be. A lot. Most of the time, actually. West and I would rarely be able to see each other, and while I’d always known that, the idea of something and experiencing it were completely different ball games.

Our goal was to have a couple of weeks together in June. There was a charity event we were both attending. Congress would be on a month-long recess, and while he still had constituent work in California, he was planning to take some vacation time as well. He hadn’t taken time off in a while, and he was changing his schedule around so he could hopefully block out two weeks.