Page 55 of Totally Fanatic

Fuck. I know he has faith in me, in my ability, but hitting a home run isn’t just something you can choose to do and then do it.

He brushes a strand of hair behind my ear, the back of his fingers lightly sweeping across my cheek and sending warmth flooding under his touch.

“I’ll still reward you for the amazing game either way, the home run just gets you the bonus word.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“You always do.”

Chapter twenty

LION

Tim pulls me throughthe door to the locker room, and immediately, Duckie rushes to greet us with a worried frown on his face.

“I swear Ian didn’t say anything,” he says, and I laugh.

“I know, man. Ian is cool.”

“You know?” he asks, frowning.

“Yeah, I mean, you are Tim’s friends. You aren’t going to spread rumors about him to the press. You support him. Like I do.”

He nods, and a smile spreads across his face. “We do. Umm, thanks for understanding,” he says, and he steps back to pull on his jersey.

“This is my locker,” Tim says, moving around the bench seats to where a row of ten lockers or more sit like a dividing wall to the rest of the space. There are players all through the room. Pat and John are sitting on the bench seat on the left, looking at something on Pat’s phone that is making them both laugh. Calvin is the only one of them fully dressed and is trying to hurrythe others behind the locker divider along. They would normally be getting out on the field by now, interacting with the crowd, playing games, having fun. I hope I’m not holding them up.

Tim pulls off his shirt, and I spot the faint strawberry mark I left on his chest above his right nipple the other night.

“You can’t look at me like that,” he says, pulling on his jersey.

“Like what?”

“Like you just were,” he replies, pulling me closer and leaning up to whisper in my ear. “Like you’re undressing me with your eyes.”

“I’d rather be undressing you with my mouth,” I say. He shakes his head licking his lips, and fuck, I really want to kiss him. But we’re in a locker room full of guys, his friends, his teammates. I can’t just kiss him right here. Right?

I spot a rubber duck that looks like a lion sitting on the shelf behind him.

“That’s cute, it looks kind of like Daffin,” I say, nodding toward the duckie. He turns and passes it to me.

“It’s actually meant to be you.”

“Ha, I’m no lion, I mean. I am. My name is Lion, but I’m more of a koala, strong but pretty harmless.”

“Koalas can be…” Tim starts, but then Ryan interrupts him, wrapping an arm over his shoulder.

“So, was it all G?” he asks.

“Was it all what?” I ask.

“All good,” he replies, and Tim nods.

“They are going to have me talk to the press after the game.”

“Well, let us know if you want us to make any statements, too. We have your back.”

“Thanks, but they were pretty adamant they want only me to talk today,” Tim replies, and I pop the lion duckie back on his locker shelf.

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