The End Zone (Atlanta Lightning 2)

I sighed, dropped my head back. This wasn’t going the way I thought it would. “I’m fucking this up. They have no problem with you coming. I promise. I wouldn’t bring you into a situation like that, okay? It was just them asking me about you, and me jumping to conclusions. I opened my fucking mouth without thinking and said if they had a problem, we wouldn’t go. But they don’t. They’re not like that. Momma said you’re always welcome, and Lee was teasing me about bringing a white boy home, so everything is just like normal. And for the rest of it…I’m sorry I told them we’re just friends, but they know, Angel. I’m just…”

“Not ready to talk to them about it,” he said softly.

“I’m sorry. I know it’s my own fucked-up shit.”

“No. Hell no. Don’t think that. This is new for you. You’ve never even been attracted to a man before, and you just asked your family if your boyfriend can come for Thanksgiving. I can’t believe you did that for me.”

“Well, hopefully you’re still in awe of me when I admit that I also did it for me. I want to see you.”

He shook his head, giving me a snicker. “It’s always about you,” he joked. “I want to see you too.”

“Will you come? I can tell them if you want, if it makes you feel better.”

“No. I would never push you to do that. I’m fine going as your friend. And yes, I’ll be there.”

We wouldn’t have long, of course, because of my football schedule. Hell, he probably had to get back for work too, but I was excited to have Jeremy in Atlanta again. For him to go to my game and spend the night in my bed and meet my family.

“Good.” I gave him a playful, wicked grin. “Wanna jerk off now?”

“Is that even a question?”

We did just that, spurting our loads all over ourselves, and I wondered if he was doing what I was doing, wishing we were together. We stayed on the video call until I cleaned up and climbed back into bed. “Talk to you tomorrow, and see you next week.”

“Talk soon,” he replied.

“Night, Angel.”

“Good night, Troublemaker.”

Chapter Nineteen

Jeremy

Humans were weird. Sometimes it was possible to feel two conflicting emotions at the same time, or to be hurt by something you didn’t feel you had the right to be hurt by, while that same thing also sent all sorts of shmoopy emotions through you.

See? Weird. I had no idea if I was even making sense.

What I did know was that I couldn’t believe Darren had invited me to his parents’ house for Thanksgiving. He’d always identified as straight before me, and was confused about labels and how he wanted to move forward. Yet he’d asked if he could have the man he was fucking home for the holiday, and even though he hadn’t spelled it out, he thought his family knew.

That was…really fucking crazy, and amazing, and made me fall for him even more, but then that complex-human-emotion thing kept trying to ruin my high by making me a little sad that he’d told them I was just a friend. From there I stepped straight over the cliff into guilt because he’d invited me home for Thanksgiving.

I wasn’t even that big on the holiday, but ugh, why was he the sweetest?

I still couldn’t wrap my brain around how all this happened. Him and me. But it had, and I was currently in Atlanta at West’s place, and later today I was going to my super-hot boyfriend’s NFL game before going home with him and then meeting his family the next day. They would be at the game too, but West and I would be sitting together in different seats, with Anson’s mom, Elias, and Carly.

I pulled my phone out and looked at the text Darren had sent me earlier.

Troublemaker: Imma win for you tonight.

And there went the shmoopy feelings again. He tied me up in knots.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you’re fucking Darren and I had to find out from my husband after Darren asked for sex advice,” West said. I hadn’t gotten to see Darren yet. My flight had come in early that morning.

“How many times are you going to say that?” I asked, because it hadn’t been the first. Imagine my surprise at finding out that Darren had hit Anson up for a whole gay-sex talk before meeting me at my hotel in Chicago. “Plus, you could tell something was up last time I came to town.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t know what. Also, I like attention and enjoy being the first to know things, so you definitely should have come to me before Darren went to Ans.”

“You know I don’t need sex advice,” I teased.

He cocked a brow. “You know that’s not what I meant.” Yeah, yeah I did. Before I could reply, West squeezed my shoulder. “I’m also just giving you shit. Well, partly. I understand what it’s like, and I wouldn’t even joke about it if I didn’t know Darren said you could tell me.”