Chapter 5
FIVE
Been trying to convey the finer points of fashion to @LeeJTaylor who maintains that joggers and a plain t-shirt constitute style. Not so. If we win our first match, I get to dress him for the party—suggest outfits, please!
The game was a rush. Adrenaline bubbling in Alex’s blood, the roar of the crowd in his ears, some kind of mathematical magic in how his subconscious predicted the path of the ball and how it would intersect with friend and foe.
And they won.
They won.
3–1, with Lee scoring two goals, Jeff one, and Alex himself racking up two assists.
Lee had been right—Alex had been part of the starting eleven.
He’d been subbed out some ten minutes before the end for Alfie, more defense-oriented than Alex and brought in to lock down the score and see the game through.
It was a noisy bus ride to the seafront hotel that would host the team for the night, much closer to the stadium than their regular hotel, with individual rooms that allowed for having partners and family over.
Alex’s pulse still raced with residual adrenaline and excitement, barely able to sit still for the twenty-minute drive.
Next to him, Jeff was rehashing his goal to anyone who would listen in between texting Marco, his youngest brother, who’d come out to watch the game.
Once they arrived, everyone gathered on the beach for a small celebration with visiting partners and other family, their usual curfew suspended for the night.
Kieran made a speech while players’ kids were running over the sand, the sky a rich black, torches flickering in a gentle breeze from the sea, and a DJ playing lounge music at a low volume.
After that, Alex drifted from group to group for a bit, his smile just about tattooed on his face, laughing and clinking bottles of their sponsor’s non-alcoholic beer which was either growing on him or it was euphoria altering his taste buds.
He ended up chatting with Lewis, who was in a good mood even though as a backup keeper, the only way he’d get even a minute of playtime was if something happened to Oliver.
“It’s what I signed up for,” Lewis said with a shrug. “Do I want to be out there on the field? Fuck yeah. But Kieran didn’t invite me along so I’d be a whiny bitch. Right now, my job is to cheer the team on and keep Oliver on his toes ’cause he knows that the moment he falters, I’m gonna be there.”
“That’s the spirit, mate.” Lee had wandered over just in time to catch Lewis’s speech and raised his bottle in a salute.
His white button-down fit him just the way Alex had hoped it would, short sleeves granting a glimpse of toned biceps and the ink swirling up one upper arm, dark jeans hugging Lee’s muscular thighs, naked toes digging into the sand.
The warm torchlight gleamed on his face and darkened his eyes. He looked… well.
Yeah.
Maybe Alex had done a slightly too good job of picking Lee’s outfit for his own peace of mind.
At least he wasn’t the only one to appreciate Lee bypassing his functional wear for once—Marco had given Lee an obvious once-over earlier and winked when he’d noticed Alex catching him in the act.
Sometimes, Alex wondered whether Marco suspected that he wasn’t entirely straight.
Just because Alex had no gaydar to speak of didn’t make it a myth.
“It’s the only fucking spirit there is,” Lewis said, toasting Lee, only to frown down at his beer.
“Except this tastes like ass. I’d much rather sit a dent into the bench than live on this shite for weeks to come.
In the interest of team morale, backup plans like me should get to drink whatever the hell we want. ”
“It’s not that bad,” Alex said, and both Lee and Lewis turned to him with matching expressions of shock. Lee reached out to feel Alex’s forehead, seeming to realize what he’d done at the same time as Alex did. Briefly, they stared at each other, then Lee dropped his hand.
“No fever,” Lee said airily. “I reckon the adrenaline’s gone to his head.”
“Nah,” a voice came from behind Alex. “That’s just the crazy passed down from his dad.”
“Like he’d touch something as common as beer.” Alex laughed, making space for Marco to join their group. “Marco, this is Lee and Lewis, which you probably know. Lee, Lewis—this is Marco, Jeff’s baby brother.”
“Oh, screw you, Alex,” Marco said with a light jab of his elbow to Alex’s side. “I’m a year younger than you. There is nothing ‘baby’ about me.”
“Once a baby, always a baby.”
“Stop quoting my brother.”
“So tell me, are you old enough now to need a shave?” Alex asked with faux interest. “Or are your cheeks just naturally smooth like that?”
“My cheeks, huh,” Marco said with a wink. “Well, wouldn’t you like to know?”
It was testimony to how well Jeff had trained Alex’s immunity to this sort of innuendo because he didn’t even pause. “Show me yours and I’ll show you mine.”
“Not in public, baby,” Marco tutted, and Alex was about to respond when he caught Lee looking at him with a strange weight to his regard—not amused like Lewis but something else, something Alex couldn’t place.
He met Lee’s eyes with demonstrative ease, ignoring the vague twist of apprehension in his gut.
Lee lowered his gaze, and Alex felt cold all of a sudden. It was nothing. Probably.
Since the moment for a smart retort had come and gone, Alex settled for a chuckle and changed the topic to Marco’s plans for hiking around Spain with some friends over the coming week.
Lewis drifted off at some point while Lee hung around, seeming genuinely interested in the multi-day route Marco had picked that partially intersected with a well-known pilgrimage trail.
Jeff wandered over soon after, quieter now than he’d been on the bus, manic energy faded to a happy glow.
He slung one arm around Marco’s shoulders and the other around Alex’s, muttering about how it was a great night when he had two of his favorite people right by his side.
Jeff limited declarations of affection to when he was either drunk or bone-deep tired, so Alex nudged their feet together and made cooing noises at him until Jeff batted at Alex’s face and called him an insufferable prat.
“But you love me anyway,” Alex stated, and Jeff frowned.
“Nah, you’re my charity case.”
“Mean,” Alex told him, but they were both grinning, the day’s win still shimmering in the air. Tired, yes, but happy.
“Top of the fucking group,” Jeff said apropos of nothing, and Alex hugged first him and then Marco, and then Lee too because it would have been odd to leave him out.
One of Lee’s arms curved around the small of Alex’s back, cheeks pressed together for a second before they separated, something hot and heavy slithering up Alex’s spine that he ignored.
He’d already hugged Lee twice today, after his goals. This third time was no different.
Not long after that, Jeff and Marco trundled off to the room they shared, and then it was just Alex and Lee.
Side by side, they gazed at the dwindling party for a minute, most of their teammates already gone to spend time with their loved ones.
The sea provided a steady rhythm to the comfortable silence, no stars visible in the overcast sky, and Alex finished off his beer before he cut Lee a glance.
“Guess we should call it a night too, huh?”
“Yeah.”
Neither of them moved.
“It’ll be strange to have a room to myself for tonight.” Alex tagged a chuckle onto the end of the statement. “Like, it’ll be weirdly quiet, especially after this, and winning the match earlier.”
“You calling me noisy?” Lee asked with a hint of humor shining through his voice, and Alex could have taken the easy way out, made a joke about snoring or sleepwalking, and gone off to the room where he’d ditched his bag earlier in the day.
“You’re not,” he said instead. “But there’s just something about having someone else there, you know? Some kind of resonance instead of empty air. I’m starting to see the appeal of white noise machines.”
Lee turned his head to give Alex a slow look, the night robbing his eyes of all color. “Is this your roundabout way of asking whether we can share like usual?” He didn’t sound opposed to the idea, more curious, even a tinge intrigued.
The question pulled Alex up short because yeah, he kind of was asking, wasn’t he? He sure didn’t need someone to hold his hand so he could fall asleep, but he’d grown kind of used to having Lee settle down next to him.
“I mean… well.” Alex met Lee’s eyes and lifted one shoulder. “You probably like the quiet, I guess?”
Silence reigned for the gap between one wave and the next. “There’s only one bed,” Lee said then.
“Right, yeah.” Alex nodded and looked away. “Of course, never mind.”
Another beat of silence.
Lee cleared his throat. “It’s huge, though. I don’t mind if you don’t.”
That was—wait, what? Was this some kind of test?
Like, if Alex said he minded, he’d come across as…
something. Socially awkward, maybe. Weird about meaningless physical proximity when showering with teammates was a normal occurrence.
Why would Lee want to test him, though? Also, Alex needed to say something now.
“I can grab the bedding from my room,” he said.
Maybe it was the right answer because Lee gave him a small, sweet smile. “Yeah, all right.”
Yet neither of them made a move just yet. Lee let his gaze sweep across the beach, and Alex did the same—the dark sand dotted here and there with torches and a few last stragglers, the DJ having eased into slow, hypnotic beats that blended in with the rhythm of the sea.
“Let’s go?” Alex asked quietly, and Lee’s attention drifted back to him almost lazily, the smile still tucked into the corners of Lee’s mouth.
“Let’s go,” he replied just as quietly.
Temporary insanity.
Maybe.