Sweet Spot: Homeruns #4 (11 page)

I
t was
a gamble for me to wait for Nick at the training complex. I found myself repeatedly checking out the parking lot to see if anyone had noticed me while I waited for the bus to pull in. When it finally pulled in and parked, Nick followed the rest of his teammates into the locker room. I swallowed hard as Sean broke off from the rest of the pack, heading directly toward my car.

“Hey Sean,” I greeted him when he opened the passenger’s side door. While I liked him well enough, Sean and I didn’t spend much time together. When he wasn’t busy with baseball, he was trying to give as much attention as possible to Asher. His son was a good kid, but he was a handful at times because he wanted both of his dads to be around all the time. “What’s up?”

“For a smart guy, you’re pretty thick sometimes. Did you really think you could keep a secret from all of us?” he chided me. I was going to kill Nick when he got out here. He’d said he understood why I wasn’t ready to bring him home yet, but obviously something had happened since this morning when he’d told me they were loading up for the game in Maryvale.

“Well, no?” It came out like a question even though I had been hoping no one would figure out what was going on.

“Yeah, sure you didn’t,” he scoffed. “Look, I’m not pissed, but if you keep hiding shit, Eric and Bryce will be. Drew probably hasn’t noticed anything amiss yet because he’s focused on training, but the other two have been starting to try and figure out where you’re disappearing to every night.”

Shit. It really was stupid of me to think I could keep them from finding out. “Yeah, but aren’t they going to be just as pissed if they find out I’m talking to Nick again?”

“Should they be?” he shot back at me.

“No.” Yes, he’d screwed up, but so did everyone. I hadn’t thought about how me hiding him away would look to them

“Then quit acting like you’re doing something wrong,” he advised me. “If you want the guys to accept him, you’re going to have to bring him around. I’m sure they’ll see he’s not the same punk he used to be, but if they pick up on you feeling like you need to sneak around, they’re going to wonder why.”

“I guess you’re right,” I agreed reluctantly.

“I know I am,” he responded smugly. “So when he gets out here, you need to tell him plans have changed for the night. We’re having some of the players over for a cookout and I think it’d be good if the two of you join us.”

“I’m not sure he’ll be up for hanging out with the guys,” I argued. If it was just our little crew it’d be a different story, but no way was he going to be comfortable with people he didn’t know as well.

“I’m not saying the two of you need to make out in front of everyone to prove you’re serious about whatever it is you have going on,” Sean explained. Well that was reassuring, because I was so worried he’d expected us to put on a show. Seriously, sometimes I wondered if they thought that was the type of shit running through my mind. “Just come over and hang out. And then you can head up to your room and play video games.”

Yeah, that was exactly what’d be happening if the two of us were alone in a room with a bed and a locking door. From the smirk on Sean’s face, he wasn’t stupid enough to think gaming would be the activity of choice, either. He was giving me the perfect opportunity to bring Nick around without any spotlight shining on us. “Yeah, I’ll talk to him and see if he’s up for it.”

“Sounds good.” Sean quickly excused himself when we spotted Nick walking out of the training complex. He shielded his eyes from the glaring sun, and even from a distance I could see his beaming smile when he found my car.

Since he couldn’t exactly lean over and kiss me in front of his teammates who were making their way out to their cars, he settled for sliding his hand across the console to my thigh. The corners of my mouth turned up in a slight smile as I pretended everything was perfectly normal. I twitched when he slid his hand higher on my thigh, allowing his fingers to brush against my zipper.

“I wish we had a place we could go,” he said as I wound my way through the streets of Mesa toward the team’s hotel. We hadn’t talked much about where things were headed because neither of us wanted to ruin the friendship we’d managed to salvage. Nick misunderstood the way my muscles tensed when he put a voice to what I’d been thinking for the past week. Sean was right. I was tired of hiding away like there was something to be ashamed of, but I was scared to admit how much I’d missed him. “I’m sorry. I know I told you I wouldn’t push for more, but in a couple of weeks you’re heading back to Milwaukee, and I have no clue where I’ll be going. I don’t want you to leave thinking this was meaningless to me. And I sure as hell don’t want to watch you walk away thinking I’m happy about being stuck in the friend-zone.”

“I don’t think that at all,” I promised him. “The guys are having a cookout tonight. I was thinking maybe we could make an appearance. I know you’re still cautious about who sees you, but it couldn’t hurt to get to know the newer players a bit better.”

“You still have your own room?” he asked, his eyes shining with anticipation.

“Yeah. And I’m pretty sure no one will barge in trying to figure out what we’re up to if we decided to be antisocial after a while.” I hoped he understood what I still couldn’t work up the balls to ask for. I wanted to be with him again. I didn’t want to grope him over the top of his shorts, I wanted him naked on top of me. I wanted to feel his cock in my mouth and in my ass. I wanted to have enough sex in the next two weeks to carry us through until we could see each other again.

Nick seemed to weigh the pros and cons of heading to the house. The cons list was much longer than the pros, so I could only hope having some uninterrupted, comfortable time together would be worth all the risks. “Are you sure you’re ready to take that step? You seriously don’t have to parade me around your family to prove anything to me.”

“Who says I’m doing it for you?” I asked. “I don’t know what you and Sean talked about on the bus today, but he pointed out that the longer I wait to bring you home, the harder it’s going to be to make the guys believe we’re not making a huge mistake.”

“Do you still worry that we are?” Nick asked. He pulled his hand back and started picking at a loose thread on his shorts rather than look at me. He was adorable when he got nervous.

“I did at first,” I admitted. There was no point in having anything between us. If there was any chance of us continuing the way we were, communication was going to be crucial. Without it, we’d fall apart before the All-Star break. “But Cam and Sean both know what’s going on and they’ve given me some good advice. They also pointed out that if I want everyone to realize how much I’ve grown, I need to give you the same courtesy.”

“Pull over,” Nick demanded. The hitch in his voice set me on edge. No matter how much I told myself things were going well between us, I couldn’t forget what happened the last time he’d made the same request. I turned down a residential street and found an open space. As soon as the car was stopped, he reached over and took my face in his hands. “It’s not about giving me some sort of polite courtesy. It’s about whether you’re willing to forgive what happened in the past and give me the opportunity to prove I won’t make the same mistake again.”

“I thought we were past that,” I said, confused by the change in his mood. It gave me whiplash hearing him go from carefree and relaxed to trying to carry the weight of the world so quickly. “I do forgive you. I’m not sure what more I can do or say to get you to believe me. At first, I was set to hold on to the pain. When Drew reminded me you’d be down here, I was pissed. I was just getting my life back and I’d come to terms with what had happened. I’d promised myself I was going to stay mad at you. But then, I couldn’t. I’d never considered how much you were hurting.”

Nick’s mouth closed over mine. I winced when he bit my lip, but the pain eased when he traced his tongue across the tender flesh. My lips parted, allowing him into my mouth. He was in control and I wanted it to stay that way. I expected things to heat quickly, but Nick seemed content to keep the moment tender. His hands slid around my waist and up my back, pulling me as close as the tight quarters in the car would allow.

“I deserved to hurt,” he admitted. I pulled back and gaped at him.

“No one deserves to be in pain,” I protested. “I thought I’d be happy knowing you suffered for what you did, but I’m not. I hate everything about how you left, but it’s not easier to get over knowing it wasn’t easy for you.”

With that out of his system, the tension between us shifted. It was still there, thicker than ever, but now the only thing either of us was thinking about was getting through dinner so we could have a bit of private time. Unfortunately, before we could relax, we needed to stop by the hotel. Nick didn’t want to show up at the house wearing his basketball shorts and T-shirt even though I’d reminded him most of the guys would be dressed similarly. Without knowing who might stop by, he wanted to make sure he made a good impression.

“Do you want me to wait down here?” I asked when I pulled up in front of the hotel. There were rules in place regarding who was allowed on the players’ floor, and I didn’t want to get him in trouble.

“No, you can come up,” Nick responded. He seemed distracted. On edge. “But I should warn you, Mark might be in the room getting ready for whatever hell he’s planning to raise tonight.”

I cringed because Mark was the last person I wanted to have a run-in with. He’d made life hell for Drew and Jason a couple of seasons ago, always making snide comments in the locker room because of their sexuality. I hadn’t told Nick about what I’d overheard, even though it killed me, because it wasn’t my place. The Mavericks had suspended him for a year because of banned substances, but there were other reasons. The snake had a way of getting right to the line of saying something that’d get him in trouble, and then pulling back.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” I said as I put the car in gear so I could move to short-term parking. If I said it often enough, maybe I could convince myself. Maybe Mark wouldn’t be there and then it’d be a non-issue. Or maybe he’d be in a good mood and keep his mouth shut. He wasn’t known for being terribly observant, so there was a chance he wouldn’t look at us and instantly guess Nick and I were more than friends. I didn’t care if anyone else knew about us at this point, but I didn’t want Mark making life even more miserable for Nick than he already did every night.

Nick maintained a comfortable distance between us as we walked through the lobby to the bank of elevators. I wasn’t upset about him guarding pieces of his life from those around him. While I hoped spending time around players who’d come out without it ruining their careers would help him feel at ease, it had to be something he did in his own time. When the elevators opened, his buddy Devin stepped out to greet us. “Hey, Nick. You heading to Crave with us tonight?”

“Nah, I have other plans,” Nick responded quickly. Devin’s eyes darted from Nick to me and then back again. Nick must’ve seen it as well, because he quickly added, “This is my friend Cody. You might’ve seen him around. He’s interning for the Mavericks in the PR department.”

“Oh yeah, you’re the kid bringing the team into the twenty-first century, aren’t you?” he asked. My cheeks flushed. I wasn’t comfortable being the center of attention, but it was nice to hear they noticed what I was doing. “You should see if you can get them to take on the minor league clubs, too. They’ve gotta figure out something to get asses in the stands for our games.”

“I’m not saying it won’t happen,” I responded. “But I’m not sure how much time I’ll have once we get back to Milwaukee. I’m still finishing up my last semester of classes as well.”

“That’s cool.” Devin stepped back into the elevator and rode to the ninth floor with us. I’d seen the hotels the Mavericks stayed in on their road trips, so it was depressing to see the subpar condition of the hotel the minor league players were crammed into for six weeks. The wallpaper in the halls was dated and discolored, peeling from the walls in places. The sconces on the wall rattled every time someone closed a door, and one flickered. It wouldn’t surprise me if this dive was eventually on the news for burning down due to electrical issues. Or arson for the insurance money, so they could rebuild or skip town. “What are these big plans you’ve got? And why didn’t you invite me?”

Devin was joking, but I still opened my big mouth. “You’re more than welcome to come if you want. The guys are having a cookout, nothing fancy. Just hanging around and trying to relax a bit before the season gets too chaotic.”

Nick’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head. Me and my big damn mouth. I knew they got along, but with the invitation out there, I wondered if it’d been a mistake. “I don’t want to intrude,” Devin said after seeing the panicked look on Nick’s face. “Maybe another time.”

When we reached Nick’s door, Devin went to the room across the hall. “Hey, I thought you were heading out,” Nick pointed out.

“Yeah, forgot something.” I could tell he was lying. I wondered what was up with that but let it slide. “I’ll catch you around.”

Our ears were assaulted by thumping bass and screeching vocals as we walked into the room. It seemed we weren’t lucky enough to have the room to ourselves, but at least Mark was in the shower. Maybe we could get in and out before he realized we’d even been there. I sat down on the bed as Nick started rummaging through the drawers to find an outfit. He’d never struck me as the type to be concerned about his appearance, so it was sweet to see him trying so hard to make a good impression tonight.

I leaned back as he stripped the T-shirt over his head. Either he’d forgotten he wasn’t alone or he didn’t care. I hoped for the latter, knowing it was more likely the former. Mark could walk out of the bathroom at any time, which made changing in front of me a huge risk. My dick twitched as his hands dropped to the waistband of his shorts, slowly revealing a pair of bright purple boxer briefs. My tongue ran across the seam of my lips as I took in the lightly furred backs of his thighs, remembering how they felt wrapped around my body the few times we’d fallen asleep together. My fingers fisted the comforter behind me to keep me from reaching out and pulling him down to me.