Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
DIEGO
The trembling, breathless, blissed-out sense of satisfaction weighing my body down and making me feel like my insides are made of Jell-o lasts exactly ten seconds after Callan struts naked out of the bedroom before I hear him utter a surprised curse.
Shit.
My blood turns to ice and I’m on my feet instantly, peeling the cum-soaked jock off, then scrambling for my clothes, which are scattered across the bedroom floor.
It’s fine.
It’s fine.
It’s fine.
I chant the words over and over in my head, pulling a pair of shorts up over my ass, which is still tender from being fingered and sticky with Callan’s cum. After a few seconds, I abandon my search for my shirt and settle for grabbing Callan’s shorts off the floor instead.
Val doesn’t care that she caught me with a guy.
Hell, she practically blessed the whole thing weeks ago.
But knowing my sister isn’t going to judge or disown me doesn’t make me feel any less unsteady.
I have to go out there and come out to someone for the first time, and this definitely isn’t the way I would have chosen to do it.
It’s not like I can hide out in my bedroom and leave Callan flapping in the wind though…
literally. I stifle the manic laugh that rises up in my throat as an image of what exactly is going on in the living room flashes through my mind.
Is Cal just standing there bare assed, not saying anything?
Is he trying to play this whole thing off somehow?
I rush out of my bedroom and down the hall.
As soon as I step into the living room, the laugh I just swallowed down comes bursting out anyway.
Callan is standing there, exactly how I pictured, red in the face, both hands cupped over his soft dick while my sister covers her eyes and stumbles around the living room, tripping over Slapshot and banging her shin against the coffee table.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have let myself in. I barely saw anything, I swear. Ouch, shit, sorry.” With one hand over her eyes, she feels around on the floor, missing her shoes, which are lying about six inches to the left of where she’s trying to find them.
I shove the shorts at Callan, and he gives me a grateful smile, taking them and stepping into them in a hurry.
“Val, uncover your eyes before you trip over something and break your neck.”
“It’s okay, I’ve seen enough. I mean, not that I saw anything.”
Slapshot decides to join in on whatever game his auntie Val is playing and hops up to lick her face while she’s blind and helpless. He shoves his tongue right into her mouth and she yelps in surprise, falling backward from her crouched position to land on her ass.
“Val,” I say again.
She gives up and lowers her hand so she can use it to block the kiss attack Slaps has launched.
She clearly doesn’t trust me though, because she slowly peeks one eye open like she’s afraid of what she might see if she does it too fast. When she realizes we both have shorts on now, she breathes a sigh of relief and opens them fully.
She’s as red in the face as Callan, who’s staring at the floor and awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.
“I didn’t know she was here,” he says quietly with a hint of apology in his voice, like he thinks it’s somehow his fault that my sister let herself in unannounced and basically tripped and fell right into my closet.
“It’s fine,” I say to both of them. Or maybe I’m saying it out loud to convince myself. “I need a beer,” I mutter. “Anybody else?”
“God yes,” Callan says. “I’ll grab them.”
“Yes, please.” Val finally manages to push the enthusiastic pug away and get to her feet. She brushes off her pants and wipes the drool off of her face, and I stifle another laugh.
Callan reaches the doorway to the kitchen and stops to look at me over his shoulder with a hint of concern and a silent question in his eyes.
Do you need me here while you have this conversation?
I shake my head and give him a reassuring smile.
He nods and disappears into the kitchen, and an awkward silence falls between me and my sister.
Fuck, I hate that. There’s never anything awkward between us.
She’s the one who took me to the gas station to buy my first box of condoms and showed me how to use them on a banana when I was a teenager.
She told me she didn’t want me making her an aunt too soon, and I promised her that kids wouldn’t be anywhere on my radar until I had at least one Championship Cup and an MVP title under my belt.
She was the first person I called when I found out about Crystal and Brody. She came right over and I spent the night alternating between crying on her shoulder and raging about how the hell Crystal could do that to me.
There’ve never been any secrets or walls up between us, and I’m not going to let this be the thing that makes her think she needs to tiptoe around my life like she doesn’t belong here.
“So… that’s my new personal trainer, Callan,” I say flippantly.
Val sputters a laugh and the tension hanging in the air gets less heavy.
“You two are clearly working up a sweat.” She glances towards the kitchen, then back at me. “I guess that talk we had a few weeks ago wasn’t purely hypothetical.”
“Not so much.” I rake my fingers through my hair and huff out a quiet laugh of my own. “It turns out I’m not that straight either. I think maybe I’m bi.”
“Chill. I settled on pansexual after our talk a few weeks ago. Not to step all over your coming out or anything. But, hey, I’m sure mom and dad will be psyched to learn that they went oh-for-two on making straight kids. Maybe we can tell them together at Christmas.”
I bark out another laugh and pull her in for a hug.
“Gross. You’re all sweaty,” she complains, trying to push me away for a second before she gives in and lets it happen.
I squeeze her for a minute, letting all the chaotic feelings inside me settle before I let her go.
No, this definitely isn’t the way I would have chosen to come out to her officially, but I’m glad it’s out in the open; with Val, anyway.
I have a feeling it won’t go so smoothly with everyone…
if I ever get around to telling them at all.
“So is he your boyfriend, or what?” She keeps her voice low so Callan won’t overhear from the kitchen.
My stomach flutters again, with a different kind of nerves this time.
“Or what? I don’t know. It’s—”
Callan steps back into the room with three bottles of beer in hand and I snap my mouth shut. He glances back and forth between me and Val.
“I tried to take my time. Was that still too quick? Should I go back into the kitchen and give you guys another few minutes? Or I can take off if you want?”
It’s weird and a little cute to see Callan so nervous and unsure of himself.
It would be easiest to either tell him that we’ll talk tomorrow or get rid of my sister since she is the one who showed up without bothering to call or text first. But there’s something really nice about the thought of the two of them getting to know each other, especially if Callan’s going to help take care of Slapshot during the season.
Maybe the two of them could come to some of my home games together.
A warmth that feels like a hug or a sense of home fills me.
I shake my head and snag one of the beers from him.
“Stay.”
“You sure?” he asks, handing one of the other bottles to Val.
“Yeah, I still owe you dinner. You can keep my sister company for a few minutes while I jump in the shower.”
“Thank god,” she mutters. “I didn’t want to say anything, but you definitely need a shower, and not a quick one.
” I snort and playfully palm her face with a gentle shove.
She slaps my hand away and makes a shooing motion.
“Go. Let me get to know your ‘personal trainer.’” She makes air quotes around the last two words.
“I am his personal trainer,” Callan says.
“You might need to take another look at that job description, then,” she says blandly.
I’m still laughing as I make my way back down the hallway with my beer in hand. A hot shower, a cold beer, and two of my favorite people in the world in the same room—it’s shaping up to be a pretty solid night.
CALLAN
I’m not used to feeling so damn out of my element. I take a sip of my beer and watch Diego disappear down the hall, wanting to follow him like a lost puppy. He told me to stay and keep his sister company though, so I resist the urge.
“Sorry again about…” She waves vaguely at my now-covered dick, and we both laugh.
“No worries. I’ll try to remember to call out to make sure the apartment is empty next time before I strut around naked.”
She arches one eyebrow at me and smirks. She looks a hell of a lot like her brother when she does that, with the same mischievous glint in her eyes.
“You plan to make a habit of being balls out in Diego’s living room, then? Assuming you’ve double checked that no one else is here in the future?”
“Uh…” I rub the back of my neck with my free hand again and take another sip of my beer.
I’ve never had any guy I was hooking up with introduce me to his family, so I don’t know what the protocol is here.
I’m probably not supposed to tell her we’re basically friends with benefits until his season starts, right?
People like to imagine that their family members are only getting railed out of love if they’re forced to acknowledge it at all.
But I don’t want to lie to her either and say I’m his boyfriend when he’s made it pretty clear that there’s an expiration date on whatever this is.
“Situationship, got it,” she says wisely, taking a drink before sitting back down on the couch where she was when I first walked in, in all my naked glory.
“Is that what we’re calling it now?” I take a seat on the other end of the couch, leaving the middle cushion between us, which Slapshot quickly helps himself to.
“Why, what do you call it?” she asks, but she quickly holds up a hand to stop me. “And before you say anything gross, please remember that Diego is my brother and I might be small, but I fight crazy.”
I snort a laugh. “Noted. I don’t know. I guess I don’t usually call it anything since I always seem to be a dirty secret or a temporary experiment.”
Shit, I probably shouldn’t have said that to his sister either.
“Diego’s not like that.” She doesn’t sound convinced, but I’m sure she’d still fight me on it if I give her a reason to.
“No, he’s not like that. I was talking more about my own patterns, which I’m probably getting too damn old for at this point. Your brother is great. He’s sweet and fun, and I really—”
I cut myself off before I say something stupid, bringing the bottle to my lips so I have some kind of excuse for the abrupt silence.
Val reaches over and pats my knee sympathetically.
“I get it. I thought for sure I’d be happily married by now, not buying a house to live in all alone and spending my free time volunteering at the animal shelter because I can’t work up the courage to tell the cute vet there that I have a crush on her.
” Her eyes go a little wide and she takes a drink too, like she’s hoping it will wash down the confession she just word-vomited.
I chuckle. “Marriage would be nice eventually, but right now I’d settle for falling for a guy who wants more than…” I wave my hand vaguely at my dick the same way she did before, and we both laugh again in shared understanding.
“You really like my brother?” she asks quietly.
I hesitate for just a second, then nod. Val pats my knee one more time, and then Diego’s footsteps echo down the hallway, ending our conversation. He’s fully dressed again in a fresh t-shirt and shorts.
“Does it count if I order a pizza?” he asks.
“Hell no. You lost and now you’re going to cook me dinner.”
“Okay, how about this, we order pizza tonight and I cook next time you come over,” he bargains.
I sigh dramatically, but we both know I’m going to agree to it, if for no other reason than because it’s a guarantee of another night with Diego, and I’ll take as many as I can get before my time runs out.