Page 26 of Triple Play

Raising my arm causes the towel to slip—minutely, but just enough that I catch it as Blake turns around. “Hey, don’t let me keep you any longer,” he says into the phone. Another few uh-huhs and then he taps the phone screen, hanging up.

“You didn’t have to get off the phone,” I say.

Blake’s eyes trace their way over my towel. “No way I can keep talking to my brother with you looking like that.”

His brother. Huh. I assumed a former teammate, maybe, or an old friend. Not family.

It also takes a second for the compliment to register. I drift from the hallway into the bedroom, pulling the door shut behind me, then seat myself on the bed.

Blake’s still clutching his phone. His shoulders aren’t all the way relaxed.

“I can’t kiss you from over there,” I tease.

He puts his phone down, eases over, stands between my parted thighs.

At this point, this towel is being held up by habit—I could adjust it. Or I could let it slip. I loosen the pressure from my underarm and the fabric begins to descend.

“Are the towels not big enough?” As if Blake might leave that as part of a negative review.

I pick his hand up and place it on my shoulder. “You tell me.”

For a second, I think he’s gonna pull back. I am a literal professional at getting men to touch me—except the one man who seemingly won’t. Finally, Blake traces his fingers over my neck, down the line of my arm. A drag of his fingertips, each tipped in a callus. Slowly, like I’m precious to him. Fuck, he’s so sweet. Fuck, I’m so lying to him.

Still, tension lingers in his jaw and shoulders. “Everything okay?” I ask.

Something in the question makes him deflate. He withdraws his hand. I silently curse myself for prying…until he sits next to me on the bed and kisses my hair.

“I probably taste like leave-in conditioner,” I say.

Blake laughs and then his expression grows more serious. He draws a few breaths in the quiet of the room, then swallows audibly like he’s shoving something down. “Family, you know?”

I do know, but not the way he means. “You need me to fight someone on your behalf?”

That gets him to laugh. “Appreciate the offer. My parents don’t love that I signed in Boston. It’s too far.”

Oh, this isn’t rejection—it’s the opposite. He has people. Unlike my family, who live all of five miles away from my current apartment, a distance that’s not that far until you have to travel it. And whose fault is that?

I should tell him that, just to get it out of the way. Fear pricks across my skin. You ever make such a mess of things you don’t know how to clean it up? But I can’t ask him that, not without admitting that I’ve been on my own for years. He’ll want to know how I’ve supported myself, and I can avoid and omit but I don’t want to outright lie as if I’m ashamed. So I settle for, “My parents and I aren’t close.”

“I wish I was a little less close to mine, to be honest.”

“Overbearing?”

He huffs a laugh. “You ever get in a situation where you’re doing what you know is right but no one in your life seems to think about it that way?”

Fuck, do I ever. “Yeah, I might.” I tip my head on his shoulder and listen as he sucks in several long breaths. Some things are easier to say without words.

“Thank you.” Blake’s voice is steadier than it was. “It’s good you saved me from sticking my foot in my mouth about your parents—I was gonna ask when I could meet ’em.”

My forehead scrunches. “Why?”

Blake’s forehead also scrunches. “I guess things work differently up north. Too bad, though—I was looking forward to telling them what an amazing daughter they have.”

Amazing. People have called me a lot of words over the years—some fawning, some derogatory—but never amazing. A word I savor—how our life could be together: I could get my degree, maybe work at a job where no one spits on the floor. Once I’m done with my gen eds, I’ll have to decide on a major. Strippers on TikTok call themselves accountants. Maybe that’s what I’ll be.

Six years ago I would have rejected that for being too safe. Didn’t I want to dream bigger? Now I know security is something hard won. Blake’s surprised me, sure, but only in good ways, and that feels amazing for the first time in a very long time.

Then noises intrude through the bedroom wall. Felix must be rattling around in the next room. A reminder that my relationship with Blake hinges on two words: strip club. If Felix says those, it’s all over.

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