Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
SUTTON
The dust had officially settled.
With just three days till the end of our six-week stint at Montview, it seemed like a million things had happened, and a whole lifetime of changes had taken place.
“Do you envy them?” I peered at Jayden, who lay by my side.
“Hell no.” He chuckled. “I’m more than happy to be where I’m at, having navigated through all of the chaos of first going pro.”
“You’re making it sound like the last two or so months haven’t been crazy.”
He put his phone down, giving me his full attention. “Regrets are for pussies.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “That’s not quite what I meant.”
“I know, but still, I wouldn’t want to go back all the way to the beginning. We’re where we’re meant to be.”
I grinned at him, and this time it was Jayden who rolled his eyes. “You remember that time you said you didn’t talk about your feelings?”
“Fuck off.” He punctuated his words with a kiss. “Shower. We need to get our asses into gear.”
Tomorrow was the end-of-school game. We had another group of kids arriving just before game time. Plus, families had been invited. While it was a friendly game between the twenty guys split into two teams, I knew each and every one of them would play their hardest.
“How are your guys looking?” I asked as we got together enough to step into the shower cubicle.
“Like machines.” He bounced his brows. “They’re going to totally kick your team’s ass.”
“Not gonna happen. Between me, Pearce, and Milo as the dream coaches, there’s zero chance your guys are gonna bring it.” I grabbed the shower gel and took delight in rubbing it on his chest while he scowled at me.
Jayden wasn’t handling the bonding Milo and I had done over the past six weeks well.
“Hey, don’t forget he’s invited us for a stay at his cabin when we get the time.”
He seemed less pissed off when I mentioned that. “True.” Tipping his face under the spray, he washed himself down. I admired the rivulets of waters as they darted a path down his skin. Jayden was too tempting for his own damn good.
I leaned against him, silently telling him as much. His grin was immediate.
“See something you like?”
I grunted and pressed my mouth against his before saying, “See something I love more like it,” then went in for another kiss.
Smiling against my mouth, Jayden tugged me closer. “We so don’t have time for this.”
“Since when do you give a shit about such things?”
He angled away, a sparkle of mischief in his eyes. “True that.”
Our mouths connected, and a bang on our room’s door, barely muffled by the shower, pierced the bathroom. We both groaned and freed ourselves.
The hammering sounded again.
With a sigh, I stepped out of the shower, grabbed a towel, and opened the bathroom door, hollering out “What?” in the general direction of the banging.
“Coach wants to see you. Stat.” It was Pearce.
“Tell him we’re busy.”
“Ha. No chance. Get your asses moving. Both of you.” He pounded the door once more for good measure.
“You hear that?” I angled around to Jayden, who’d turned off the shower and was already toweling dry.
“Pretty hard not to with the way he was shouting.” He smirked a little, I expected thinking about Pearce.
The man still reminded us a little of Jayden, but he'd seemed calmer and more collected since coming out and going public a few weeks back. Sure, he could still be overenthusiastic and was a heap of fun. But he was less… wired, maybe.
“Wonder why Jenkins wants to see us.”
I shrugged and dried off. “No idea, but it’s a bit early for it. We haven’t had coffee yet.”
“Never fear. I’ll make sure you get your caffeine fix this morning.”
I smiled and leaned toward him for a kiss as he walked by to grab his clothes. A quick kiss was all he offered before he was tugging on his boxer briefs and shorts, pulling a T-shirt on afterward. Today’s read Sugarplum.
Of course Jayden had gone around the guys and nabbed every single tee Max and I had organized. He took great delight in switching them out daily.
“Is that your favorite? It’s done the rounds.”
“It’s the addition of the fairy Pearce added.
” We both glanced at the hand-drawn illustration of the “sugarplum fairy,” which was actually an impressive piece of artwork considering he’d been armed with a Sharpie.
It was a dude wearing a basketball jersey, complete with a tutu and fairy wings. “I even hand washed it.”
My eyes softened at his sweetness. “Why don’t you take a photo and get it made up properly so it’s not going to run or fade or something?”
“Hell yes. Quick, do it now.”
I chuckled at his enthusiasm, loving that he got excited and carried away about the weirdest things. After taking a quick photograph, or maybe two as he looked extra handsome with his bright smile, I dressed, we brushed our teeth, and made our way to see Jenkins, assuming he was in his office.
When we arrived, the door was open, and voices filtered through the doorway. I frowned at the voice, struggling to marry the accent with the location. My brows shot up when my gaze landed on Nate and Ryan.
“The fuck you guys doing here?” Jayden beat me to it, stepping more fully into the room and wrapping Ryan in a hug.
I grinned at Nate, and he moved toward me, hugging me hard. “Holy shit. You guys are here,” I said, stating the obvious. I then hugged Ryan.
When we finally broke free, still startled at seeing them here, I grinned. It was good to see them. Sure, it had only been a little over six weeks, but with all that had happened, on top of how busy we’d been, it felt like a lot longer.
“Heard there was a game tomorrow. Thought we’d come and check it out,” Nate offered, appearing super pleased with himself that they’d surprised us.
“You’d have much preferred the last game a few weeks back,” Jayden said without missing a beat.
“True. Watching you guys getting your arses handed to you by college kids would have been something. I had to settle on watching the highlights.” Ryan quirked his brow.
“Whatever. We all know we were going easy on the guys. Didn’t want to destroy them before they had a chance to start their careers.”
We all snorted at Jayden.
“Nice tee,” Nate said, eyeing up the basketballer sugarplum fairy.
“Right!” Jayden grinned. “I’m going to talk to Pearce about getting a whole line on the go.”
“That right?” I turned to Jayden, who gave a casual shrug.
“These things would sell. What’s not to love?” A legit twinkle appeared in his eyes, and I knew his brain was also rolling around the idea with a lot more seriousness. “We could do a whole range.”
“We?” I asked. “And how are you contributing to this?”
“I’m the inspiration behind it, obviously. Hell, Pearce could design other fairy players. Do a whole line. Work directly with one of the LGBTQ charities. We cou—”
“Whoa there.” I edged over to him as his hands flew about the more animated he got as his ideas poured out of him in the frantic way they tended to do. Standing at his side, I wrapped my arm around him. “Let’s focus on these guys being here, then harass Pearce sometime next week, yeah?”
The stink eye he shot my way wasn’t amused. “As if I’ll remember anything by then. These ideas are here now. Once I’ve thought them, said them once, they flutter away, never to be seen again.” I knew he thought he spoke the truth, but he needed to give himself more credit.
“How about we put a pin in it, and we’ll talk it through together before chatting to Pearce?”
Jayden turned to me, taking me in, a smile forming. “Yeah?”
My heart leaped, enjoying the tenderness and openness in his gaze. “Definitely.”
He leaned in and pressed his lips against mine. Immediately, obnoxious coughs exploded in the room, followed by Coach saying, “They don’t stop.” Amusement tinted his words, and I smirked against Jayden’s mouth as I pulled away and returned my attention to the others in the room.
“So you guys really here just to see the game?”
Nate answered, “Mainly, yeah, Ryan also has a meeting in a few days in LA, so we came early to catch up with you guys first.”
Curious about what meeting Ryan could have, I glanced over at him. Not that I’d ask.
“Who are you meeting in LA?” Jayden, however, had no such restraint.
Ryan bobbed his brows a couple of times. “How about I tell you about it later at dinner?”
“Sounds good,” I said quickly before Jayden had a chance to complain. “You coming to hang out on the court? Gonna meet the guys?”
“Absolutely.” Ryan nodded.
“You guys go ahead. I’ve got some calls to make,” Jenkins said, waving us off.
We all left Coach’s office, heading straight for breakfast and coffee.
I didn’t take long to plate up our breakfast and get four decent cups of coffee before us all.
“Are you guys jet-lagged?” Jayden asked, his attention drifting from the mountain of creamer he poured into his coffee.
“Not too bad. Ryan got us the good tickets, and we actually flew into LA yesterday morning.”
Pearce took a seat next to me, grinning over at Ryan and Nate. “They were surprised, huh?”
“You knew?” Jayden asked.
“Yeah, since last week when Ryan reached out to me.” He seemed thoroughly pleased with himself that he’d been in on the surprise visit.
“We’ve actually brought you a gift, Jayden.” Ryan picked up a backpack, which he’d dropped on the floor when we’d sat. It was overfull, the zip barely containing what was inside.
“Sweet.” Jayden reached out, stopping when Ryan stood.
“Actually, why don’t you just come with me for five?”
I quirked my brow at that, already dreading what Ryan could possibly be gifting Jayden. “This sounds like it’s a bad idea.”
Nate chuckled. “It’ll be fine.”
I narrowed my gaze on my Aussie friend. Out of everyone at the table, he was the one person I trusted to be the most sensible.
“Please tell me you’ve got me sex toys.” Jayden stood quickly, eagerness in his voice.
I spluttered out a laugh, not even touching that. Well, certainly not in public anyway.
With a sigh, Ryan shook his head. “Why would you think I got you a bag of sex toys?”
Wide-eyed, Jayden shrugged. “Because you’re an awesome friend and want to make me happy.”
My mouth twisted to keep from laughing, while Nate chuckled. Pearce snorted loudly. Ryan simply moved from the table, mumbling, “Fuck knows why it is I miss you guys so much. You drive me insane.”
Watching them go, I asked, “Seriously, Nate, should I be worried?” His laughter tugged my attention away from Jayden’s retreating form.
“Nah, mate. He’s going to be in his element.” He smirked and eyed me. “You guys had a good time doing this gig?”
“Definitely.” My answer was immediate. Sure, we’d had a wobble a few weeks back, but that was about the secrets we’d kept catching up with us and not about the summer training. “We’ve even been invited back next summer, so we can’t have pissed off Coach Jenkins too much.”
“You guys accepted? You plan to come back?”
I nodded. “We’ve said yes. It’s been fun.”
From my side, Pearce added, “I’ve committed too. It’s been good getting back to basics while pushing it. Plus hanging out with some of the former players… yeah, it’s been good.”
The pink covering Pearce’s cheeks as he spoke took me by surprise. He made eye contact with me before darting his gaze away. Rather than quizzing him, I looked at Nate. “Everything okay back home? That niece of yours okay?”
He grinned. “Ivy’s great. Into everything and driving Ryan insane. He’s loving spending so much time with her, though.”
“Don’t you have a store to run?” I asked, registering that he was here and planned to be in the US for at least a week.
He chuckled. “Yeah. From having so much time away last year, the guys have it completely covered. Me being there feels a little redundant at times.” He didn’t seem too put out by it, though. “It’s made heading here last-minute nice and easy, especially with—”
A commotion at the entrance caught our attention. Laughter filtered around the room, starting off quiet before it spread quickly. My gut told me that Jayden was involved.
Turning and seeking out what was going on, I spotted Jayden immediately, rubbed my hand over my face, and laughed. Jayden entered the room with a huge-ass grin, complete with a kangaroo that he was riding.
“Where the hell did you find that?” I flashed a look at a laughing Nate.
“Isn’t it epic? Found the costume online and managed to do a rush order so we could bring it with us.”
With my attention back on Jayden, I watched as he all but strutted in, fake legs on either side of the partially stuffed kangaroo he was riding.
“Sutton,” he hollered, bright-eyed and so in his element. “Get your phone out. I need to share this awesomeness with the world.”
“I’m already videoing,” Pearce said beside me with a chortle. He glanced over at me, smirking. “Just think, not only are you best friends with the guy, you also chose him as your boyfriend.” He followed up with a wink.
True that. I stood and greeted the now bouncing Jayden, who jumped into my personal space. His eyes were sparkling with amusement, and genuine happiness flooded his features. The sight squeezed at my heart in all the best ways.
“You look ridiculous,” I said with a grin. “And I love you the more for it.”
Rather than giving me words, Jayden leaned in and brushed his lips against mine. The touch was brief and barely a kiss, but it told me all I needed to know.
Jayden was phenomenally happy, and I’d make sure he remained that way indefinitely. Kangaroo riding fantasies and all.