Chapter 41
41
brIAR
“ F uck!” I mutter after the twelfth photo I’ve messed up.
I’ve been working on my cookbook a lot more, trying to get it ready for the final stages. I don’t have a name for myself, so I know that it’s not going to go anywhere really, but it’s been the hobby I’ve clung to for the last year, and it’s worth all the effort I can put in.
Maybe someday it’ll be something.
“You okay?” Leo asks, coming down the stairs in those gray sweatpants I’ve come to thank the heavens for.
“Where are you dressed all slutty to go?” I ask, placing the camera down on the counter.
“The couch,” he quips back without even a second thought. Standing on the other side of the counter, he looks down at the pasta dish I have in front of me.
“Everything going okay?”
I sigh. “No. I’m okay at a lot of things but photography isn’t one of them. I have no idea how to get decent photos of this.”
“You can’t just take a photo with your phone?” he asks, his head tilting .
My face twists as I think about a response. “Should all those game photographers just use their phones, Leo?”
He shrugs.
“They’re different qualities, my guy. No, I can’t just use my phone camera for these photos.”
“Ahh,” he notes, his eyes drifting behind me to find the other plate of food I had made.
“That’s for you,” I sigh deeply, knowing the question he was going to ask me.
His face lights up as he heads around the island to grab it.
Today is the last game the Cobras will play this season, and Leo was told to hang out at home. The team is away in Cincinnati for the last game of the regular season, and they won’t be moving on to the wild card round.
Although Dirwin has absolutely killed it this season, the team suffered so many injuries that their entire defensive and offensive line was seemingly wiped out. There’s only so much a quarterback can do when their pocket collapses instantly. Dirwin did the best he could with what he was given.
Leo is still convinced a team will want him, and although I can tell he’s sad at the idea of his friend leaving, I know there’s been a certain amount of pride in watching him kick ass and give it his all in Leo’s absence.
“You ready for the game?” I ask Leo, picking up my camera again and repositioning the plate in the light.
It’s been about a week since Leo and I had sex, and I would be lying if I said that we hadn’t spent the night in each other’s beds a couple of times since. There’s been two nights in total where we haven’t, and it’s mostly because Leo fell asleep on the couch. I couldn’t wake his ass up enough to get him to my room, and I certainly wasn’t going to sleep out there with him.
I had remembered to ask him about the condoms the second night he spent with me. I had expected some weird answer that would set off warning bells in my brain, but he had simply shrugged. “I have friends sleep over sometimes, and I just wanted to make sure everyone was safe and all the rooms were stocked with everything someone may need. That’s why the bathroom has backups of everything in the closet,” he had said.
And it made sense.
“We’re lucky they were there, then,” I had chuckled.
He smiled. “Yeah, we were.”
Leo finished the bite of pasta he was chewing before shooting me a thumbs up. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“You sad the season is ending the way it is?” It’s quite the way to go out after the super high highs of the Super Bowl last year.
He shrugs. “It happens. You can’t win them all and we had everything against us this season. Dirwin did the absolute best he could. Just have to try harder next year and make sure we can keep everyone healthy.”
I nod in understanding. That’s basically what my brother had said, too.
The day after we had slept together for the first time, as promised, an article dropped about us being engaged. I’ve been cooped up inside until the engagement ring we had picked out came in, considering they hadn’t given him a heads up for whatever reason.
Leo had wanted me to be a part of the process, voicing that he was scared about screwing it up. We had looked at some rings together, and when I nearly choked at the price tags, he decided to simply send me screenshots of different options with the prices and names scribbled out.
It hasn’t come in yet, which is why I’ve been told to stay home instead of going to see my brother play today. Honestly it’s probably the better decision, considering my parents had asked if I was going to be there, as they were finally going to a game this season .
If there’s one thing I don’t want to do today, it’s talk to my parents.
I’ve been dodging their texts for the last few weeks, and only answered basic questions my mom had asked about my dating life with Leo so that she wouldn’t end up asking Elara.
That being said, Elara is spending the day with them, as Isla took her to the game. Decked out in Crosby gear, Elara was happy as a clam to get out of the house and go see her grandparents.
I was happy to have a little time to myself this morning.
“Do you want anything specific for the game?” I ask, making myself a cup of coffee.
“Nah, I have an order of pizza coming.”
Situating himself on the couch, I watch as he grabs the remote, turning on one of the sports networks.
His foot taps away at the ground. The man is nervous, even if he says he’s not.
I still don’t know what we are. What we want to be. But what I do know is that Leo isn’t what I assumed him to be in the beginning. Sure, he’s a bit of a control freak sometimes, and sure, he needs to learn how to chill out, but he’s been the sole provider for his family for so long that I understand it.
I love Isla so much, but if I had paid so much money for her to stay in a beautiful apartment and do what she loved, I’d also be worried about someone coming in and dimming that shine.
But Leo’s problem is that he gets in his own way, not realizing that sometimes his overstepping does even more damage.
And sometimes he just straight-up self-sabotages.
I work in the kitchen some more until the game starts and I grab the pizza from the delivery man, placing the box on the coffee table in front of Leo.
He grabs a slice, immediately stuffing it into his mouth.
“You know, I’m going to hire you a photographer for the cookbook. I think you’ll have to probably coordinate how that’s going to work with everything, though.”
“Leo you don’t have?—”
“I know I don’t have to,” he tells me with a smile. “But I want to. So I’m going to.”
“I just?—”
“You don’t owe me anything for it, Sunny,” he tells me, knowing I was going to suggest it. “This is a gift. One I really want to give you, okay?”
I purse my lips before nodding slightly, wrapping my arms around myself. “I don’t think there’s been a day where I haven’t cursed your love language being gift giving,” I mutter.
He quirks a brow, smiling. “What does that mean?”
“It means that I’m so awkward at accepting help or gifts that your love for forcing gifts upon people has been a learning curve,” I tell him, settling back into the couch.
“You hate it that much?” he frowns.
I shake my head. “I don’t hate it. It’s just been something different I’ve had to learn to accept.”
“But you haven’t accepted it yet,” he states.
“No,” I shrug. “But I’ll learn to deal with it.”
“I don’t want you to have to deal with anything though, I want you to like it. What can I do better?”
My heart sinks.
“You don’t have to do anything better, Leo. I promise.”
He thinks about this for a second. “What’s your love language?”
“What do you think it is?”
Biting his lip, I watch as he clearly wracks his brain for the right answer. If I’m honest, I’m not even quite sure I know the answer myself.
“I think it’s quality time,” he says finally.
I think it is, too.