Chapter 14
HAWK
"That's a big smile you got there," Bam remarked. He leaned back to appraise me, head tilting this way and that.
I rolled my eyes at him when Chase got up in my face, blocking the view.
"Bam, I believe you're right." He looked at me sideways. "Is that your 'I got laid' smile?"
"It sure does look like it," Bam said. "Come on, bro, we want deets." He curled his fingers in a 'give it to us' gesture.
"I'll give you deets." I bent to start my stretches. "The details are… It's none of your business."
Bam put a hand to his heart. "Bro, what about the bro code? Never leave a bro hanging if he's living vicariously through you. Especially when you got some tail."
"Maybe a bro should get his own tail," I suggested.
Bam was a running back for the Lowball Bay Humpbacks, for fuck's sake. He wasn't too ugly. His nose was crooked from being broken a few times, but women seemed to think he was cute. He shouldn't have too much trouble finding one who wanted to share the night, or a few hours.
"Bam is too fussy," Chase said. He touched his toes a few times. "He only wants a woman born after the first full moon in spring, who has big tits and likes threesomes."
"That's kinda specific," I said.
"Hey, I ain't that bad," Bam protested. "Chase isn't fussy enough. You see that last girl?"
I started a set of lunges. A twinge in my hip reminded me to be careful of an old injury.
"Jasmin was perfectly nice," Chase protested.
I silently agreed. She and Chase were cute together, and he seemed happy.
For a week or two. He tended to fall so fast he didn't see what he was getting into.
By the time he did, he was in over his head so far he had a hard time getting out again.
A couple of weeks later, he'd meet his next 'it's for real this time' and the cycle would start over.
"Yeah, so was Amanda," Bam said. "And Claire. And Latoya. And Tisha."
"Don't forget Ella," I added.
"Ah, yeah." Bam nodded.
"The fact you remember their names says you guys need a life," Chase said dryly.
"Which brings me back to Hawk," Bam said.
"Time for side shuffles." I placed my feet on the side line and bounced away from them a little faster than necessary.
"You ain't getting off that easy," Bam called out. He started off after me. Chase followed him, the rest of the team behind them.
"Maybe I didn't get off at all," I said over my shoulder.
I caught a glare from our new head coach, Wayne Quinn.
A heavyset man with wide shoulders, he'd been one hell of a running back for the NFL in his day.
Like many pro footballers, he couldn't walk away from the game. He chose to become a coach, probably to make sure us “damn kids” weren’t fucking up his game, his life, his pride and joy. .
Was I looking at myself in a few years’ time? I hoped so, except the last bit. We wouldn't fuck up what was also our favourite game. Nor would I assume the next crop of players would either.
I couldn't imagine not coming here, or some other club, and being around the guys and the game every day.
It was my whole life. What would I do if I couldn't coach at this level?
I supposed high school coaching would be just as satisfying.
Although the idea of a team full of dumbass guys like young me wasn't appealing.
I caught Quinn's eye and gave him a nod.
He didn't give one back. He watched and then turned away to yell at the guys to get their asses in gear.
"What's up his butt?" Bam asked.
"I dunno." I started a slow jog around the field. Bam and Chase fell in on either side.
"So, you didn't tell us who she is," Chase said.
"I bet I know who it is." Bam sounded smug. "That chick you made the bet with. What's her name? Rachel? Raquel? Katie?"
I smirked. "None of those. Where the hell did you get Katie from? It doesn't even sound like the others."
"He's just taking a stab in the dark," Chase dismissed.
"I bet there was a lot of stabbing in the dark, huh, Hawk?" Bam asked.
"Remind me to give him hell the next time he hooks up with someone," I said to Chase.
"I'll be right there with you," Chase said. "He usually gives me hell too." As if he hadn't just been razzing me equally as hard.
"Bam gives everyone hell," Ollie Tucker said when he caught up to us. "Don't even talk to his sister."
"Stay away from my sister," Bam growled. "She's off limits to all of you assholes."
"If you had your way, she'd be in a convent," I said.
"Damn right she would," he said. "Far from all your prowlin' asses."
I laughed. "You have to cut the apron strings some day, bro."
"No time soon."
We reached the end of the field. The coach waved for us to grab a drink of water.
I worked up a light sweat. A few gulps of water would be enough to replenish it.
I learned a long time ago not to drink too much or too little.
Even drinking water was down to a fine art for all of us.
Sometimes I felt like a lab rat, but I was a well-paid one, with a lab I loved.
I wouldn't be running around looking for the way out any time soon.
"Becca," Bam said as he sipped. "That journalist chick."
"What about her?" I asked, trying to pretend the sound of her name didn't make my pulse race a shit ton faster. That the memory of her skin, soft and warm under my hands, my mouth, didn’t rush back in, making me dizzy.
The way she moaned when I touched her just right.
Our bodies melding together like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
The kind where you could try to jam pieces in beside others, and they might almost work, but only the right piece would fit perfectly.
I swallowed a mouthful of water and told my cock to behave himself. I stood on a field full of guys. Here would be a bad place to get hard thinking about her.
"Maybe it is." I shrugged. "Maybe it's not."
"If it isn't, you shouldn't go and make a love bet with one woman and take another to bed," Bam said. He frowned at me like a disapproving bro. He was a player, like the rest of us, but when it came to romance, he was a one woman at a time kinda guy. No matter how short that time might be.
"If it'll get you off my back, yes, it's Becca," I said. Damn, why could I see a whole future laid out in front of us when I said her name?
"Bro," Bam drew out the word. "Looks like you've got it bad."
"If you're going to be distracted, maybe we need to think about replacing you," Quinn said as he walked past us.
I wasn't sure which 'you' he meant, but his gaze lingered on me the longest.
"Sorry, Coach," Chase said cheerfully. He elbowed Ollie, who actually was paying attention to the warm up. "Come on, Ollie, get it together." Chase grinned.
"Fuck off, man," Ollie growled.
I shook my head at them and trotted off to grab a ball from the pile.
For the next hour or so, we practiced throwing them back and forth, and worked on our techniques and angles.
The quarterback coach watched me and made me adjust my shoulders, my feet and my hips about a million times.
It didn't matter how many times I threw a ball, it could always be done better. A bit more power here, a bit more finesse there. I paid close attention; this was my life, my dream. I couldn’t afford to be distracted.
For an hour, I forgot Becca and how she felt and tasted. For the moment, it was all about work.
Throw, catch, throw, catch. By the end, my arm was gently suggesting I take a break.
"Get some water," the coach said. "How's your hip?"
I twisted my body a little at the hips. "Fighting fit. Ready for the weekend." We had a game on Friday night, one of the last for the preseason. I wouldn't play for long, in case I was injured, but long enough that I needed to be ready.
While I sipped, I watched Quinn hovering around the sidelines, watching us practice tackles and working through their techniques for breaking through the opponent's line. To the untrained eye, it probably looked like a bunch of guys trying to smash each other to the ground, or shove each other as hard as they could. There was more to it, more flair. Football was all about choreography, like a dance. If I told the other guys that thought, I’d never hear the end of it.
Although, we wanted to get shoving and smashing down to a fine art too.
"You guys are looking good this season," my coach, Harrison Snell, said. "No reason we can't kick ass."
"I'm all in favour of ass kicking," I said with a smile. "I kinda like winning."
He chuckled. "No shit. I noticed. Ain't nothing wrong with that."
"I'd be in the wrong job if I didn't like winning." I winced as one of the guys slammed into the line so hard he pushed the others back several steps. He misjudged his own momentum and nearly fell on his face.
"Again," Quinn shouted. "Without looking like a clown."
"Ouch," Snell muttered, but he was grinning. If any of the players couldn't take being called a clown, or worse, they wouldn't last long around here.
"I sense a new nickname coming on," I said.
"Bozo?" Snell suggested.
I grinned. "I like it."
He clapped me on the shoulder. "Okay, back to work before Quinn thinks you fell asleep over here."
"Not much chance of that," I said, but I grabbed up a ball and trotted back out to the field.
"So, when do we get to meet this chick?" Chase asked as we walked toward the locker rooms.
"Twelfth of never." I cut him a look. "You guys would scare her off.
" Okay, I doubted that. In fact, I was sure Becca would like them.
But…was I ready for them all to meet just yet?
This thing with her was so new, we'd barely had time to think about it ourselves, much less introduce her to these clowns.
"Awww, c'mon," Bam said. "She coming to the game on Friday?"
"I hadn't thought about it." I shrugged.
Was it too soon for 'bring your girlfriend to work' day? Was she my girlfriend? I liked the sound of it, but would she?
Too many questions, none of which I had an answer to.
At the beginning of last night's date, I would have sworn up and down she hated my ass. By the end, she was raking her fingernails over it. I had a scratch or two to prove it. Damn, I needed to think PG thoughts for a while before my dick stood to attention.
"I guess she might," I said finally. A nice spot in the private box, with food and alcohol, sounded right up her alley.
Not fancy, but less overwhelming than the crowded stands.
Maybe Vera and Brody could bring the kids and make a night of it.
Would that be too much pressure, to include her and my family?
She made friends with them, and apparently Penny adored her, but everything felt different now, somehow. I'd all but forgotten about the bet.
All I could think about was her.
As I took a moment, I realised how much I'd hate losing. For once, it had nothing to do with the competition and everything to do with seeing her regularly, but knowing she wasn't interested in me.
"Fuck," I said softly.
"What?" Chase asked, his shirt around his neck where he'd stopped halfway through taking it off.
"Nothing." I pulled off my own shirt and threw it aside.
My shorts and Incredible Hulk boxers followed before I stepped into the shower.
I'd never been all that shy about my body, but I was even less so these days.
I hardly noticed, unless journalists were around, or TV cameras. A guy had to have some modesty.
"Didn't sound like nothing," Chase said over the top of the cubicle. "Did you just realise she might like me more than you if I meet her?”
"Absolutely," I lied. "I'd be left in the dust while you guys went off together into the sunset."
"Naw, that'd be breaking the bro code," Bam said from another part of the locker room. "Bros before hos, fellas, amiright?"
"Sure," I said before I put my head under the water to wash away their voices.
Becca was a smart, independent woman. She'd probably tell them off for using the word 'ho', although she might agree with the sentiment. What did women say? Sisters before misters?
That was good advice, I supposed. Someone had to be around to pick up the pieces after a breakup. Right now, I didn't want to think about an “after.” I only wanted to think about right now, and a sweet, kind, smart woman with a generous mouth and the cutest damn freckles this side of…anywhere.
Bam was right, I had it bad. Real bad.
And it never felt so damned good.