Текст книги "Triple Play"

Автор книги: Sloan Johnson

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Текущая страница: 13 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

Chapter 20

By the middle of December, Eric was driving me crazy. It didn’t help that there’d been more snow than I could ever remember getting this early in the year. That meant he and I were stuck at home more often than we’d care for, and Bryce had been spending more time at his shitty little apartment than anyone wanted him to. Personally, I’d have been happy if he’d told his boss to give up the lease and he moved in with us. Not officially, of course, but he could have the spare room if he needed his own space and it’d save the center money they couldn’t afford to be spending.

“Do you have the list together?” Eric asked. Today was a decent day, even if it was colder than the North Pole, so we were heading to the outlet mall to see how many Christmas presents we could find. Eric had suggested ordering everything online since it’d be quicker and wouldn’t require going anywhere, but I didn’t care for that idea. I remembered going Christmas shopping with my mom when I was a kid, and I loved finding the perfect gift almost as much as the recipient loved opening it.

“Yeah, I’ve got it right here,” I told him, waving the two sheets of paper at him. There were only about a dozen young adults living at Pot of Gold, so that’s who we were buying for. All of the minors had been placed in host homes, which were essentially foster homes without the stigma attached. They had families who welcomed them with open arms and didn’t give a damn that they were gay. In fact, many of the couples who fostered for the center were gay couples or parents who’d raised gay children. It was good because that meant the kids were living somewhere they’d be understood.

“Good, so we can head downtown to pick up Bryce and then head out, right?” Eric grabbed his keys off the counter and I followed him out to the car. I hoped his mood was simply because he hadn’t heard anything more from Sam, and not because of anything having to do with us. I’d have asked, but I didn’t want to come across as needy because no one liked needy, clingy people.

“Yep.” Rather than take my place in the passenger’s seat, I followed Eric to the driver’s side and place my hand over his as he went to open the door. “Look, if you’d rather stay home, you don’t have to come with. Bryce and I can take care of it.”

Eric wrapped his arm around my neck and hugged me tightly. “It’s not that,” he assured me. “You’ll have to forgive me if I seem like a scrooge right now. I’m not the biggest fan of the holidays.”

“It’s fine,” I told him as I pulled him down for a kiss. His lips parted slightly, and I dipped my tongue into his mouth. Even after almost two months, I still loved the taste of him. “Hell, you put up with a lot from me, so it’d be rather shitty if I got on your case for being in a mood.”

“Yeah, but you had your reasons, too,” he pointed out. He smacked me on my ass and told me to get in the car, otherwise we’d never get home. “And who knows, maybe this is exactly what I need. It’s a good thing you’re putting together for those guys, Drew.”

“Thanks, but it’s not just me,” I insisted. I wasn’t doing this for accolades, but because I really wanted to do something good rather than be the somewhat self-centered guy I’d always been. Until Bryce stepped into my life, it’d been easy for me to pretend that there weren’t people out there who’d be happy to have a shitty bed in an open room and live off what was little more than prison food. We’d see people living on the streets when we traveled, but it was a rarity for me to really think about what they were going through. And these guys were barely adults. Emotionally, many of them carried around pain I couldn’t even imagine.

“No, but it was your idea. Don’t feel like you can’t take credit for that,” he scolded me. “Hell, I think most of the guys who are helping out are pissed that places like Pot of Gold have been right under our noses and we haven’t done anything to help sooner. Who knows, maybe this will be the start of more of us trying to get out into the community and really help.”

I gasped, feigning complete shock. “You mean get professional athletes to prove they’re capable of more than playing ball and collecting a paycheck?”

“Yeah, it’s a shocker, I know.” Eric laughed. Most of the guys already did plenty to help others during their off time, but it’d be nice to get something a bit more organized, to encourage players to get out into the community to help those who didn’t lead the privileged lives we do.

“Speaking of which, have you decided what you’re going to do?” I had been avoiding the question, but now seemed as good of a time as any since Eric seemed to be in a good mood. Every day that passed without him getting an offer, he seemed to resign himself to the fact that whether he tried to say it was on his own terms or not, his time in baseball was coming to an end.

“I think so,” he said, pausing long enough to pay attention at a tricky intersection. “I’m going to wait until after the first of the year, and if there’s still nothing, I’m going to call Sam and tell him he doesn’t need to keep looking.”

“Why then?” He seemed content with his decision, so it didn’t make sense that he would wait unless there was still a small part of him that hoped something would come through at the last minute.

“Because I’m not going to screw up Sam’s holiday,” he responded. “While I might not be one of his bread winners, I don’t want him going into the holidays knowing he’s going to lose the percentage he could have drawn off me.”

“Okay, so what are you going to do after that? I can’t imagine you’re going to want to hang around the house all the time.” If he did, I wasn’t sure I’d want to be there after the first month. He’d grow unbearable over time. Eric was a man who needed to be doing something.

“I’m thinking about asking Bryce if he wants some help in the administrative offices at the center. They need someone who can work cheap and Bryce can trust. I don’t need their money, and if Bryce can’t trust me by now, we have other issues to work through.”

That’d mean all three of us spending more time together. Even though we’d be doing our own thing, I liked the idea of both of them being close enough to stop by the office and say hi every day. And if Eric wasn’t constantly busy in the office, maybe he could help with some other ideas I had for the guys. A lot of them had zero interest in sports, but more than a few had mentioned that they’d like to do something to feel better about how they looked. I’d offered to work out with them, but it wasn’t enough. My mind only knew what I needed to do to get back into shape. I had no clue what others should be doing. Eric did. Not only that, but he knew which muscles to work to get different results. All that shit was way above my head.

“Has he heard anything about his request to relocate permanently so he’d be running Milwaukee on his own?” Eric asked. Since Bryce hadn’t been spending as much time at the house, they hadn’t had a chance to catch up in the past week. That needed to change, but like so many things when it came to our group, I had no clue how to make it happen.

“Not yet,” I responded. “He’s hoping they’ll give him an answer this month. That way, he can put in notice on his current apartment and start looking for something more permanent.”

“Why would he do that?” Eric asked. I smiled, grateful that he seemed to be having the same thoughts as I was. “I’ve got plenty of room at the house and he’s always there as it is. Or at least he was until the fucking snow started. I don’t understand why he’s so hung up on driving when the roads aren’t clear. I’ve told him he just has to slow down and he’ll be fine.”

“And there’s the problem with your suggestion.” Both of us teased Bryce about his driving. When he got behind the wheel, he wasn’t unsafe, but he did test the patience of the local police departments with his speed. “I’m pretty sure his mind automatically adds fifteen miles per hour to every speed limit sign he sees.”

“True, but that’s beside the point. If he moves anywhere, it should be out to the lake,” Eric continued.

“Have you mentioned it to him?”

“Well, no.” Eric started muttering under his breath as he tried to find a parking spot within a block of the center.

“That might be a good place to start,” I chastised him. “Hell, I remember how resistant you were to Cam moving in, and he was just a roommate while you were on the other side of the country. Most people aren’t going to assume you’d want them to move in if you haven’t so much as hinted at the idea.”

“How the fuck was I supposed to know he’d even want to?” I looked at him as if that was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard. While I’m sure it wasn’t at the top of the list, it had to be close.

“Maybe because he’s there as much as possible,” I pointed out to him. “Or the fact that when he comes over for dinner, even if he says he’s going to head home to get some work done, he always winds up dragging his bag into the house to work  in the living room while we watch TV. Or the fact that the two of you usually leave at the same time in the morning, you to go work out and him to head into the office.”

“Okay, I get your point,” Eric grumbled. “I’ll talk to him.”

“Good.”

When we walked into the center, Jacob was in Bryce’s office and they both looked pissed off. Like seriously pissed. I’d never seen Bryce lose his cool, but he seemed close. “Did we come at a bad time?”

Bryce looked up at us and visibly relaxed. “No, you came at the perfect time.”

“Oh?” Bryce walked around and gave me a quick peck on the cheek which was more affection than he ever showed when we were here.

“Yeah, I need you to do me a favor,” he said, kneading the back of his neck. “Cody and one of the other guys got into it a while ago. I’m not sure what’s going on, but he admitted that it was his fault. The problem is, he won’t say anything else and he’s freaking out, thinking I’m going to send him back out on the streets.”

“Fuck, he’s usually almost as cool and collected as you are,” I responded, slumping back into one of the chairs across from Bryce. “Tell me what you need and I’ll do it.”

“I need you to talk to him,” Bryce requested. “He’s not in danger of getting kicked out of the program yet, but he can’t keep reacting the way he did before. If I knew why, then I could work to fix the problem.”

“Got it.” I stood and quickly excused myself. As I walked down the hall, I heard the rhythmic thump of a basketball on the hardwood floor in the makeshift gym. Cody stood with his feet rooted to the floor as he dribbled the ball, oblivious to my presence.

I grew restless before he did and quietly opened the door. I didn’t say a word until I could reach around him to steal the ball. Cradling the ball under my arm, I motioned to the edge of the room.

“What the fuck, Drew? I was using that,” Cody burst out before stalking across the room toward me.

“Yeah, I could tell you were working hard on your skills,” I chided. I slid down the wall and placed the basketball under my knees. “And you can go back to it as soon as you tell me what in the fuck happened today.”

“Man, not you too,” Cody grumbled.

“Yeah, me too,” I responded, my mood quickly turning sour. “Now, Bryce is trying to help you, but he can’t do his job if you won’t talk to him.”

“You think I don’t know that? Fuck, why can’t everyone just give me some fucking space?” The teen’s vocabulary was impressive. He managed to fit fuck into more sentences than I did, and that was saying something.

“Because that’s not what’ll help you in the long run,” I said, remembering the conversation Bryce and I had the night before Thanksgiving. I’d been irritated when he kept pushing me to tell him what was running through my mind, but it turned out that was exactly what I needed to get a decent night of sleep. “I know you, Cody. You don’t lose your cool.”

“Everyone loses it sometime,” he deadpanned. “I’m not proud of what happened, but it’s been a long time coming.”

“Why? Explain it to me so we can try to help you,” I pleaded. “Bryce isn’t trying to find a reason to kick you out, he’s trying to help you figure out what needs to change so you don’t flip shit again.”

“It’s like this…” Cody started tugging at a loose thread on his shorts. “We’re all fucking lucky to be here. I know that. If we didn’t have this place, we’d probably wind up sick and in the hospital, if not worse. Some guys need to remember that instead of bitching about the lack of privacy. Fuck, I don’t like it any more than the rest of them, but I know better than to bitch about having a roof over my head, a bed to sleep in, and food in my stomach every night.”

“That makes sense,” I told him, hoping he’d keep talking because I felt as if we were finally getting somewhere. “So someone else was bitching, and that’s what made you go apeshit on him?”

“Part of it.” Cody wouldn’t look at me. His head hung low between his shoulders and I could see he was beating himself up over the earlier altercation.

“So what’s the rest?”

“I’m just tired,” Cody admitted. “Half the dudes in here don’t sleep for shit, and when they can’t sleep, it’s like they go out of their way to make sure no one can. I try to remember that this is better than sleeping on the streets, but sometimes I think about going back out there, even for a night. I’d found a lot of quiet places.”

Without thinking about it, I cuffed the back of his head. Cody flinched, and I felt like a pile of shit. He didn’t understand that not every touch was fueled by anger. “Sorry,” I apologized. “But I wouldn’t have done it if you weren’t being an idiot. It’s been below freezing every day this week. You really think you’d make it a night out there?”

“No,” Cody responded timidly. “Like I said, I’m tired. Beyond tired. I’m not thinking clearly.”

The guys could bitch at me later, but I was taking matters into my own hands. I couldn’t help everyone, but I could help Cody. I stood and held out my hand to pull him off the ground. “Go get dressed and grab your coat,” I told him. “Then meet me in Bryce’s office.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t ask, just get your ass down there within the next five minutes if you want to get the fuck out of here,” I warned him. I barely heard Cody thanking me as he raced out of the gym toward the dorm area.

Chapter 21

“Hey, while he’s dealing with Cody, do you have a minute?” Eric asked as soon as Drew was out of the room. His timing made me wonder what was going on and if it had something to do with Drew. He seemed to be doing better about wanting to get out of the house, but that didn’t mean anything.

“Yeah, is everything okay?” I closed down the grant application I’d been working on all morning so Eric had my undivided attention.

“Yeah, it’s nothing bad,” he assured me. I relaxed a bit, trying to mirror his calm demeanor. “I wanted to talk to you about the center.”

“What about it?” I asked.

“I want to help.” That would be a welcome change, because the more I tried to accomplish, the more I realized the founder had been in over his head trying to open an office in the Midwest without being able to commit the time needed to make it successful. I was beginning to resent him, because if things didn’t change quickly, the people who’d come to rely on our services would be without when we were forced to shut the doors. Rather than race around the desk and tackle Eric for offering his assistance, I waited impatiently for him to explain himself.

“In what way? We could always use more mentors if that’s what you’re talking about.”

“Well, that too, but I was thinking about helping you,” he informed me. “I’ve decided that unless a miracle occurs in the next few weeks, I’m going to tell my agent I’m done playing. At this point, I feel like I’ll be lucky to get anything other than a minor league deal, and I’m too old to deal with that again.”

“Although it’d be great to have someone I can trust in here with me, it’d be one hell of a pay cut for you,” I responded.

“That’s the best part. I don’t need the money. Between what I’ve saved and invested over the past fourteen years and what my grandfather left me in his will, I’m set as long as I’m not stupid with my money.”

This was seriously like a dream come true. I knew Eric had a degree in business administration, which was exactly what we needed. The problem was, if he took the job, I wouldn’t be needed here, and I’d just about convinced the founder that it was imperative for me to relocate permanently. Still, having someone with Eric’s attention to detail and ability to pinch pennies without demanding a huge salary was a godsend.

“The main problem I’m having is that I don’t want to walk away from baseball and have to try and figure out what to do with my life,” Eric admitted. “And the more I hear you and Drew talk about the kids here, the more I realize this is something I could do well and it’d be helping others. My grandpa was always big on giving back, and I think he’d support this decision if he was still alive.”

“You sure this is what you want to do?” I asked. If I took this proposal to the founder, I needed to know it wasn’t going to come back and bite me in the ass when Eric changed his mind. Non-profit work was rewarding, but it was also thankless much of the time. Long hours, low pay, and little room for either to improve.

“One hundred percent,” he assured me. It became impossible for me to keep my hands off him a minute longer. I kicked my chair back as I stood and stalked around to where he was sitting. I leaned forward with my hands on the arms of his chair and watched him swallow hard as he looked up at me. He licked his lips, and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was. Unfortunately, there were too many people here for me to bend him over the desk and seal this deal by fucking him into next week. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?” I teased, making a point to stare down at the significant bulge in his pants. “Like I’d love nothing more than to strip you naked and fuck you? Like you’ve just lifted a huge weight off my chest and deserve a reward?”

He swallowed hard again. He shifted in his seat and reached down to adjust himself. “Yeah…that.”

“There are too many people here, so that’ll have to wait until tonight at your place,” I responded, my voice low and husky. I knew exactly what that tone did to Eric, and I chuckled when he groaned. I leaned in closer, nipping at his ear lobe. “And it will happen. You know that, right?”

“Uh-huh.” He threw his arms around my neck when I pulled back to stare into his eyes, rising with me as I stood. His lips crashed against mine as I squeezed his ass, devouring me, filling me with the blend of coffee and spearmint that was uniquely Eric.

There was a quick knock at the door and we flew apart before we lost complete control. Drew walked in, took one look at both of us, and shook his head. “I can’t leave you two alone for five minutes, can I?”

“We…uh…I just told Bryce about my idea to help him get the center back on its feet and he was thanking me for my generous offer,” Eric said in a rush. Drew glided across the room, his narrow eyes focused on Eric. “You’re not mad, are you?”

“Why would he be mad?” I asked at the same time Drew voiced the same question.

“Because he wasn’t here,” Eric stated softly.

My jaw might have hit the floor as I watched the two of them. We hadn’t talked about what happened while we weren’t all around, but I couldn’t believe they hadn’t done anything during the days when I wasn’t able to make it out to Eric’s house. “You mean to tell me—”

“That I’ve been sleeping in my own bed with blue balls every fucking night?” Drew finished, a bit less eloquently than I would have posed the question. “Yeah, that’s exactly what he’s saying. We weren’t sure and since no one’s talked about it, we didn’t want to upset you.”

I moved beside Drew and wrapped an arm around his waist. “Is that why you keep your distance from me when you’re here?”

“Why I what?” Drew seemed truly oblivious to the fact that he gave me a wide berth whenever he came to the center to tutor Cody. At first I’d assumed it was to keep things professional, but now I wondered if he was worried about going too far without Eric’s consent.

“You barely acknowledge me when you’re in the lounge, and when you have to come in here, you stay as close to the door as possible,” I observed.

“Huh, I didn’t realize that.” Drew seemed to be scrolling through his memory to validate what I’d said. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Well, unless it’d upset one of you, I think it’s ridiculous at this point to expect the others to act like monks if only two of us are present.”

“Fine by me,” Eric agreed quickly. Drew’s only response was the slightly boyish smile he flashed when he was truly happy.

“Yeah, me too.”

“Good, then now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s go shopping,” I suggested. “I promised Eric I’d thank him properly tonight at his house.”

Eric backed away and worried his bottom lip. “About that…if you get the transfer you’re working on, what would you say to moving out to my place. It only seems right that it could be our place since you’re there most of the time as it is.”

“Are you sure you’re ready for that?” I asked. This was a huge deal for all of us. If he just meant somewhere to crash temporarily, then I’d graciously decline his offer. If and when the time came that the three of us and all of our belongings were under the same roof, that’d mean this was the real deal. Not necessarily a lifelong commitment, but a hell of a lot more than the casual fucking around we’d all agreed upon the first night we got together.

“We talked about it earlier, and I think we’d both like that,” Drew responded. “It sucks when you’re not around, and I’m not just saying so because that means we’re all sleeping alone. I don’t know about Eric, but things are just…better when we’re all together.”

Well hell, this was turning into some monumental moment I hadn’t expected. I held both of them, burying my face between their chests so they couldn’t see what it meant to me to know they both wanted to take the next massive step in our relationship. “Nothing would make me happier.”

“Uh, guys…” We looked up and saw Cody standing at the door with his winter coat on, gaping at the three of us sharing a moment.

I looked at Drew, who winced. “Surprise! We’re having company tonight.”

A happy Drew was something to savor, so I couldn’t get upset with him, even though it would have been nice to know ahead of time. There was no way Eric and I could disagree with him offering Cody a night away from the center, because then Cody would think we didn’t want him around.

“We are?” Eric asked, sounding dumbfounded.

Drew turned to him and lowered his voice so he wouldn’t be overheard. “Yes, we are. I was going to tell you guys, but you distracted me.”

“That’s not hard to do,” I scoffed. “I’m assuming you’ll go into details later?”

“Of course,” Drew agreed as he reached for his coat. “So, who’s ready to go shopping?”

By the groans filling the room, it seemed Drew was the only one looking forward to today’s excursion. I considered telling him to take the rest of us home and he could go on his own, but he’d been adamant that this needed to be a group trip. Each Maverick who’d agreed to sponsor the center’s Christmas extravaganza had been given the lists for three young men. Being the organizer, Drew had taken it upon himself to place Cody on his own list. I had the feeling our biggest problem was going to be convincing Drew that he shouldn’t go overboard buying gifts.

Drew and Cody sat in the back of Eric’s car for the drive to the outskirts of Chicago. They talked about Cody’s upcoming exams and the basketball tournament scheduled for the following weekend. I tried to listen without making it obvious, because Cody had said more to Drew during the first thirty minutes of the drive than he did to anyone else, myself included.

When we got to the outlet mall, Drew handed Eric one of the lists and told Cody to go with him while I helped Drew. He claimed we were going to divide and conquer so we could get home sooner, but I had a feeling it had more to do with giving us a bit of time alone.

Once Eric and Cody took off down the corridor, Drew pulled me toward a small coffee shop. We each got ourselves a drink and something small to eat and found a table near the entrance.

“I’m assuming you got him to open up?” I asked once we were both settled.

“Yeah. It wasn’t easy, but with the right motivation, he couldn’t resist my charming personality.” I nearly choked on my coffee at Drew’s statement. As much as I was growing closer to falling in love with him, charming wasn’t a word I’d use to describe him. I motioned for Drew to continue as I tried to catch my breath. “He’s going stir crazy in there. I’d be willing to bet he spent most of his time holed up in his bedroom before he got the boot from his asshole parents, and then he was on his own for the months before he came to you guys.”

“Makes sense, I suppose.” But it didn’t explain why someone as cool and collected as Cody would lose his mind. Jacob ran in as soon as he heard them shouting and swore he thought Cody was about ready to pound Maxwell into the ground by the time he got into the lounge. Luckily, it happened early in the day, when most of the guys were in school or out looking for work, otherwise the situation could have easily gotten out of hand. Boys were boys, whether gay or straight, and a lot of the ones who lived at Pot of Gold carried around huge chips on their shoulders. “But why did he lose his temper?”

“I think it was a combination of being exhausted, frustration over not having any privacy, and what the other guy said that he didn’t like,” Drew told me. I knew there was more to the story than he was sharing, but figured he was trying to walk a fine line between being open with me and not breaching Cody’s confidence. If he wasn’t going to be leaving in a few months for spring training, it’d be worth talking to Drew about going through the mandatory training to become one of the on-site counselors.

“So you wanted to remove him from the situation and give him some time to calm down.” It wasn’t a question. And as long as Drew didn’t make this a habit with whichever resident was having trouble, I thought it was a good idea. Cody trusted Drew and had obviously turned to him when he wasn’t willing to talk to anyone else. “How long did you tell him he’s staying at the house?”

Drew snorted. “I’m not that stupid. I wasn’t about to invite him to spend the night without talking to you and Eric. But I was thinking since it’s Thursday and his school is out until Monday because of in-service or whatever, maybe he could stay with us for the weekend.”

That didn’t sound like my idea of a good time, only because I had other plans for the weekend. Plans which involved no clothes and only leaving the bedroom when we needed to get something to eat or pass out from lack of energy. Then again, it’d be selfish of me to put my own needs before Cody’s when Drew was trying to do the right thing here. “I’d be fine with it, as long as Eric doesn’t disagree.”

“I knew you’d see it my way.” Without thinking about the fact that we were in public, Drew leaned over the table and kissed me. It was the first time any of us had shown any affection in public. I worried that someone would snap a picture and it’d be online by the time we got home, but I tried to ignore my concerns since Drew didn’t seem terribly concerned. “Now that that’s out of the way, let’s go buy some shit.”

I pushed away from the table and grabbed our garbage as Drew headed for the counter to grab another cup of coffee to get him through the shopping trip. Personally, I wanted something stronger because spending the afternoon in an outlet mall in December ranked high on the list of activities I tried to avoid at all costs.

Luckily, Drew was a man on a mission. He wanted to do some shopping for Cody and get everything back to the car before we met up with the guys. More than once I tried reminding him that Cody wasn’t a child who needed to be spoiled on Christmas morning, but Drew wouldn’t listen to me. He seemed intent on making up for Cody not having a family of his own.

By the time Drew was satisfied with his haul, my feet hurt, my arms were aching from holding all the bags while Drew continuously looked for “just one more thing”, and I was beyond over dealing with rude shoppers. All of my petty issues seemed to evaporate when we caught sight of Eric and Cody walking into the restaurant where we’d agreed to meet. Drew squeezed my hand and stood to give Eric a hug and a peck on the cheek before sitting down and grilling them about what they’d bought. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized just how much I wanted to have men like Drew and Eric in my life. It felt good sitting there, absorbing Drew’s excitement over the upcoming Christmas celebration and Eric seemed more relaxed than he had since Thanksgiving. Somehow, these two men had become an integral part of my life when I’d been too busy to pay attention to what was happening.