Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 102549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
I take in the Franklin U stadium for one of the last times and get a nostalgic pang in my gut. There isn’t just a transition for Peyton coming up but for me too.
Come May, I’m going to graduate with my degree in sports management, and then I’ll be saying goodbye to sunny California and taking an internship at King Sports, my uncle’s firm in New York, while I get my law degree at NYLS.
Moving to New York is kind of daunting, even though I have a billion uncles there and my grandmother on Pop’s side. I’m looking forward to New York and dreading it at the same time. I love it here in San Luco. The weather is amazing, no cold winters, but possibly the best thing about Southern California is Kit and Prescott.
Shocking the hell out of me, I not only heard from them after the first time we hooked up, but I’ve been back many, many times over the last several months. I’m under no delusion that I’m their only toy, especially while they’re overseas saving the world, but when they’re in Coronado, they make me feel like I’m the only one, and that’s all I care about. We have no rules, we’re not exclusive, and it’s all a bit of fun.
Hot, sweaty fun.
But our time is running out now.
I check my phone for the hundredth time in the last couple of days. Kit and Prescott came home from a training mission a few nights ago and made me come so hard I almost blacked out, but then they dropped the bomb that they’re only going to be in town for a week or two before deploying somewhere for months. Possibly longer. They couldn’t tell me all the details, and they don’t even know when they’re leaving.
They most likely won’t be back by the time I graduate.
It’s driving me crazy that I haven’t got a “come fuck us” text yet. Part of me worries they’re already gone.
“Aren’t future sports agents supposed to, I don’t know, watch the game?” Felix asks beside me.
“Eh. Peyton’s not even on the field.”
“Look again,” Levi says on my other side. To add to the ever-growing scandal that is the Talon-Millers, it turns out I’m not the only queer son in this family. Levi and my brother are into each other, but it’s complicated for the same reason my situation is for me. Peyton and I are in the public eye—we have been our whole lives. We didn’t choose this life, and it’s unfair to drag other people into that environment if they’re not one hundred percent ready for it.
When I look back at the field, I’m confused. “Wait. When did Fresno State score?”
Everything is all tied up, and Franklin has possession of the ball once again.
“While you had your head in your phone,” Felix says.
Oops. Maybe I really do need to focus. If Franklin U takes out the win today, there’s no way they won’t make it to the semi-finals.
Down on the field, my brother throws a deep pass into the end zone, where his wide receiver is under it, waiting. Everyone in our section gets to their feet.
As the ball flies through the air, time slows, and as Bellows catches the ball, my phone goes off with an alert. The split second I look away, I miss the touchdown. I can’t even be sorry about it though.
Kit: Our place?
“Fuck, yes,” I yell.
Felix pops his head over my shoulder. “The touchdown or whatever you’re looking at?”
I nudge him away from me but not before he sees the message.
“You have a three-way to get to, don’t you?” Felix asks. “Really? Choosing sex over your own brother? You should be ashamed. Ashamed. It has been months of this poor attitude, young man.”
“Whatever. If you had a sibling, you’d be exactly the same.”
“True,” Felix relents.
I turn to Levi. “Can you cover for me with Pey?”
“Hey, I told you I wouldn’t spill your secret hookups to him, but I draw the line at lying to him about where you are.”
I was hoping Levi was too drunk to remember walking in on me with Prescott and Kit after a party at our place the other night, but no such luck. We have a deal: he doesn’t tell anyone about me, and I don’t tell anyone about him and my brother. Friendship through friendly blackmailing is fun.
“You’re going to have to tell your brother eventually,” Felix adds.
“No, I won’t. The guys are about to be deployed, so this is our last chance, and then we’re over. If Pey asks, tell him I was here for the whole game, but once it was over, I left without explanation.” When I drag my ass home in the early hours of the morning, I’ll lie and say I met someone and had a random hookup. He won’t question that.