Page 44 of Relief Pitcher

Lord, give me the strength to get through this season.

CHAPTER21

TYLER

“If you stare any harder, you’ll burn a hole in the back of his head.”

“Huh?” I turned toward Seth, who made a poor attempt at covering his shit-eating grin by sipping his beer.

“I didn’t invite you here to give me shit.” I hadn’t invited them to the bar after the game at all. I appreciated that Seth and Dom came to the game while Austin and Ethan held down the fort. That was the hardest part about running a business with my best friends—it was complicated when we wanted to do something as a group.

I had figured they’d head home after, not join me at the bar like chaperones. Hell, I hadn’t expected to go to the bar after. Who was I kidding? When did I ever turn down the chance to check out a new bar? Especially a hot new queer one in Portland.

“I’m not staring at him.”

Dom snorted.

“Staring at who, oh brother mine?”

“Fuck off.”

The walls were painted a bright off-white with enough lighting to feel open without being too bright for a bar. The bar was at the far end, with a mix of tall tables and booths placed around the rest of the space.

“Why aren’t you hanging out with Cooper over there?” Seth asked.

“Yeah, go claim your man.”

I expected the shit from Seth but not Dom. We had a silent agreement that we wouldn’t give each other shit for our lack of interest in romantic bullshit.

“Et tu, Brute? He’s not my man.” I should call the Guinness Book of World Records with how synchronous Seth’s and Dom’s eye rolls were.

“Why don’t you two find your hookups and leave my ass alone?”

Dom said nothing as he quickly typed on his phone like he often did when we hit the bars in Portland. Usually, he dipped without word and never told us where he went, but we suspected he had a stable of booty calls. Seth gave me an unimpressed look. Right. My demisexual little brother didn’t do bar hookups.

I turned my attention back to Cooper, who sat at the bar waiting for a drink. We’d only been there about twenty minutes, but several people had approached him with smiles and handshakes. Of course he was well-liked in the league.

That big-dicked player who got the last run—not that I would hold a grudge, okay, fine, I would hold a grudge—sidled up to Coop and flashed his pearly whites. The guy placed his hand on Coop’s shoulder, and Coop didn’t shake it off, which was fine. Totally fine.

Cooper was supposed to be getting out there and meeting some new dicks, and I was supposed to be his wingperson. Instead, I creepily watched some guy flirt with him. I respected the man’s game, but couldn’t he take his showboating to another target? Coop deserved a down-to-earth guy like him. Someone who cared what he had to say while also giving him a top-shelf blowjob.

Wingperson mode: activate.I’d never been someone to shirk my duties. I rolled my shoulders and zeroed in on my destination. “Gonna go get us drinks,” I said to the guys without checking if they heard me.

As I marched through the crowd, I heard Seth call out something about still having a full beer. I ignored him and approached the bar, squeezing into the narrow space on Coop’s other side. Sure, there was a gap at the other end of the bar, but I needed to be close for proper wingpersoning.

“Your thighs must be so strong. Being able to hold a squat through the game.” The guy looked down at Cooper’s thick thighs. Yeah, theywerestrong. I’d felt their strength wrapped around me as I’d sucked him off.

“Hey there.”

I turned to my other side to look at the owner of the deep voice. The kind that reverberated in your chest when they spoke. He was attractive with a wide smile, dark cornrows down his neck, and stood a few inches taller than me. A guy I would happily take to a dark corner on any other occasion, but I didn’t want to sneak off with a hookup my first time out with the team.

“Hey, man. Sorry, I’m not looking today.” I said it with a smile, so he knew it was simply the wrong place, wrong time.But is it? Just say yes.I could’ve suggested we take things to another bar and used him to put a dick between me and Cooper. I hadn’t fucked anyone since, and I was getting itchy. I’d been busy as hell at work, and now, with the softball league, I had even less free time. And I found myself more interested in texting with Cooper than working up the energy to suck a stranger’s cock. Or, more likely, making arrangements, getting ready, and then getting blown off. And not in the fun way.

He saluted me with his beer. “If you change your mind.”

I returned my attention to Coop’s conversation while waiting for the bartender to take my order.

“The first evidence of beer was found in England. Isn’t that cool? Probably a bunch of Vikings getting drunk.” The guy had been spouting random shit about alcohol for several minutes.

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