“How is that possible?” Nico sat on the ledge of the pool, dipping his legs into the water. His new tattoo was only two weeks old and he wasn’t supposed to go swimming for another couple weeks.
Cooper swam to meet Nico, placing a hand on each of his thighs. He looked upward, blue eyes wincing from the harsh light of the sun. “Because you want to scream how much you love the other person from the rooftops. You want to wrap your arms around them right there on the turf and kiss them in front of the whole fucking world.”
“I can’t relate.” Nico didn’t dare look away, though this admission forced a racing in his heart. “I have never had those feelings, like ever.”
It was a lie. If Nico had learned anything from Cooper over the few years he’d known him, it was to always keep a wall up. Cooper had a way of hurting Nico, but Nico could never understand why he was left feeling hurt. Not until the other man laid behind him in the tent in Florida. When Cooper held him tight that night, something awakened in him.
Nico had never been in love.
He loved Cooper, or loved the idea of Cooper. Surely, there was a fine line between the two but Nico couldn’t make sense of it. He poked around online message boards and forums. He even created an anonymous Reddit account to pose the question to strangers; How do you know if you’re in love with someone?
The advice of absolute fucking strangers pointed to love being the culprit, but Cooper would never know. Walls. Big, strong, insurmountable walls would keep Nico safe from heartbreak. Losing Elon almost killed him. He couldn’t lose again, and so he understood why Cooper couldn’t let go of Luke.
Nico reasoned heartbreak was so much more than a figurative word. It felt fucking literal at times, as if everytime Cooper closed the door on his face, arteries were ripped from his heart.
Cooper didn’t respond to Nico’s lie. Instead, he threw himself backwards, landing with a splash but managing to stay afloat. While he treaded water with one hand, he gestured with a hooked fingerat Nico.
And Nico listened, as he always did. He disposed of the Cobras jersey and jumped into the pool, defying his tattoo artist’s instructions. The two of them waded together in their underwear, eyes locked together.
Neither of them dared to speak.
Not yet.
Nico had every reason to be terrified of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, and he could tell something was on Cooper’s mind. It was a familiar look, one Nico had studied enough to know there was a plot twist on the horizon.
“These bets are played out,” Cooper broke through the silence, just on cue. “The stakes are too low. Are we going to fuck? Who’s going to fuck who? Where are we going to do the fucking?”
“Like you said, I like gambling.”
Cooper took Nico by the back of the head and pulled him close. “How about we raise the stakes?”
“What do you have in mind?”
Cooper nodded contemplatively. His eyes screamed desperation, needing to phrase whatever he was going to say in an appropriate manner. “I think I need another shot first.”
The fact that Cooper indulged in the first shot was a surprise to Nico. The fact he was going to have another stunned him, but he wasn’t going to object. He watched as Cooper climbed out of the pool, water pooling onto the concrete. Watched as the man took a shot straight from the bottle, poured another shot into a glass, and turned around.
Cooper sauntered back to the pool, dropped to a squatting position, and offered Nico the tequila.
Nico took the shot into his hand, into his mouth, but his eyes never left the majestic sight of the head of Cooper’s cock peeking beneath the bottom of his boxers. Hopefully this deal of Cooper’s involved getting fucking railed in the pool, but Cooper had insisted he was tired of ordinary wagers.
Cooper sat on the ledge of the pool, dropping his feet into the water around Nico. He looked down at him and exhaled as he took the empty shotglass from Nico’s hand and sat it beside him. “The only reason I came back to football was to honor the deal Luke and I made. I made him a promise once that we could both come out of the closet after we got our championship rings. Winning the Super Bowl is about so much more than the game. It’s about finding a way to put these ghosts to rest.”
“I’m here for the same damn thing,” Nico said with a quiet understanding. “To win the big game for Elon.”
“That’s the deal,” Cooper said flatly.
Nico’s eyes wandered to the side, confused.
“When we both honor who we lost,” Cooper continued, “We come out. Together.”
That was one hell of a wager, but it filled Nico with more questions than answers. There were a bunch of logistics he wasn’t keen on processing, but there was one glaring hitch with the proposed deal. “But we’re not together.”
Cooper dropped his palm to gently lift Nico’s chin. “I don’t know whowe’llbe then, but I know who we are now.”
“What is that?”
Cooper eased himself into the water, grabbed Nico, and swapped places with him so that the other man’s back was pressed against the edge of the pool.
