2. Callan
Callan
“Here, take my seat,” I offer Beckett Kane when he joins the poker game late on Thursday night.
He ignores me, opening up the closet in my basement to pull out another folding chair instead. “I’m surprised we got you here,” I comment when he claims an empty space across from me at the table.
“Yeah,” Nate Riley, a basketball player for the Mountaineers, agrees. “I figured now that you’re back to being gainfully employed, you’d start ignoring our existence again.”
“Don’t give the guy a hard time,” I cut in. “Who wants snacks?”
I asked my chef to make everyone’s favorites for tonight.
I also stopped by the store to get a few extra bags of chips and three different charcuterie trays in case the guys were feeling something other than their usuals.
Unfortunately, a few guys, especially those on the Stallions with me, have already texted to let me know they’re not making it tonight.
“I’ll help you,” Riley offers, leaving Kane with our fourth player, Jameson Walker.
He’s a golfer who lives three hours away in eastern Colorado, and as such, usually ends up staying over in my guest room when he makes it to poker night.
Mostly because I insist he stays until he finally gives in.
I have a seven-bedroom house: I might as well have people stay here instead of paying for a hotel.
“How’d your party go the other night?” Jameson asks a few minutes later when Riley and I return from the kitchen, our arms full of food and drinks.
“Sorry Bryn and I couldn’t make it. Wild Bluffs has a huge fireworks display.
It’s a Harper family tradition to watch them together from her parents’ backyard. Or roof.”
“No problem. Would’ve been fun to have you, but I totally understand.” I pause before asking, “Bryn’s staying here with you tonight, isn’t she?”
“Yep,” Jameson replies. “She’s out with a friend from college right now but promised to catch a rideshare back.”
I love Jameson’s wife, potentially more than I love him. Though I mostly love seeing the two of them together, totally obsessed with one another. It’s a relationship goal I haven’t yet figured out how to achieve.
“You guys are so lucky,” I say to Jameson and Kane. “I have absolutely no idea how to meet a woman who doesn’t want me because I’m the quarterback for the Stallions.”
“Don’t forget about your reputation for giving women the ride of their lives,” Riley suggests as he steals one of the Nerds Clusters from the bowl in front of him as Kane’s phone vibrates.
I hold the bowl out to Riley, offering him more even though they’re my favorite, and I only have them in the house on poker nights. “It’s not my fault I’m a generous lover.”
Beckett spews beer as Jameson says, “Don’t fucking say that about yourself.”
“What?” I ask. “You want me to be a selfish ass like most athletes? Lawrence was bragging the other day about having three girls at once, and the only three orgasms that night were his. It took all my self-restraint to keep from lecturing him about being a good person.”
That’s how I know I’m getting too old for this shit.
I might still be at the top of my career from a stats perspective, but at thirty-four, I can’t keep hanging out with guys who are barely old enough to drink.
Thank God for the group of older athletes, now friends, I’ve managed to convince to be part of my poker nights.
I need the sanity every once in a while.
“Someone needs to tell the guy that’s not something to brag about.” Riley’s face is a picture of disgust.
“And that’s coming from a guy who avoids relationships like the plague,” I tease. “Fuck, you’re probably going to find someone before I do.”
Kane’s cell phone vibrates again, the sound disrupted by Riley knocking three times on the wooden table. “Don’t put that shit out into the universe, Devine.”
“Are all basketball players this superstitious, or just you?” Kane asks.
“Just him,” Jameson says at the same time Riley replies, “All of us.”
Just him, I mouth to Kane.
We play a few hands, Kane’s phone vibrating every other minute, when finally Jameson snaps, “Dude, answer your phone.”
“No,” Kane says, doing something on his screen. “It’s fucking Li. I’ve told him one hundred times that he’s not welcome here, but it somehow makes him want to come even more. Finley told him I was here tonight, and now he won’t leave me alone.”
“Does your girlfriend usually sic the rookie on you?” I’m unable to stifle a chuckle at the thought of the first female head hockey coach in professional men’s hockey turning her young defenseman loose on her boyfriend. Even if the two became good friends when they were teammates last year.
Kane doesn’t look up as his thumbs move across the screen on his phone. “Only when she’s trying to annoy me,” he grumbles. “I finished a puzzle without her last night, and this is my payback.”
They do puzzles together? A weight settles in my stomach. I want that so bad. Even if I was like twelve the last time I did a puzzle.
“He can totally come if you want,” I offer.
Looks of disbelief are flashed my way from all three of my friends.
Kane barks, “He’s a rookie. The only reason I come to these things is that I know there’s no chance of having to deal with anyone under the age of thirty.”
I try again, “But if he really wants to come that bad…”
“I’m with Kane,” Jameson agrees.
“Same,” Riley replies before a suspicious grin crosses his face. “It’d be like us inviting Charlotte Langford to join.”
“I like Charlotte,” I say. “She’s welcome anytime.”
“Right,” Kane scoffs. “I was at your barbeque last week. You two argued for the entire cornhole game. And she called you Carson. And a kicker.”
I study the cards in my hand as all three men around me laugh.
“Okay, fine. She annoys me.”
“Is it because she’s the only woman in this town who isn’t half in love with you?
” Riley asks. “You know, I’ve spent quite a bit of time with her at various fundraisers and whatnot.
She’s actually really cool. Probably yanking your chain about not knowing your name and position.
You do play for her dad’s football team. ”
“I don’t know.” I squint, trying to decide whether I should fold this hand. “Like you said, it’s her dad’s team. You would think she’d be embarrassed to admit she doesn’t know the starting quarterback. Or that there aren’t three-pointers in the game.”
“She definitely doesn’t believe that,” Kane argues. “There’s no chance she didn’t grow up going to football games all the time. She has to have at least a basic understanding of how it all works.”
“You’re assuming a lot of things about her. She’s a princess. She’s always done what she wants. And that never seems to be anything except fawn over musicians while pretending to work for her daddy.”
Kane’s eyebrows draw together. “She might be a princess, but she works hard. I’ve heard her talking to Finley about it.”
I shrug before holding up my empty beer bottle. “I need another. Anyone else?”
Charlotte Langford is the one person on this earth I can’t seem to get along with. The players on my team are my guys—even the annoying rookies. They’re at my place for dinner regularly. I’m friends with my staff, my coaches, and fans everywhere. I get along with everyone… except Charlotte.
And it pisses me off.
I’m the guy people like. The one they have a good time with. And I work damn hard to make sure I maintain those professional and personal relationships.
Even the biggest assholes on my team like me. But the Princess of Denver? I can’t seem to make her like me. And it makes me not like her.
We play for the next hour and a half, chatting about work before Jameson’s wife arrives, yelling out hello as she walks into my house.
“You gave Bryn the code to get in?” Riley mock groans when the lanky brunette walks downstairs. “Are random women going to start turning up here anytime they want?”
“My wife is not a random woman,” Jameson growls.
“Ah, Nate. You know you love me.” Bryn gives me a hug as she walks by.
I return her embrace, winking at Jameson as I pull her a little closer. “And of course I gave her the code. She’s my favorite Walker.”
Everyone looks at Jameson, but he casually sips his beer. “What?” he finally asks. “She’s my favorite Walker, too.”
“Gross,” Riley groans.
“You’re going to find someone one day, Nate, and you’re going to regret that statement,” Bryn promises.
“Why are you putting such things out into the universe?” Nate yells, tapping the table again. “I’m going home.”
Kane follows him out, and not too much later, Bryn and Jameson head to the guest room. I’ve almost picked up the mess we made—I hate making my cleaning crew do extra work—when my phone buzzes.
Nan
You’re not going to believe what this asshat said about you on Colorado Sports Network.
My grandma is ninety and my favorite person in the whole wide world.
Me
Did they call me slow again?
Nan
Old, if you can believe that shit.
Claims this is your last season with the Stallions.
My heart sinks at the thought. I want to finish my career with the Stallions.
Not only because I have such an amazing relationship with the coach and team leadership, but because of Nan.
When we both relocated here from Florida seven years ago, her health—mental and physical—really suffered.
I’d barely unloaded the boxes into her new house when I realized she needed help on a regular basis.
Now she’s older, and I don’t know if she’d be able to make the move again.
Which is why I need to finish my career in Colorado. Or, hell, why I will finish my career here. Either they keep me, or I retire. I won’t abandon the woman who never left me, even when the rest of my family did.