My head whips around. “Are you looking at me?” I ask incredulously.
There’s a deep giggle on the other end. “Two can play at this game, Henry. Briar got me a pair of binoculars for my birthday.”
“Binoculars?”
“I’ve taken an interest in birds.”
Somehow, I’m not shocked.
“How many fingers am I holding up?” I ask.
“Four. Next question.”
My lips thin, and I look around. “Now what am I holding up?”
“Cooper. Stay on track.”
Right. I head back into my room, grabbing the Henley. Pulling it on, I stand in front of my bathroom window, my arms flexed in a pose. My phone balances on the corner of the sink, Leo’s heavy breathing echoing off the naked walls.
“Ugh,” Leo gags. “You look too much like me. Go try that cable knit sweater you wore for last year’s Thanksgiving party.”
Leo throws a giant Thanksgiving party every year for the whole team. I love my job, and it comes with a lot of perks, but often we aren’t free to go home for the holidays. Leo triesto make sure that everyone and their families have somewhere to go and food to eat.
Huffing, I grab it off the hanger and pull it on. “I think it’s too hot, don’t you think?” I mumble, looking down at myself.
“Exactly. You look hot.”
“No, like heat-wise.”
I can hear the weird whoosh of Leo’s head shaking. “No. A cable knit sweater is like fucking catnip to women, Coop. I decide I definitely want to get laid? I wear a sweater. Briar has no idea I have her cracked like a cheat code, but it has worked every single time. They’re like women’s equivalent of sundresses.”
Shrugging, I head back to my closet. Who am I to question him? “And for pants?”
“Jeans. Those lighter ones that hug your thighs real nice.”
The first time my mother was around the football team, she was absolutely appalled by the way they talked. For a huge football fan, I wasn’t sure why.
“What did you expect?”I had asked her.“They run around in tights smacking each other in the butt.”
She had taken me to my first professional football game a year before the accident, getting us field passes to watch the team practice beforehand.
Let’s be honest. Thereissomething about football that’s a little homoerotic. I’ve accepted that a long,longtime ago.
And the most fun teammates to be around are the ones who don’t pretend like it’s not. Being secure about your masculinity is hot. Having rules and regulations around what you need to do in order to feel like one?Not.
I have to jump in order to get the jeans over my ass, but once they’re on, they’re perfect.
“Yeah, those. Roll them up at the bottom a little and then wear a pair of white shoes.”
Leo walks me through the next steps of fixing my hair and making sure my teeth are pearly white. Ensuring that I looklike a man a woman could fall in love with. Not a man who just rolled out of bed fifteen minutes ago.
“Elara’s up,” he whispers, “have to go make her a steamer. Let me know how it goes!”
He hangs up, and I’m instantly jealous. His step-daughter is the absolute light of his life, and when I’m feeling extra sappy, seeing him with her makes me want the same. She’s got that man wrapped around her little finger, making her steaming cups of milk and coffee creamer every single morning. A different flavor each time. Whatever she wants, she gets. But she’s also growing into one of the kindest, caring kids I know.
And as I’ve gotten to know Briar over time, I know that she’d never let her daughter become spoiled to the point of not understanding how good she has it. The two of them have been through enough, anyway.
Checking myself out one more time, I head into the family room to start.
