Page 23 of Kicking it for Convenience

I laughed and lay in his arm, curling against his chest. “Thanks, husband,” I murmured sleepily.

He kissed the top of my head. “Anything for my husband.” We were quiet after that, holding one another close and falling asleep easily.

Chapter Thirteen

Levi

The weeks flew by as Soren and I worked on the theater and spent our evenings getting to know each other—mind and body. We didn’t share a bed every night. In fact, in the early days after that first night, we rarely shared a bed, but as summer turned to fall, it happened more and more often. Instead of saying goodnight and letting me sleep alone on the couch, Soren grabbed my hand, frowned uncertainly, and said, “Don’t go,” when it was bedtime.

We also didn’t fool around every night. Sure, we exchanged heated blow jobs or hand jobs, but even that didn’t happen immediately. Instead, our relationship grew gradually, partially due to Soren’s inexperience and lack of confidence when it came to things between us. I was in no hurry and had no interest in rushing him, so I let him take the lead nearly every time.

I was surprised to find that I was enjoying the changes in my life. I’d always been a loner, with the exception of spending my weekends with the team, and I was finding it nice to have someone around, someone consistent in my life aside from the guys.

As the summer kickball season drew to a close and morphed into fall ball, the guys found more and more reasons to give me shit about my relationship with Soren. I still hadn’t confessed to them the truth about our relationship, for some reason. I had a feeling some of them suspected, though.

We were huddled around our usual tables at Jock Strap one night after a game, just the guys, no husbands, like we’d done for so long before partners had started appearing on the scene. I was deep in conversation with Jared about nothing important when Parker threw a fry at me and I whipped around to make eye contact.

“What the hell, man?”

“How’s that husband of yours?” He had a shit-eating grin on his face as he spoke. Typical Parker.

I shrugged. “He’s fine. Why do you ask?”

“You never bring him around us. You embarrassed or something?” He aimed another fry at me but didn’t let go.

“Maybe of you, you heathen.”

Cam snatched the fry out of his grasp and dropped it to the table. “Quit being weird. What would Travis tell you to do if he were here?”

Parker shrugged. “Travis thinks their whole marriage is strange, too. Just ask him.” He fumbled his phone out of his pocket. “Want me to call him?”

Theo plucked Parker’s phone from him. “That won’t be necessary.”

“Fine,” Parker said. “But listen, don’t you guys think it’s odd that he up and married a guy we’d never met or even heard of before the wedding day?”

“I did the same thing,” Cam pointed out.

“Not exactly,” Theo said. “We all met Oliver before you married him. Besides, we weren’t invited to witness your marriage. Nobody was, really, unless you count that Elvis impersonator.”

Cam scowled. “There wasn’t an Elvis impersonator there.”

“How do you know?” Theo asked.

I turned to Theo and glared. “You too?”

He shrugged. “Parker started it.”

Jared cleared his throat. “I think you’re being weird, Park. What’s going on?”

Parker shrugged again and held up his hands defensively. “I don’t know, I’m just saying…”

“What are you saying, exactly?” Bennett asked. “Their relationship is, what? Secretly fake?” Skepticism was heavy in his tone.

Parker pointed at Bennett triumphantly. “Exactly.”

There was a golf ball-sized lump in my throat, and my stomach did a nervous flip. I swallowed hard and looked around before distracting myself with a swig of my beer. “Guys,” I said, putting the bottle on the table. “I have a confession.”

“Ah-ha!” Parker cried way too loudly.

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