Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
COLTON
OCTOBER | COLUMBUS, OHIO
“Alright. Let’s air it all out. We can’t be a competitive team this year if we’re still picking at each other.
I want us to have a united front against other teams and stop with the infighting.
Everybody who was here last year, name one thing you want to improve for this year, and make one suggestion for someone else in the room.
New guys, name one skill you want to improve, and one thing you want to learn from someone else on the team. ”
Mixed emotions lit the faces of my teammates, everybody sitting in their lockers. It was the last practice before we left for our first preseason road game, and we still had plenty of old beefs from the year before to put behind us.
“I’ll go first,” Yevgeny Dotsenko, “Dottie,” said.
“Go on.”
“I want to improve our power play strategy,” he started, “and I want Sorrento to not be such a little bitch this year.”
I let out a heavy sigh and rubbed my forehead while Coach barked at him. “This is exactly what we’re trying to get away from.”
“It was just a joke, Cap. It’s better if Sorrento’s still a little bitch. We have a good thing going.” Dottie stood and walked over to wrap Sorrento in an over-the-top hug. “Love you, Pickles.”
“Love you too, bud.”
“Oh my god,” I groaned. “Well. I guess it’s an improvement. Okay, somebody else go.”
Our newest rookie raised his hand. I fought a laugh and called on him. “Owen.”
He cleared his throat and stood. “My name is Owen—”
“We know, kid,” Leroy said. “This isn’t freshman orientation.”
My head sagged back on my shoulders. “Leroy, fuck off. Let him talk.”
Leroy put his hands up and shrugged. “Fine.”
Owen stuffed his hands in his shorts pockets. “I want to get better at my dekeing skills, and I want to learn how to hit harder from the village elders like Leroy.”
A laugh filled the room, as well as an enthusiastic “OH!” from half the team.
“He called you old,” Sorrento teased.
Leroy looked bored. “Wouldn’t be the first, won’t be the last.”
And much the same it went until it was time to eat, caffeinate, and load onto the team jet for New Jersey.
As I buckled in on the flight, I peeked down into my bag and saw the bright blue edge of Seas the Day, the first book Vi picked out for us. The book was pretty good, but it had me ready to float out of my seat for a different reason.
Violet was back in my life. We were doing an activity together, ongoing. We would have things to talk about beyond all the ways we’d hurt each other over the years. A fresh start. And a fun one, at that.
That warm, tingly joy had me stoked to crack the cover and settle in to read.
The tension was tensioning. The grump was softening. I even laughed out loud at something stupid he did. I was enjoying myself. And their steamy kiss two chapters back had me questioning how porn-y this was actually going to get.
I was a healthy man with a healthy sex drive. I spent plenty of time with my hand, and probably delusional entertainment to pair with it.
But in this book, even that steamy kiss made me feel something. I got that secondhand rush of falling in love, of liking someone and wanting them so badly it ached. Trying to see them as much as you can. Wondering what they’re doing and why exactly you’re so drawn to them.
I knew when the heroine came over to help him paint his living room and he offered to make her dinner, things might get messy.
One minute they were eating dinner and having a casual margarita, and the next she was taking her top off and spitting booze into his mouth.
I knew the lead looked nothing like Vi. I read the description.
Hell, there was a cartoon of a notably redheaded woman on the cover.
But all I could picture was Violet. It had been three years since we’d been like that, but it was burned into my brain.
There was a time that she had her top off for me too.
Those perky, perfect little tits, kissing and sucking them like they were my last meal.
I knew I was supposed to like big tits, and sure, I did, but Violet’s were so perfectly her.
A quiet grunt escaped me and I coughed as I sat up straighter.
Blood was definitely diverting from my brain.
And I was thinking about someone who made it clear that she just needed a friend. I had to respect that.
And I did. But that didn’t mean this book wasn’t making me remember how absurdly fucking sexy she was.
I read the next paragraph, and he was kissing her breasts and licking tequila off her body.
And the way they talked to each other? It’s like how I used to talk to Vi, but this guy was more eloquent than I could ever be.
And the words themselves weren’t exactly dousing any flames in me.
I longed for this. For her. To have her fully, a grown man and a grown woman, choosing each other, surrendering to each other.
I nudged my cock with the heel of my hand, looking around to see if anyone noticed me getting all hot and bothered on the team plane.
It had become a full-on raging boner situation.
Was that precum running down the side of my cock?
In my head, it was her, tracing her tongue down my shaft and fuck, did I want that.
You’re not supposed to text on planes, but I needed to talk to Violet right fucking then, platonic or not.
COLTON
heyy
so I didn’t expect this book to be quite so
VIOLET
quite so what? Good?
COLTON
if good is what it takes for you to have to check your surroundings on the team plane, then yeah
VIOLET
you haven’t developed your smut poker face yet
it’s a skill we all must possess
COLTON
it’s not my face I’m worried about
VIOLET
***
I groaned, hoping she’d get the point. “Come on, Vi. Read between the lines.”
A few seconds later, another text flew in.
VIOLET
oh. ohhhhhhh
pics or it didn’t happen :p
COLTON
wait, are you telling me you want pics of my not-face?
VIOLET
at some point in our lives it was my favorite not-face
COLTON
you’re going to give my not-face a complex
I mean I guess I can go to the bathroom and take one?
VIOLET
not right now, ding dong! I’m at work
COLTON
yeah my ding dong is actually the problem
and I’m at work too!
you think I like having this happen?
VIOLET
you don’t have to keep reading. It can be a lot
COLTON
not happening. Have to see this through
…and it’s pretty hot
VIOLET
right?
well enjoy the memories of it when you’re with your New Jersey girl
My stomach plummeted to the floor. Violet thought I was seeing other people? Is that why she said “just friends?” To protect herself? To protect me?
COLTON
there’s no New Jersey girl, I can assure you
it’s just my hand!
VIOLET
join the club, mister
COLTON
please do not put the image of you using your hand in my head right now
VIOLET
sorry (grimace)
didn’t mean to gross you out
ok well now i embarrassed myself and made it weird and i’m blushing and i need to get back to work
good luck with your situation
Gross me out? Had she lost her fucking mind? I was just writing a text back when our goalie, Royce, interrupted me from across the aisle.
“You alright, cap? You’re sweating and twitching around over there.”
“I’m fine.” I cleared my throat, laying the book over my lap and my cock that threatened to eat a hole through my pants.
Dylan Sorrento leaned forward, sitting behind Royce. “What are you reading? Is that a—”
“It’s a book,” I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt. How soon could I get an e-reader? This was a terrible idea.
“No, but which one? It looks like one Jeannie loves.”
I squirmed in my seat and brushed my fingers through my hair. “I forget what it’s called.”
What perfect timing for Dottie to wake up next to me, reach into my lap, and fold the cover forward. “Looks like it’s Seas The Day. Oh, like sailing, water jokes. I like it.”
It sounded more dramatic in his Russian accent.
“Oh, yeah! J loves that one!” Sorrento added. “The one with the lobster trappers?”
Royce chortled. “That’s not the only thing sailing.” He flicked his head to my pants.
I pressed my fingers into my brow and muttered a cuss into my palms. This is all for Violet.
Sorrento pressed on. “Is that the one where she spits the tequila—”
“Yes, okay, I was just at that part!” I snatched the book back from Dottie. “And anyway, no spoilers!”
“Isn’t romance porn for girls?” Dottie asked.
“You’re reading porn while we’re on a work flight?” Royce chimed in, not sounding at all mad but instead wholly amused.
“It’s a full emotional journey,” Sorrento said. “It’s not just the sex.”
“Yeah, Royce, and I’m sure your books have sex in them,” I tried.
“As a matter of fact, Catcher in the Rye does have sex in it!” Royce said.
“Have you read a book since high school, Royce?” Sorrento laughed.
“That’s notoriously a book for tools,” I added.
“It’s classic fucking literature!” Royce whined. “You’re the one reading girl porn!”
“Actually, the term classic literature is often elitist and Eurocentric—” Owen piped in, his head peeking over the seat in front of me.
Three voices responded with, “Shut up, rookie!” As they should.
I felt like my head was about to pop off—and not the one in my pants. That one had quickly retreated.
“It’s for a girl, okay?” I barked. “I’m reading them with a girl. God forbid a guy read a romance novel or two.”
“Ooh! I know what that’s called! The reading at the same time!” Sorrento started pointing at me and snapping his fingers like he couldn’t find the word.
“Foreplay?” Jack Leroy decided to chime in from next to Sorrento.
“A buddy read!” Sorrento said. “Jeanine does them all the time with her friends.”
“You don’t think it’s cheating that your wife reads other men with a fourteen-inch dick being the hero?” Royce lifted a brow.
Sorrento’s smile turned smug. “She gets great ideas. I have no complaints.”
“That’s what porn is for,” Dottie said.
“And somehow, we’ve come full circle,” I sighed.
“I bet Mara would want in,” Leroy said. “To the friend read thing with Jeanine.”
“Leroy just wants some of that romance novel-grade ass,” Royce sniffed.
Leroy was unbothered, lifting a single shoulder and running his tongue along his teeth. “I’ll try anything once.”
“I’m sure J would love to buddy read with Mara,” Sorrento said, picking up his phone and starting to type. “Colt, does your girl want in? Who is she?”
“Oh, did you finally stop ghosting Yulia?” Dottie asked. I cringed. I really had been a dick.
“Um, not Yulia. She’s a friend from college. An ex actually.”
“You’re dating a college girl?” Royce said. “A little young, don’t you think? You’re, what, forty?”
“I’m thirty-one!” If my head had exploded earlier when the pressure first built, it felt like it had been reconstituted from brain bits, then detonated again. “I showed you her picture the other day!”
“They call it an age gap,” Sorrento said. “All the rage these days. In the books, anyway.”
All I could do was growl. I tossed the book down in my seat and headed back for the bathroom.
“Ope, you better take the book,” Royce called, reaching to pull the book off my seat and thrusting it my way. “They don’t leave Playboy in the bathroom like the olden days.”