Fallon’s white tee shirt clung to his chest as he spun in a quick circle. “I’ve been calling you all night.”
“And so you thought that I must have lost my phone or something, so you somehow found my address, showed up to my house, and thought whatever is on your mind is so important that you can just waltz right in through my front door.”
Nico shook the water from his hair like a wet puppy. And just like a puppy, he had the gall to do it inside. And those eyes, damn those fucking eyes… They tore right on through Cooper. “They’re fucking trading me.”
This is exactly why Cooper was ignoring his phone. He couldn’t bear to look the rookie in the eye, not when he was like this. “That’s the life of a pro. We’re commodities, and we are always expendable.”
Cooper rushed past where Nico stood and made a sharp turn into the kitchen to collect his glass of wine, needing it now more than ever. He took the glass into his hand but hesitated in drinking it.
He shouldn’t indulge.
Not when he was like this.
Not when he was so close to breaking.
He let out an exasperated sigh when he noticed Nico had followed him into the kitchen, but what the fuck did he expect. “I see you want a house tour or something. I’d offer you a glass of wine but I know you don’t drink and drive, and since you’ll be leaving in a minute, maybe a glass of water instead?”
“Did you know?”
“What?” Cooper asked lowly, but he heard exactly what the rookie had said. He just needed time to figure out how open and honest he was willing to be.
Nico stood firm in a puddle of water that dripped from his soaked tee and sweatpants. “Did you know they were sending me to Hollywood?”
This lie didn’t feel like any other. Cooper dug into the side of his head, scratching at the shortest of hairs. “I found out at the same time as you.”
“Bullshit,” Nico spat.
And he was right.
Cooper rested his arms on the island and lowered his head into his hands. “You want to be honest?”
Nico scowled. “I think honesty is generally a great policy, yes.”
“Fine.” Cooper clapped his hands together. “Time for honesty. You need to be serious about this. If you stayed with the Cobras, you’d just be sitting on the bench waiting for me to go down. The second you went down and I came out of retirement, it was a done deal that you were going somewhere else. The writing was all over the goddamn walls and it’s not my fault you were too blind to see it.”
“Fuck you, Callahan,” Nico said softly. The words were venomous but his tone was anything but. He slid his wet ass onto a stool on the opposite side of the island and reached for the glass of wine. “You’re a real piece of shit sometimes, you know that?”
Cooper nodded. “Sometimes.”
Nico swirled the wine glass in his hand, watching the walls of red wine crash against the sides. He gave it a politesniff before taking the smallest of sips. He grimaced as he set the glass back down. “Tastes like shit.”
“It’s a little more refined.” Cooper grabbed the glass and took a long sip. “You’ll appreciate it when you’re older.”
Nico looked away, his gaze tearing to the oversized window over the kitchen sink where the storm continued to rage outside. “I don’t want to go.” He looked back to Cooper. “I don’thaveto go.”
Cooper didn’t want him to go, either. Not really. But there was only one spot on the roster for a star quarterback. Anything more would be a waste. It was Cooper or it was Nico, and in a dog-eat-dog world where Cooper was accustomed to always winning, he couldn’t even find the joy in beating the rookie.
And there were rules for these sorts of things. “The Hollywood Knights will fine you every day you don’t show up. You hold out long enough and you won’t have anything left. There’s a difference between being stubborn and being stupid.”
“Stupid…” Nico scoffed with a shake of his head, but his eyes never left Cooper’s. “And what about this?”
“This?” Cooper asked with a raised brow, but deep down, he knew exactly what the rookie was saying.
Nico’s throat tightened. “What If I never see you again?”
Cooper nodded. “I’ll see you on the field.”
It was the coldest of goodbyes, but what the fuck was the alternative? Whatever the two of them had? It was over. Coach and player was one thing. Two quarterbacks on the same team? Maybe things could have been different, butthey were going to be on opposite ends of the country, on rival teams nonetheless. It was done.
