Page 42 of Tight End

“Well, I’m not talking about anything else.”

He cocks his head, assessing me, and I turn, soaping myself up. “Really? We’re not going to talk about the kid you just found out about last week? The same three-year-old and his mom who are currently living in your apartment. Don’t think I didn’t notice your new Insta profile. Seems like an interesting development.”

“I haven’t actually posted anything yet. And you have one.” Which isn’t a lie, although I don’t think he actually runs his own account. “Nick wants me to be more open about my life. He thinks it will help build me a fandom.”

“Well, the airplane selfie you put as your profile picture sure won me over.” He puts his fingers together in the shape of a heart, and now it’s my turn not to be amused.

“Fuck off.”

“Someone is evading the subject.”

“Someone is annoying and doesn’t realize I want to be left alone.”

“Yeah, okay. Let me pretend to believe that for a minute.” Fucker puts a finger on his chin and literally taps it. Who does that? Maybe I need to rethink this friendship. “Nope. Can’t do it. I’m going to call bullshit. You did nothing but talk about this girl for months after you dipped it in her and now you don’t want to talk about it? I thought this chick had bubblegum nipples and a vagina that spit out money.”

“Bubblegum? What are you, five?” I try to keep a straight face, but my damn lip twitches. I definitely need to berethinking this friendship. “And it wasn’t months. It was a few days at most.”

It was months, but I don’t really feel like that detail is relevant.

“Months, Ryan. I thought you were going to hunt her down, kidnap her, and break her legs so she couldn’t run away.”

“I think the commissioner and my sponsors would have a problem with me kidnapping women. Probably Coach Wolfe too.”

Gunner shrugs, squirting an extra-large dollop of shampoo in his palm and lathering it in his hair. He takes his time rinsing it out, and I follow suit, thinking we’re going to get some well-deserved quiet time.

“Don’t think I’m dropping this. I will follow you home.”

Dammit.

“Hey, Bronson,” Vaughn Westgate calls out from the back of the shower. “Is that your dick or did you drop a Tic Tac in your curlies?”

Theo doesn’t miss a beat, shouting back, “Why do you think your mom’s breath always smells so minty fresh?”

I chuckle, glad for the distraction, but Gunner is still standing there. Waiting. “It’s a surprisingly normal feeling, having them there. I don’t know how to explain it. Oli is great. I can’t wait to do more stuff together. He’s smart as hell too. Must get that from his mother.”

“And what about June?”

“What do you want me to say? What I may or may not want doesn’t matter. My contract is up at the end of the season, and you know what that’s like. We haven’t made the playoffs in years, and the owners are getting antsy. Thatmeans trades. I don’t want to go anywhere, man. I can’t lose focus.”

He nods, turning off the shower, and pats my shoulder. “I get it. Sucks, though.”

And he’s off, leaving me with so many thoughts spiraling around in my brain.Sucksdoesn’t even begin to describe the half of it. If only things were different. If onlyIwas different.

But I’m not.

I’m a broken man, and any chances I had at a happy ending died with my wife. These feelings for June are temporary, a fleeting emotion because she’s in my house and birthed my child. I’ve had to swallow down all my anger, my heartbreak, the bone-crushing grief that weighs me down. I can fight this. I have to.

What I told Gunner was the truth. I can’t lose focus, which means I can’t lose control.

SEVENTEEN

Ryan

As soon asI walk in the door to my penthouse, my control is put to the test.

June is in my living room, her phone propped up on a tripod, and is bent completely backward, her tits and hips pointed up to the heavens. Or my mouth. Depends on your perspective.

God help me, those teal yoga pants are skintight, and the way she’s positioned, my eyes go right to the center of her opened legs. I barely notice the teal-and-pink-swirled sports bra covering her breasts because, hello, her bare stomach is right there.

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