Page 69 of Freak Show

“I fell off a high wire when I was younger.” I pointed at my throat where you could see the impossibly thin line where I’d practically been guillotined. “Sliced my neck open from ear to ear. Almost died. Now I have vocal damage when I try to talk a lot.”

His eyes widened, and I continued.

“Now, if you’re wondering if it happens during sex…” I started, but he held up his hand. “No, I was definitely not going to that line of questioning with a woman that one of my good friends is seeing.”

I giggled.

It was Titus who said, “Well, now you have me really freakin’ curious.”

“You have me curious as well.”

We all turned to find a few men behind us, now dressed and ready to leave.

Ashton, Tweety and Darnell.

I wonder how much they’d heard?

“You’re not getting that information, fuckers,” Slone said as he tossed the ball over my head.

I turned to see it go into the bucket that held all the balls they’d used during practice.

Twisting back around, I smiled at him. “You should’ve been the quarterback, I see.”

“He couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn,” Ashton countered. “Now, me, on the other hand…”

I snorted and walked to Slone.

When I got there, I pressed into his personal space and let my hands come to a rest right above his pecs. I could feel his steadily beating heart pound underneath my hand.

“What are your plans for today?” I asked. “Because I want to go look at about a million things.”

He stared down into my eyes, then moved so that his hand was resting right above my ass, pulling me into his big body.

He really was huge.

Easily twice my size, and probably twice as heavy and as wide.

His hand felt like an electric blanket all the way across my lower back.

“How about you pick one or two things today, then tomorrow, while I warm up and get ready for the game, you find something slightly closer so that you can get to and call me if you need anything?” he suggested. “Game day festivities are extra-long. I will be gone from around seven in the morning ’til at least three in the afternoon.”

“You can go with my wife,” Darnell suggested. “She wanted to go to the Heinz Museum tomorrow.”

“Oh, yes! That’s on my list!” I said, showing him my phone.

While they’d been practicing, I’d used my time wisely and wrote out a list of places I wanted to go while I was here.

The Heinz ketchup museum was on that list. Right at the top.

Because who wouldn’t want to know the history of the only brand of ketchup that was good?

“Then you can do that tomorrow. I’ll feel better if she has someone with her. She’s eight months pregnant, and shit I worry.” He rubbed the back of his head.

I smiled.

“I worry myself,” Slone murmured quietly.

I patted his chest and then said to him, “There’s the Phipps Conservatory, bicycle heaven, and Mount Washington.”

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