Page 28 of Good Guy Gabe

“That’s what their little gang — Blaise, Merrick, and Gabe — say to each other if they need a distraction. But Blaise always goes too far with it.”

The Pats runner is tackled at their 45. Game over.

“Gabe did that for you. Lin saw him mouth it to Merrick before Merrick called Selene a . . . whatever he called her. Gabe’s going to fight for you.”

“He’ll burn the world for you,” Mel says with way too much glee for how horrific that statement is.

So why does it feel so warm and happy in my belly?

Chapter 13

Gabe

IHAVE ONEof the equipment guys help me out of my jersey and shoulder pads before hopping in the shower, taking extra time to scrub my hair and beard and the bottoms of my feet and the undercarriage, making sure I’m smelling as good as possible for my night with Joss.

Not that I walk around stinky usually or anything, but I end up in the pool or the hot tub after a lot of games, so there’s no point in putting a ton of extra work in when I know I’m going to be washing up again later.

I don’t see the text until I’ve returned to my locker, which I’m glad for. I probably would have rushed if I’d seen Cora’s message asking me if I’d mind taking Joss home tonight; Cora’s had something come up, and she won’t be able to go out with us tonight.

I dress as fast as possible, shake my hair out, pack my bags, and run out with a quick “Gotta go!” to the guys. There wasn’t an announcement about a team meeting yet, so it’s on them if I didn’t know about it.

I find Joss waiting at the gate by the employee parking lot, as close as she can get to me without security stopping her. She’s all prettied up with her fancy skirt, an angel’s halo, and her jersey, my number proudly blazoned on her chest. She lights up when she sees me, but I can tell she’s stressing about something.Cora’s waiting with her, but she’s on her phone, her other ear plugged, having what appears to be a heated conversation.

And Joss is tangled up in her thoughts.

“What happened?” I yell as I approach, already plotting the death of whoever upset her.

“It’s not . . . it’s nothing,” Joss protests, only for Cora to yell from behind her, “That cheerleader bitch is a bitch.”

“Fuck.” I pull up Evan’s number on my phone, ready to rip him a new one. If I go directly to Keira, that’ll open up a whole other fight.

Joss yelps and nips the phone out of my hands. “It’s fine.”

It’s not fine. And the more I fight for her — I’ve had to fight all week because everyone knows there’s beef between Allore and me now — the more I absolutely do not care where this is coming from.

It doesn’t fucking matter what happened in the past.

I nearly march right back into the stadium, where I know Evan and Keira both are, and demand an apology, but Joss puts her foot down. “Everyone else was really nice to me, I swear. But can we do something together tonight, just you and me?”

Behind her, Cora shoots two thumbs up and then skitters off as though I might say no and she’s making sure I don’t have the option.

But I could never say no to Joss.

I want a nice, wholesome, relaxing date night that will take some of the pressure off the fact that Joss is sleeping at my place tonight. I thought deciding this in advance would cut down on the stress of guessing at what each other wants, and instead, theanticipation has become a rock in my gut, and I feel like a damn virgin even though we literally had sex already.

Unprotected sex.

That Joss doesn’t realize was unprotected. She might already be pregnant, and I should hate myself for lying about this, but I don’t. The more time I spend with her, the less I want her to make friends with my roommates, all single, all wealthy except Vedder — whose child support payments are astronomical — and all far more attractive than I am.

And the more appealing the idea of getting her pregnant sooner rather than later becomes. Which is despicable, but I’ve lost women to my teammates before, and I don’t want to lose Joss.

So by the time we’ve filled ourselves up on Korean barbecue and groped each other heavily at the movie theater, I’m fighting to focus on anything except filling Joss’s pussy with my cum. But that’s all wrecked when we get back to my place, where Rydell is vomiting in the bushes. Vedder’s launching empty beer cans at him from the balcony off his bedroom.

Joss stares wide-eyed. “Gosh, it’s like a frat house.”

I cringe at that, wondering if it’s too late to ask if we’d be better off at her place, but then Blaise opens the front door and screams at Joss specifically to come do a shot with him because Rydell is a ‘little bitch man.’

Blaise talks her into exactly two shots before I cut them both off, frustrated that now that’s she’s been drinking, I’m going to have to be the good guy and put the brakes on our plans for at least a few more hours.

---