4. Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Gonzo eyed the empty pizza box in the middle of the kitchen island. Why did he always eat so much? He leaned back on the couch and rested his arms on his stomach. Man, he loved pizza, but he was going to pay for today’s shitty diet. Looked like there was an extra-long run in his future tomorrow. Damn, it always seemed like such a good idea in the moment. He eyed Bailey as she set her plate down on the coffee table and sat back in the opposite chair. “Did you ever learn to cook?” he asked.
“Of course I can cook. Well, sort of, it’s not like I can whip up duck confit or anything, but I can get by.”
“It’s not that hard. You just have to make sure you cure it long enough in the spices and then roast it slowly,” he absently replied.
“Oh my god, do you seriously know how to make it?” Bailey gaped at him like he’d just admitted to being a flat earther or something.
“What? I like to cook, you know that,” he mumbled.
“Well yeah, but there’s like I make cookies when I can’t sleep and there’s people who make duck confit.” She blew a raspberry. “I can’t even wrap my head around you being all Julia Child.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m not all Julia Child, I just find cooking relaxing.”
“Does that mean you’re gonna cook for me?” She leaned forward and placed her hands under her chin and fluttered her eyelashes.
“Maybe, if you’re nice.”
“I’m always nice. It’s my middle name.”
“Uh-huh.” He grabbed his water glass and took a sip. “I like to cook on my days off and I meal prep for game days, so if you want me to cook when I’m home just let me know.”
“Are you kidding? You just said you can make things like duck confit. Of course I want you to cook.”
He chuckled. “Alright, well, I do up a shopping list for meals and stuff when I’m home and I have someone who goes shopping and stocks the kitchen for me.”
“Ooh fancy.”
Ignoring the way she teased him, he continued, “Anyway. The schedule and shopping list are always on the fridge and Sylvia comes by twice a week, once to clean and once to restock the fridge. The game schedule kind of determines when each happens.”
“You have a housekeeper?”
“I do. She’s a single mom from this program Pete’s a part of.” When he’d found out about the program, he’d wanted to help and employing one of the moms seemed like a good way to do that. “She helps us all out with shopping and stuff and it lets her have a flexible schedule around her son’s appointments.”
“So she does this for multiple players?”
“Yeah, some of the guys hate cooking, so she cooks their meals, does meal prep and grocery shopping, dry cleaning that sort of thing. I hate grocery shopping and no one wants to clean a toilet on their day off, so Sylvia takes care of all that for me. I just didn’t want you to be surprised if you saw some random woman in the apartment.”
“I appreciate that.”
“I’ll give her a call while I’m home and let her know you’re here as well, but feel free to add anything you want to the grocery list.”
“I’m not going to put my groceries on your shopping list, Gonzo.”
“Why not?”
“You’re already letting me stay with you for free. I’m not going to start adding my food as well.”
“Up to you, but I’m telling her to double everything when I’m home if I’m cooking.”
“That’s fine. Just let me know what I owe you each week.”
“Yeah, that’s not happening.”
“Gonzo.” She glared at him, making it very clear she was not happy about him paying for stuff. Well, tough, it wasn’t up for discussion.
“I could use a soak in the hot tub. You want to come?”
“You have a hot tub? Where?”
“Up on the roof. I have a little private rooftop patio thing up there that’s perfect for the hot tub.”
Bailey nervously chewed the inside of her mouth. “I don’t really love wearing a bathing suit in public.”
“It’s not public. I’m the only one who has access to it. No one can even see you in there. Fuck, I go naked half the time, but I’ll cover the goods for you.”
“Gee thanks,” she mocked. “Still, I ju—just,” she stammered.
“Bailey, I’ve seen you in a bathing suit a million times.”
“Yeah, but not recently.”
“Bailey, I’ve examined your butthole as a kid. I’m pretty sure any kind of changes to your clothed body are a moot point.”
Her eyes bugged out. “You did not just say that?”
“Yeah, I did. It’s true.”
“We were five,” she screeched.
“Still counts. I’ve seen all your naughty bits in detail, so seeing you in a bathing suit isn’t going to shock me.”
She mumbled something that sounded a lot like, “That’s what you think.”
“Don’t be a prude. Put your bathing suit on and come soak off the shitty day.”
“I’m not being a prude,” she grumbled.
“You kind of are. It’s a body, Bay, we’ve all got one.”
“Fine, but no laughing.” She pointed her finger at him.
Why the hell would he laugh? He placed his hand on his heart. “Promise. If it makes you feel more comfortable, I won’t even look.”
“Okay then,” she agreed.
“Go get changed.”
He quickly put on his swim trunks and grabbed a couple of towels out of the linen closet. He slid his feet into a pair of flip-flops because the idea of having bare feet in the elevator grossed him out.
As he waited for Bailey, he loaded the dishwasher with their dinner plates. He’d just finished wiping down the counter when she appeared. His gaze swept over her oversized T-shirt and down her bare legs. She looked back at him and his abs flexed like they had a mind of their own when it seemed like her gaze lingered on his naked torso.
“Let me just grab shoes,” she said before she quickly disappeared.
A moment later, she returned. “I’m ready.”
He walked to the front door, pulled it open and stepped back to allow Bailey to go first. At the elevator, he tapped his fob against the control panel and pushed the button for the roof. “I’m the only one who has access,” he told her.
When the doors opened, Bailey gasped as she stepped outside. She scanned the rooftop and a wave of pride slid over him. He’d spent a boatload of money on his rooftop patio to turn it into something relaxing. He hadn’t realized how different his vision was from his designers until she’d started working on it. After a few adjustments, it now felt perfect.
“You have a basketball hoop?”
“Just a little one. You can shoot empties from the hot tub right into the recycle bin.”
“It’s very you.”
He walked over to the hot tub and flipped off the lid, then set the towels down on one of the lounge chairs. “You getting in?” he asked.
“You turning around?” she countered.
“You were serious about that?”
“Yes.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Geez, okay, let me get in and I’ll close my eyes.” He put his foot on the bottom step and then flung his leg into the hot tub. As his second leg hit, he sighed. Damn, that felt good. He moved over to the far side of the tub and dropped into his favorite seat. Once positioned, he dropped his head back and closed his eyes. “Alright, I’m not looking.”
The water splashed as he felt Bailey step into the tub. He really wanted to open his eyes, but he forced them to remain shut.
“Okay, you can open them,” she said.
He blinked as his eyes adjusted. The top of Bailey’s full breasts bobbed in the water. Damn. Her tits had not looked like that the last time he’d seen her in a bathing suit. Maybe she’d been right to make him close his eyes. The last thing he needed to be doing was leering at his houseguest.
Bailey shifted her body and the water sloshed around her, drawing his attention back to her chest.
Stop it. He looked over at his basketball hoop to distract himself.
They sat in silence for several minutes before Bailey finally spoke. “Are you sure you don’t mind me waiting a bit to look for an apartment?”
“Yeah, of course. Like I said, I’m hardly here, so it’s no big deal.”
“I’ll be out of your hair before school starts.”
“Not a problem if you aren’t. If things go well, we’ll be in the playoffs, so you’ll mostly have the place to yourself until mid-October.”
“I can’t stay here that long.” She looked toward the railing that faced the ocean view. “I can’t get over this apartment. Thank you for letting me squat here. It might be hard to get rid of me now that I’ve gotten a taste of the good life.”
“A hot tub is the good life?”
She leaned her head back against the edge of the tub and sighed. “It’s certainly not the bad life. God, this feels amazing.”
He shifted himself deeper into his seat as he angled the jets against his lower back. “It’s one of the reasons I picked this place. I was looking at another condo that was a bit nicer but didn’t have the rooftop patio.”
“I can’t even imagine what a nicer apartment would look like. This place is gorgeous.”
He pulled his arm out of the tub and rested it along the edge. Glancing over at Bailey, he smiled. “You awake over there?”
“Mmm-hmm, just enjoying the quiet.”
“Does that mean shut up?” he teased.
Bailey popped one eye open. “No, not at all.”
“So you gonna tell me what happened between you and Brad?”
He cringed when her entire body tensed. Nice job, Gonz, way to ruin a perfectly good soak. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to.” Bailey shifted in her seat. “Okay, yes, that’s part of it, but…” she paused and looked up at the sky. “Today just really sucked, and I don’t have the mental capacity to think about Brad and all that shit.” She brought her head back down and glanced at him.
The sadness in her eyes made him want to pull her into a hug. He’d always been protective of Bailey. It killed him that the situation with Brad had obviously hurt her and there was nothing he could do about it. “I get it. No one wants to rehash shit about a breakup.”
“Thanks for understanding. I promise I’ll fill you in on everything that went down and how I ended up here. Just not tonight, okay?”
“Sure.”
They might not be talking about it, but the mood had shifted. He could practically feel the tension radiating off of her from across the hot tub. He was an idiot. He never should have brought it up. Needing to change the vibe, he searched for something neutral to talk about. “So you want to come to the game on Sunday?”
Bailey lifted her head. “What?”
“Sunday, you want to come watch? You can sit with the WAGS, have a couple beers, get to know some people.”
“I’m sorry, WAGS? What the hell is that?”
“Wives and girlfriends. Although since you’d be sitting with my buddies’ girls, it would technically just be the girlfriend section. Although my man Max will be there, so…”
Bailey shifted her body so she angled toward him and rested her head on her arm. “Who’s Max?”
“He’s Smitty’s kid.”
“Oh nice. So besides Max, who would I be sitting with?”
“As far as I know, Peyton, Kendall, and Kia are all attending Sunday. That’s why I thought you might want to go. Kind of get it out of the way and meet them all at once.”
“So I’d be sitting with three girlfriends?”
“Yeah, is that a problem?” He didn’t have a clue why it would be, but she looked a little unsure about the whole thing. “It’ll be fun. We can all go grab a beer or some food after,” he said.
“What are they like?”
“The girls?”
Bailey rolled her eyes. “Obviously.”
He chuckled. “They’re cool, you’ll like them. And Max is a riot.” He stuck out his foot and pushed against her leg. “Stop overthinking shit. Come to the game, have fun, have a beer. If you hate them well…” It would be awkward as shit if she hated his friends. “You’ll still have to hang out with them because they’re like my family here, but you won’t have to sit with them at games anymore.”
She chuckled. “Well, that’s comforting.”
“You’ll like them. They’re all really great.”
She sighed. “Whose girlfriends’ are they?”
“Kendall is Pete’s girlfriend and Ryan’s sister.”
Bailey’s eyes widened and her mouth formed a little O. “Wow.”
“Yeah, it was interesting when they got together. But I couldn’t imagine anyone better for him.”
“So Ryan’s sister and I’m assuming one of the other women is Ryan’s girlfriend?”
“Yeah, Peyton. She’s cool, really sweet, barely swears.”
“Seriously. And she hangs out with you guys?”
“I know, right?” He chuckled. “And Kia is Smitty’s girlfriend and Max’s mom. And she tries to keep it clean because of Max, but it just doesn’t happen most of the time.”
Bailey smiled. “Now, her, I might be able to relate to.” She pursed her lips out like she was trying to decide.
“It’s not that complicated, Bay, it’s a ballgame. You used to love watching them live. Come on, you know you want to.”
“I can come watch you and not sit with your friends.”
“Why would you want to? It’s way more fun to sit with people. Trust me, you’ll like them. This isn’t like when I made you sit with Ozzie’s girlfriend at home opener first year of college. She was a bitch.”
“Oh my god, she was awful.” Bailey shuddered. “I didn’t think girls like her actually existed in real life, until that game.”
“She was unhinged too. Did I ever tell you what she did to our dorm room when they broke up?”
“No, what’d she do?” Bailey leaned forward, her eyes wide as she waited for him to talk.
“She took stalking to like a whole new level.” That woman was the reason he didn’t bring a girl back to his place the entire first year of school. He’d been terrified to have anyone know where he lived. “Having her show up everywhere we went was concerning, but fuck…” He shuddered. “The first time Ozzie brought a girl back to our place it was whole other level whacked. Somehow, she got into our apartment and took a shit on his bed. Then there were fucking used tampons stuck to the walls.” Even now, just remembering it he felt nauseous. “Disgusting. That chick was disturbed.”
“Oh my god.” Bailey recoiled. “How’d you know it was her?”
“She wrote this fucked up message on the mirror. I don’t know some kind of inside joke or some shit.” He cringed. “To this day I still don’t know how she got the key to our place since Ozzie swore he didn’t give her one. It was messed up.”
“Geez, that’s…” Bailey shook her head. “I don’t even know what to say about that.”
“It was fucked up,” he said.
“Obviously,” she agreed. “I thought she was just a bitch, but wow, she had some mental health stuff going on.”
“I guess that’s one way of looking at it.” He shook his head to clear the memory. “But I promise my friends are nothing like her.”
“Well, geez, I would hope not. My god.” Bailey laughed. “You sure know how to sell it, Gonz,” she teased. “My friends are nice, they’re normal, trust me, they don’t take shits on people’s beds, you’ll like them,” she tittered in a goofy high-pitched voice then flopped back against the side of the tub holding her belly as she laughed.
He snorted. “Shut up. I wasn’t doing a sales pitch.”
“Oh, okay, Gonz,” she mocked.
“Shut up.” He flicked his hand in the water and sent a spray toward her.
“Gah,” she squealed when it hit her in the face. Glaring at him, she sat up, narrowed her eyes, and held her arm above the water like she was going to hit him back.
“You don’t want to start that shit, Bay,” he warned.
“Don’t I?” Her hand sliced into the water, sending a tidal wave toward him. The spray hit him square in the face.
“Oh, it’s on.” He sat up and pushed water toward her as she shoved it back at him. He turned his head to avoid the worst of it in the face.
Bailey squealed and began rapid-fire hitting her hands against the water. He pushed off the seat toward her. The spray pelted him in the face. He reached out and grabbed her arm, yanking her toward him. Off balance, her body collided against him, and he had to adjust his weight to keep them from toppling over.
Wrapping his arm around her waist, he held her captive against his side with one arm as he used his other to flip water at her. Bailey squirmed against him. And he wrapped his arm tighter so he didn’t lose his hold. Her ass dragged across his dick as she wiggled.
Suddenly, he became very aware of the fact that he had a half-naked woman squirming in his arms. The fabric of their bathing suits was not nearly a strong enough barrier to keep his dick from firing to life.
Their eyes met. Bailey gasped and held still, like she was holding her breath. Fuck. Instantly, he dropped his arms and jumped back, putting as much space between them as possible.
The awkward silence hung in the air. Should he say something? But what? Sorry, my dick’s a fucking perv and doesn’t have boundaries. Jesus. First, his mind took a dirty turn this afternoon when he saw her toy collection, and now he fucking molested her in the goddamn hot tub. Yeah, great friend he was turning out to be.
“I think I’m just gonna—” Bailey flicked her wrist and pointed toward the stairs.
Cool, so looked like she wanted to just pretend that didn’t happen. That sure as hell worked for him. “Yeah, sure, of course. I’m gonna soak a little longer.” He dropped back onto the chair and sunk deeply into the water.
“So, I’ll see you tomorrow?” Bailey asked.
Trying to feign a nonchalance he definitely wasn’t feeling, he tilted his head back and closed his eyes like he didn’t have a care in the world. “Yep, see you in the morning.”
The water sloshed as Bailey moved out of the tub. He forced himself to keep his eyes closed. After that shit show, the last thing he needed to do was get caught checking out her ass as she climbed out of the tub.
When he was sure he was alone on the rooftop, he banged his head against the tub, hoping it would knock some fucking sense into him. “This is Bailey, dude,” he mumbled, like somehow if he said it out loud it would make it feel like less of an issue.
He’d had a warm, curvy woman’s body in his arms, rubbing against his dick and he’d had a physical response, that was all. It didn’t need to mean anything. It wasn’t the first time he’d had a woody in front of Bailey. Shit, when puberty hit, he pretty much lived at half-mast. Bailey had bought him a package of socks as a joke, for Christ’s sake. He relaxed his shoulders. It was fine. She probably barely would have noticed if he hadn’t freaked out and made shit all awkward.
He groaned. Who was he kidding? His dick has pushed against her ass. Of course, she would have noticed. He bashed his head against the tub again. Fuck.
What was wrong with him? Lately he just hadn’t been feeling the whole one-night stand thing for some reason. Probably because his friends were all partnered up and he saw what that looked like.
And now Bailey was here, in his apartment. Even all rumpled from moving, she was sexy as shit and his brain just fucking short circuited for a minute. That’s all. What he needed to do was just pick up some random girl. Reset the wires and he’d be back to normal. Bailey was here to get back on her feet. She had shit to figure out and that didn’t include whatever the fuck was going on with him.