Chapter 19 Bryson
Bryson
Jaden’s still asleep on my arm, and I don’t care that I can’t feel my fingertips anymore. I’m not moving. My only wish is that I could somehow reach my phone to snap a photo of us together. Not for Amelia. For me.
I know Jaden has practice soon. It’s Sunday, and I have film in an hour. But that’s sixty entire minutes away, and if I run to the stadium, I think I can get away with lying here for the next forty-eight. That gives me an entire minute for pants, socks, and shoes.
My plans are spoiled, though, the second someone clangs what sounds like a large frying pan against the coils of Jaden’s stovetop.
She stretches as a few bangs, glasses on the counter perhaps, sound from somewhere else in the apartment.
And then she darts into a sitting position, clutching her blanket to her chest as her wide eyes stare at the shadows moving through the light that streams through the gap under her door.
“Sounds like Taryn’s home,” I say, lifting on one elbow so I can reach her spine with my other hand. I tickle the perfect line with my fingertips, and she flinches, then coils into the covers, burying herself in the nook of my arm and chest.
“Taryn is going to shit herself,” she utters, her voice muffled from the blanket she has locked down beneath her chin.
I shift so my body lines up with hers and work the blanket loose from her grip until there’s enough slack for me to bury my head underneath with her.
“Why are we worried about Taryn?” I smirk and quirk a brow.
“We’re not. Though, I mean . . . oh my God.” She squeezes her eyes shut and covers her face with both hands. She’s embarrassed. Because we fucked. And her roommate is going to know. It’s adorable.
“I think she can handle it,” I tease, peeling Jaden’s fingers away from her eyes.
Her lips pucker, and I can tell she wants to pout, but the smile wins and pushes soft dimples into her cheeks.
“One egg? Or two?” a male voice booms from the kitchen. This time, Jaden and I both freeze.
“Is that . . . ?” I whisper. Jaden pulls the blanket away from our heads and presses a fingertip against my lips as she mouths shh.
“Two. I’m fucking starving,” Taryn responds. “I’ll see if Jaden’s up yet.”
We barely have enough time to mimic one another’s panicked expressions before there’s a rapid series of knocks on the door and it swings open.
“Hey, Jade. We’re making breakfa—” Taryn stops hard at the foot of the bed, and now there are three of us with wide eyes and open mouths.
I pop a hand out from the top of the covers and wave.
“Hey.” Thank God my hard-on is gone. There would be no hiding the tent in the blanket if she’d walked in here just five minutes earlier.
“Uh, heyyyyyy, Bryson. Bryson Moss.” She gives my last name a strange flair as her gaze shifts to her best friend, and I catch her mouthing, “Oh my God!”
“I’d love two eggs. If that’s what you were going to ask?” I glance to my left, where Jaden is still frozen, her mouth locked in this strange, toothy smile.
“Jaden,” I whisper, nuzzling her shoulder with my nose. Her bare shoulder. Her gaze darts to my touch, then pops up to meet my eyes. “You want one egg? Or two?” I nod toward Taryn, who is now chuckling under her breath.
“Two. I want two eggs.” She swivels her head forward, looking at Taryn again. “I’ll take two.”
“Yeah, you will,” Taryn teases, a devious laugh emanating from her throat as she backs toward the door, then pulls it closed. “Eggs will be ready in five minutes, Jaden And Bryson Moss!”
Jaden sinks lower on the bed and buries herself under the covers again, but I don’t let her hide in shame for more than a half second, pulling the covers back and pouncing on top of her, my arms on either side of her head as my body slowly sinks onto hers.
“You’re beautiful when you’re embarrassed too. Just thought you should know that.” I drop a kiss on the tip of her nose, then lift enough to catch her bite her lip as her cheeks turn pink. “I plan on telling you all the ways you’re beautiful. So be prepared.”
I roll away from her and swing my feet to the floor, then grab my boxers from the floor and pull them over my hips before stretching and turning to see what type of beautiful she is right now. Flattered, I think. Yeah, this one I think is flattered.
“You mind if I wear my jersey? I’m not up for the dress shirt this morning.” I glance around the room, searching for it, then remember where I left it. On the floor. By the front door. My gaze swings back to Jaden, and she’s blushing harder now, the blanket pulled back up to her bottom lip.
“Pretty sure Taryn has the full picture by now,” I laugh out.
“Oh God!” She covers her face again, but I don’t let her hide.
I tug the blanket from the bottom, and she sits up quickly as her hands scramble to keep it.
I hug it to my body as she rises on her knees and battles me, her bare breasts doing things to me that will definitely prevent us from going out to the kitchen for eggs in five minutes.
I hold her chin in my palm, and she wraps her hands around my wrist, smirking at me from the palm of my hand.
“You’re beautiful like this too. Playful. It’s almost as beautiful as the face you make when you come.”
She pushes me away teasingly, no longer strangled by her shyness. She marches to her closet and slips on an extra-large, gray Cordon shirt, then pulls a blue one from a hanger and tosses it to me. It’s one of the freebies the athletics department gives us. I have a couple of my own.
“Thanks,” I say, slipping it over my head before pointing a thumb over my shoulder. “I’ll just let Taryn know you’ll be right out.”
Jaden’s shoulders drop with a hard exhale, but she nods as her eyes meet mine.
“Yeah. Let’s do this,” she says.
I leave her to rummage through a drawer for pants after slipping my khakis on. I pause at the end of the hallway for a beat when I recognize the man cracking an egg on the edge of the skillet.
“What’s up, man?” Corbin James is our tight end, and he’s the one person who might have a bigger social media following than my sister and the Score app.
“Hey, you know Taryn?” My brow furrows as I make my way into the tight kitchen space, sliding behind the guy I threw four passes to yesterday.
“Yeah, we go way back. Her brother’s Kai. We all grew up together.” He shrugs and turns his attention back to the now crackling egg whites.
“Huh. Small world.” Kai is one of our safeties, and I knew that he and Corbin were tight, I just never put Taryn and Kai together. Of course, now that I know they’re siblings, I realize they do look an awful lot alike.
My sister tried to talk Corbin into being one of the faces of her app too. He said he was already in a complicated relationship, though. Which makes me wonder if that relationship includes . . .
I glance at Taryn, who is sitting at the kitchen table gnawing on a piece of bacon as she hugs her knees to her chest and scrolls on her phone.
I try to work through this new relationship puzzle as I snag a mug from the cupboard and begin flipping open cabinets in search of coffee.
There’s a machine on the counter, so they must have it here somewhere.
“Hey, T,” Jaden says, her voice raspy from the little sleep she got last night. She’s wearing her gray sweatpants, the ones that she pushes up her calves, along with the blue-and-gray-striped socks she wore when we went to the arcade.
“Morning, Jaden,” Corbin says, smiling over his shoulder as she passes behind him and guides me to the right cabinet for coffee.
“You know Corbin?” I whisper.
She glances over her shoulder, toward Taryn, then brings her gaze back to mine.
“It’s complicated,” she says, a common word it seems when it comes to my teammate.
“Got it.” I don’t really, but I have plenty of my own bullshit. I don’t need to inherit others’.
Corbin slides two fried eggs onto a plate and hands it to me. I pass the plate to Jaden, and she looks at me with the sweetest tight grin, as if the gesture of letting her eat first is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for her.
I hang in the kitchen as the coffee percolates behind me, and Jaden carries her plate to the table, folding her legs up just like her roommate before poking her fork into an orange ball of yolk.
“What’s with girls sitting in chairs like that? Can you imagine bending that way and not falling on your ass?” I nudge Corbin’s shoulder, and he glances toward the two girls, then shakes with a silent laugh.
“I’d need the fire department to cut me out if I tried that shit.” We both laugh, but there’s truth to his statement. We’re both big dudes, but Corbin is a good six inches taller than I am, and he’s mostly legs.
Once Corbin finishes cooking for us, the four of us scarf down our breakfasts around the quiet table. I can’t help but notice the eyes Taryn keeps making at Jaden, and when they’ve shrugged and waggled their eyebrows at least five times apiece, I groan and lean back in my chair.
“I’m in the room, for Pete’s sake. Even though you two aren’t talking, I can tell you’re talking about me. Go on. Have at it out loud, why don’t you,” I say through a chuckle. I get up from the table and carry everyone’s empty plates to the sink.
“I’m just curious how dinner went last night,” Taryn says, adding one more brow wiggle to the mix.
“Dinner was awful. In fact, I don’t think we even ate,” I realize. I flip the faucet off and lean on the counter as I look to Jaden for confirmation. She glances up, as if she’s trying to recall, then shakes her head.
“Nope. Not a meal I can remember. These eggs were good, though. Delish.” She rubs her tummy and smiles at Corbin. He pulls his brow in and laughs before leaving the table and moving to the sofa, where my jersey is slung over the armrest.
“Okay, so you didn’t eat. But after dinner . . .” Taryn leads.