Chapter 29 - Torrin
I head to the living room after getting all my stuff unpacked.
It’s great to be home again, even if it is only for a few days.
So far, my second season in the Minors is going great and I have high hopes of getting called up to play at least a few games in the Majors this year.
The hardest part is being away from the guys and Luna.
We do a lot of FaceTime calls and texting but it’s not the same as being here day in and day out.
I’ve got a four-day block free, so I left right after practice and drove through the night.
The twelve-hour drive between here and Winnipeg is mind-numbingly boring as there’s not much to see but flat prairie the entire way.
It was worth it though, to get a few days with the guys and Luna in before the season starts in full swing.
The second anniversary of Atlas and her parents passing is coming up in a few weeks and it hurts that I won’t be here with them all for it.
Julian is lying on one section of the huge sectional couch, flipping through his phone, and greets me with a head tilt.
I swipe at his legs until he moves them and sit down.
Luna and Reid are on the other section sitting cross-legged and facing each other.
They both have headphones on and are holding their phones in front of them.
Luna suddenly lets out a squawk of outrage - making Reid burst out laughing.
“Oh, oh, oh! Take… that!” Luna yells as she stabs at her phone.
Reid’s laughter dies as he makes an offended expression at her and immediately starts tapping at his phone.
I send Julian a confused look. “What are they doing?”
He looks up from his phone, glances over at them, and smirks.
“They’re fighting.”
My head bounces between them and Jules before I throw up my hands. “Explain how that’s fighting, please, because I don’t get it.”
He finally tosses his phone to the side and gives me his full attention.
“Whenever they get into an argument, instead of saying mean things, they do a song battle. They take turns finding songs that have the lyrics they want to say and then text them back and forth to each other.” He lets out a small laugh.
“I’ve seen them go for like, two hours before.
Sometimes, they even throw memes at each other.
” He shrugs one shoulder. “It’s almost impossible for them to stay mad at each other once they get going. ”
I blink a few times and shake my head. That’s…
kind of awesome. Especially for the two of them who love music so much.
I watch them for a few minutes more and then lean forward and grab a book that’s on the coffee table.
It has an illustrated cover with the side of a woman’s face next to a skull.
I’m guessing it’s Luna’s, so I flip it over to see what it’s about and read the back.
It’s clearly a romance, but there’s four guys listed as her…
mates? As in? I open the book to her bookmark and start reading.
Three lines in and my mouth drops open at the explicit, detailed sex scene with the female character and all four men, doing…
having... My mouth goes dry at the idea of that, of Luna being interested in THAT.
Gage comes in and drops down in the seat behind Luna, knocking me out of my stunned trance.
“Hey, glad you made it ok.” He tells me as he leans forward and looks over her shoulder at her phone screen. When he sees that there’s music playing, he tells me in a lowered voice. “She’s pretty excited about tomorrow. I think she’s nervous too.”
Before I can respond, Reid gushes with shiny eyes, “Ahhh, I love you too!” and dives forward to pull her into a hug.
They both pull their headphones off and toss them on the coffee table.
When Luna stands up and turns, spotting me, her face breaks out in a blinding smile that has my heart beating faster.
“Ballboy! You made it!”
She cocks her head to the side at the look on my face and her eyes drop to my hands where I’m clutching at her book, and then they go comically wide.
She lunges toward me and I automatically catch her in my lap, making sure to keep my other hand with her book as far away from us as my arm will reach.
“No, no, that’s mine! Give that back!”
Jules does me a solid and plucks it from my hand so I can wrangle her squirming body in place. I trap her reaching arms with one arm and grab her chin with my free hand, forcing her to meet my eyes as I smile.
“Hello, love. I missed you.”
Her cheeks are pink with a blush as she leans in and presses her forehead against mine.
“Missed you too, Tor.”
We stare into each other’s eyes for a moment as we reconnect after a few weeks apart but her head whips to the side when Julian laughs.
“Oooh, this was a good one. I took notes.”
Luna shoves off my lap and leans over, snatching her book from his hands as her face flames red.
“W-what?” She stutters out.
He smirks at her. “Elenor recommended it to me. I’ve been on a reverse harem binge ever since.”
Luna screeches, “Gi-gi!” and knocks the book against her forehead.
She takes a deep breath, blows it out, and straightens her shoulders as her gaze drops to mine.
“Tor, I’m glad you’re back. I need to go boil the eggs and make the potato salad for tomorrow.
” And then she turns on one foot and practically runs from the room.
“What’s a reverse harem?” Gage asks.
I turn my head to meet Julian’s eyes and he shrugs a shoulder and lifts one eyebrow that looks a lot like a challenge. I almost choke as ideas fill my mind so I look away to Gage, clear my throat, and quickly change the subject.
“She doesn’t seem nervous. How many people are coming for the BBQ?”
He rubs at the scruff on his jaw. “Looks like twenty or so. She put the invite out on Facebook. Us, Elenor, Grandpa, plus some of the people she works with at the restaurant and some old school friends.” He sighs.
“She is excited but she’s made and trashed so many homemade burgers that we might all end up only getting hot dogs.
She keeps trying to replicate her mom’s recipe and so far, hasn’t got it right. ”
Julian reaches for his phone again as he tells us, “I already bought a stack of steaks and chicken breasts to BBQ if we need them. They’re in the laundry room fridge.” He focuses on Reid and asks, “What was her last lyric to win?”
A wide smile spreads across Reid’s face. “When You Say Nothing At All by Alison Krauss.”
Jules nods slowly with a soft smile on his lips. Gage and I both look at each other and pull up our phones, needing to know what she said to him to get that reaction.