“I…” Cooper searched the room for his clothes. He found his tee-shirt first and then his hoodie, and collected them in his arm. “I should go.”
Nico shook his head. “You should stay because I paid for this fucking suite to spend the night with you.”
“I’m sorry,” Cooper said deadpan, and Nico would be forgiven if he didn’t believe it was genuine. But it was. Cooper was sorry. He was always sorry, but was stuck in this tornado of grief he could never outrun. He pulled his tee over his head, and then did the same with his hoodie.
Nico let out a hurried sigh. “But not sorry enough to stay.”
“I’ll see you next year,” Cooper said, cold and to the point. He turned on his heel and grabbed the doorknob.
“If you walk out that door, I’m ending this for good.”
Cooper searched over his shoulder, but knew if he let go of the doorknob he wouldn’t leave, and so he didn’t.
“I get it. I know we’re not a thing,” Nico said. “And you have such a bad attitude that I don’t even know what it is I want from you. But it’s not this.”
Cooper pulled away from the door and took one step towards the other man. The writing was all over the walls and Nico was either too blind to see it, or didn’t want to see it. “We live on opposite sides of the country.”
“Who’s fault is that?” Nico questioned, venom in his words. “It irritates me that you think I’m so stupid that I don’t know the truth. Sending me off to Hollywood was signed in ink the day you signed on to be my coach.”
“Welcome to the big leagues, kid.”
“I’m not a fucking kid,” Nico seethed, teeth gritted.
“Sometimes, you act like one so forgive me for getting confused.”
“And sometimes you act like you hate the whole fucking world for what happened to Luke. I’m sorry you killed your boyfriend, but stop taking it out on everyone around you.” Nico dropped his head and sighed. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean that.”
It didn’t matter what he meant. It only mattered what he said.
Cooper held up a hand that curved into a fist, where his own nails dug into his palm. “I have to get the fuck away from you.”
And that’s what he did, storming out of the hotel room without another word. He pulled his hoodie over his head as he raced down the hallway. It wasn’t until he was in thesafety of the elevator that he realized he had forgotten his hat.
He caught his reflection in the mirrors that lined the sides of the elevator.
It wasn’t until then that he had noticed he’d been crying.
He chalked the tears up to rage, to Nico having the nerve to say what he did. To say he killed Luke. But maybe the tears were because he knew Nico was right.
Chapter Sixteen
september 2022 - denver
As much asthe league wanted to push a rivalry with Nico’s former coach, it was Tony Rodgers who was Nico’s actual arch-nemesis. The man was a six and a half foot giant, weighing in at two hundred and way too fucking much. Every time the defensive end sacked Nico, the wind was knocked out of him and he had visions of his long gone mama.
The Cobras huddled behind the line of scrimmage as Nico barked orders to his team. On third and nine, they needed enough time and protection to be able to get the ball out. That meant pulling the tight end back and using him as an extra blocker. Once the plan was set into motion, Nico lined up behind the center. It was like he was lining up behind the barrel of a Rodger-shaped gun. The man’s dark hazel eyes bore through the opening in his helmet, haunting Nico.
The ball snapped into Nico’s hand, and he immediatelytraversed backwards. His first read was double covered. His second wasn’t in position yet, and just as he was about to dump the ball off to Romeo Bourne, he landed with a thud on the turf, the weight of the two-hundredy and way too fucking heavy Rodgers pinning him to the ground.
Despite taking four sacks from Denver—three of them at the hands of fucking Rodgers—the Cobras beat Denver on their own turf. As was customary, the two teams lined up to shake the hands of the opponents.
The two teams weren’t division rivals, so the process went smoothly enough, until Nico reached out his hand to begrudgingly shake Rodgers’. The other man hawked a loogie and spit, a wet glob landing on Nico’s lip.
Nico threw the first and only punch, as both men were dragged away from the scene of spit-gate by their teammates.
october 2022 - denver
Cooper spent three weeks plotting, and as he marched across the turf it never dawned on him that this was an insanely bad idea. It wasn’t often that a player crossed the field to the opposing teams bench but it also wasn’t unheard of. Polite pleasantries and all that.
