Page 74 of Stick By Me

“No one.” Setting the bar on the holder. He swayed under it and sat up. “I could have done a few more reps if you hadn’t fucked with me.”

“Yeah, right.” I rolled my eyes. “Boehm, we don’t need you injured before the game even starts.” We’d all need to be our best this weekend and then we’d be free for a week. Fuck, I was not looking forward to seeing Dad.

“Quiet, Carlson.” Jonah grabbed Mason’s towel and wiped his armpits.

“Fuck, man, that’s gross.” Mason fake gagged and walked off. “Get your own damn towel next time.”

“Hey, have you heard from your dad?” Jonah lifted his brows at me. “He should have called you back by now.”

My chest squeezed. “No, I haven’t.” I slipped my phone outof the pocket of my athletic shorts and opened the screen. Maybe he had called, and I hadn’t noticed. A text message popped up and I read it.

Leo

Hey, I’m having a slow day. Want to meet for lunch? Maybe a pizza place on Mill?

As a smile broke out over my face, I tapped a message back. I could make that work.

Archer

Hell yeah. Mellow Mushroom?

In my opinion, they had the best pizza on campus. I watched the little dots pop up.

Leo

Sure. I’ve heard of it, but never been there. Meet you at noon?

Archer

That works. See you soon. Love you.

Leo

Love you more.

Warmth bloomed in my chest. We’d been ending our texts like that all week.

Ace walked up behind me and peeked into my phone. “Love you more? Dude, you two are so cringy.” With a cackle, he strutted away, throwing a towel over his shoulder.

Shaking my head, I grinned at my phone like a lunatic. I didn’t care what they thought. All I knew, was I was in the throes of my first real love. Would it be my one and only? Only time would tell, but right now, I felt pretty fucking good about it.

Jonah stood up and grabbed my arm. “Hey, he should havecalled you by now.” He shook my arm. “Focus, man.” With a smirk, he ducked to catch my attention.

“Yeah, I know.” I tucked my phone into my pocket, then threaded my fingers through my damp hair. I didn’t want to dwell too much on it. “Maybe that’s a good thing. I play better when I don’t hear from him.” I gave him a pointed look. “Haven’t you noticed?”

“Yeah, but fuck.” He gave a sharp scoff. “Something’s off. I can feel it.” With a shake of his head, he strolled off. “Come over here and do some legs with me. You need it.”

“Oh, really.” I glanced into the mirror at my thick thighs. He was so full of shit. “We shouldn’t have sore legs at the game, Boehm.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t be too hard on you.” With a smirk, he ticked a brow at me.

I waltzedthrough the glass doors of the modern, rounded brick entrance of the two-story building housing the pizza place and looked around. Leo was already here, according to his text. As my gaze wound through the windows to the outdoor patio, Leo waved back at me, under the shade of a yellow umbrella.

As a smile spread over my lips, I strode out to the white, four-top patio table and fell into the chair next to him. “Hey.” I pressed a quick kiss on his lips, then took him in, his blue button down showing off his wide shoulders and thick biceps, his designer jeans hugging his lower half. My dick stood at attention. Too bad I had a class after this, and he had to go back to work. “You look great, Leo.”

“Yeah? So do you.” Beaming at me, he traced his tongue over his lips, then bit the lower one. “So, how long have you got?” He placed his hand on my thigh.

“Given I can run to class, about an hour and a half?” Ihooked a brow at him. I’d show up to class sweaty if it meant spending more time with Leo.

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