18
DORNAN
"Fuck. My ankle hurts like…" Nathaniel's words are replaced by a wince as he tugs his sock down over his ankle and inspects his blooming bruise in all its glory.
"Shit, who got you?" Elias asks.
"Fuck knows. There was way too much flailing out there today."
"Put some ice on it," I tell him. "That kind of bruise can start out minor and end up causing the whole joint to immobilize."
"Yeah. I'll go show Freya."
She's our sports therapist. She'll know exactly what to do.
"That was a great play." Elias addresses me as he towels his cock. This is one thing I'm not going to miss when my football career is over. I've seen enough junk over the years to render me blind."
"Thanks. It felt good."
He nods, dropping his towel to the bench and searching for his underwear in his bag. It's been over a week since the afternoon at Travis's house. Over a week since Elias last got his cock out in front of me, although then, I didn't really notice. I was too busy focusing on Celine's naked body to care about anything else. But the sex had been hot. Hotter because watching Celine come over and over again at the hands, mouths, and cocks of other men just about blew my mind.
Elias might be arrogant, but he knows how to fuck.
"Celine was watching," I tell Elias.
He pretends not to be interested, but the corner of his mouth twitches, and I know differently. "There were a lot of people watching."
"Right."
I shove my foot into my sneaker, pulling the laces tightly and twisting them into a bow, then repeat with the other foot. This locker room smells like a marinated jockstrap dunked in blue cheese. The poor air freshener has given up trying.
"I'm gonna go and find her. You coming?"
Elias shrugs but grabs his white shirt and yanks it over his head, rummaging for his sneakers.
I wait for him, even though he hasn't said yes. Around us, the team chats shit about the girls they're intending to celebrate their victory with. Eddie's in the middle, yapping on about some other girl he's fucking. The guy is such a piece of shit that I can't even stand hearing his voice. Everything that comes out of his mouth involves inflating his own ego or putting someone else down.
Elias glances in his direction with a side-eye that's so vicious Eddie should drop down dead as a result.
"Fucking asshole," he mutters under his breath.
"He really is."
I stand and lift my bag. Elias grabs his hold all, and we make our way out of the locker room door.
"There they are. Celine's bitches." Eddie laughs loudly at his own joke, and there is a small ripple of laughter from the men surrounding him that dies when Elias and I turn our heads slowly to look at him in disgust.
"You say something?" Elias asks.
"Yeah, I said you're Celine's bitch."
I half expect Elias to drop his bag and punch Eddie in the face, but instead, he just laughs. It's a big booming, full-bellied laugh that stops Eddie in his tracks. His expression turns from smug to pissed. "You seriously running with this shit, Eddie? Like, seriously. Are you so jealous that your ex is getting to experience the kind of dick you could never provide, you need to toss out stupid comments in the locker room? Like, dude, get a fucking life."
He turns to me, shaking his head, then leaves Eddie behind with his cronies.
Outside the locker room, I breathe in a long lungful of fresh air. "You handled that well."
Elias shakes his head and rolls his eyes. "That guy is just so fucking pathetic. Who can take anything he says seriously?"
"I still can't believe Celine was with him for so long."
"He wore her down, but she's learned her lesson."
As though we conjure her with our conversation, Celine appears with Gabriella, Kain, Ellie, and Colby. "That was so good," she squeals, running into my arms and squeezing me around my neck. I envelop her in a huge hug, breathing in her sweet scent. But before I have a chance to really relish the press of her body against mine, she lets go of me to focus her attention on Elias. The hug she gives him matches the one she gave me, but he doesn't hug her back. I fix him with a stare because I can't work out what's going on with him. Is he trying to make her feel like shit? If he is, he's no fucking better than Eddie.
"That play." Kain claps me on the shoulder with his big hand, jolting me from my thoughts and nodding appreciatively.
"Makes me want to play again," Colby admits.
"It felt good," I admit, rubbing my hand over the back of my neck. "I mean, who doesn't want to set up the win?"
"ELIAS."
The name is yelled out by a gruff voice, which slurs slightly at the end, lingering on the s. We all turn to find a man wearing Elias's face but with at least twenty years of wear and tear. In jeans, a plaid shirt, and worn boots, he has a scruffiness about him that makes me do a double take. It's the combination of his rough clothes and his reddened face that makes me pause.
My uncle is an alcoholic, and this man has the same ruddy, disheveled look about him.
Elias mutters something under his breath and turns away, looking like he's considering striding off in the opposite direction. He doesn't, though. Instead, he fixes his face with a blank expression. "What are you doing here?"
"Came to see you play," the man says. Is this Elias's dad? It couldn't be anyone else, could it? They look so alike.
"You shouldn't have bothered."
The man's face drops, then flashes anger in less than three seconds. "Who the fuck do you think you're talking to?" It comes out with three flecks of spittle, which fall to the floor.
Elias flinches. It's almost imperceptible. He does a good job of holding his ground, but I catch that motion out of the corner of my eye, and my stomach drops. Fuck. This is his dad.
"Just go home." It's a brush off, but there is a cool edge to Elias's tone that ripples around the group. Celine takes a step closer to him, and so do I. It's an instinct to provide him with support, especially against someone who appears to have hurt him in the past. Elias is bigger than his dad, but that wasn't always the case.
"Embarrassed of me? Am I causing a scene?" He holds his hands out and looks around like he's daring someone to say something to him. Colby moves Ellie back, and Kain does the same with Gabriella. Anticipation of an impending confrontation settles into the air around us all. I'm ready to step in to stop it from happening.
"Dornan!" My dad chooses this exact moment to appear with a big bag of treats and groceries, grinning from ear to ear. I've never been more conscious of what a good man my dad is than right now, faced with Elias's father.
"Dad."
I can’t move because I'm the only one close enough to get between these two men who are staring at each other with palpable malice.
"That play…I got it on video. I'm going to watch it over and over."
"Thanks, Dad."
Elias's father turns slowly, his gaze fixing on my oblivious father. The atmosphere must finally register, and my dad's eyes flit from face to face, trying to work out what's wrong.
"You need to leave," Elias tells his dad again, his tone arctic.
"It's a fucking free country." His dad stumbles back and spreads his arms to regain his balance. We all stare, unable to take our eyes off the car crash happening in slow motion in front of us.
Before Elias's dad has a chance to say anything else, my dad puts out his arm. "Come on. I've got snacks for you guys. You must be ravenous."
Elias doesn't take his eyes off his father for a minute, but as the rest of the group crowd around my dad to accept the bags of chips and sweets, whether they want to or not, the atmosphere is diffused. Celine's arm and shoulder are just in front of Elias, her face tilted into his body. She's trying to shield him, and when Elias realizes, the look on his face is enough to tug even the blackest of heartstrings.
His dad is the first to break the standoff. He wanders away like nothing has happened, swaying and unsteady on his feet.
Elias seems to shrink as he does, all the tensions crumbling from his body. "It's okay," Celine says, turning to touch his arm.
He closes his eyes, shutting out the world for a few seconds. "It's never okay."
"At least he came to watch you play. My dad doesn't even bother to call me anymore."
"I wish he didn't bother."
I take a bag of chips and offer it to Elias. He takes it, eyeing my dad suspiciously or maybe jealously. I wouldn't blame him for feeling either way.
"Let's go grab a beer," I say, looking directly at him. "I think we deserve it."
Elias nods, and Celine whoops and Gabriella tells Kain to call his brothers.
By the time we hit the bar, there's a big group of us, and everyone is chatting. Travis has arrived with Dalton and Blake. Seb and Micky have come, too, leaving Noah with Ellie's mom and their dad. It's a raucous celebration, but Elias is still quiet. I buy him a beer and pass it to him. He downs the whole bottle in one go, slamming it onto the bar hard enough to draw the attention of others around us.
"Don't let him get to you," I say.
He fixes me with stone-cold eyes. "Says the man with the world's greatest father."
What do I know about what Elias has been through? Nothing, that's what. But I clap him on the shoulder and avoid getting drawn into any back and forth. "We don't get to pick our family, Elias. You might have a let-down of a father, but you have friends. You're on track to ace your degree. You can leave the past behind if that's what you want."
He could have Celine, too. I'm sure if he asked, she'd date him.
I might want her, but I don't need her in the same way Elias does.
Could I give up my claim on her?
I'm not sure.
"The past follows us around like a mangy dog." He indicates to the barman to bring him another beer.
"Celine wants you, you know."
His eyes cut to mine, emptier than I've ever seen them.
"Celine doesn't know what she wants."
We might not be playing games anymore, but somehow, this thing between us all seems even more tangled than at the start.