“This is me letting you into the inner circle,” I said.“This is your reward.”
“For what?”he asked.
My eyes flicked down to his mouth again.His lips looked bitten.Like he chewed them as a nervous habit.I’d seen him bite down once or twice when he was concentrating.
I wanted to bite down on him.Fit my teeth into the marks left by his.Feel him squirm under me.
“For staying,” I told him.
“I didn’t…”
He wasn’t going to stand there and tell me he hadn’t decided to stay yet.I wouldn’t give him the chance.Not even if it meant losing the opportunity to capture those bitten lips.
I pushed away from the door and turned.“Come on,” I called over my shoulder.“Aubrey is a fantastic cook.You don’t want to miss dinner.”
We sat down in our places.I was relieved that Keaton followed me obediently.I had silently hoped that he would: he always responded well to a direct order.He was too polite and well-mannered to keep arguing with me in front of our hosts.
Aubrey had spirited another full place setting from somewhere.I knew it wouldn’t be a problem for me to turn up with a guest unannounced.She always made too much.Ace sometimes joined me – maybe five times since he had joined the company.He was inner circle.
Now Keaton.That made two.
“How’s your knee, old man?”Caleb asked.He clearly didn’t want to draw attention to what had just happened.He was talking like everything was normal.Only Aubrey and I knew him enough to hear the current of tension under his voice.He was the host and he was trying to restore balance to the table like a good host should.
“My knee is fine,” I told him.I shot him a dirty glance for good measure and he chuckled.“How’s your shoulder?”
He winced.He rolled the offending joint backward twice.“Stiff, honestly.My physio has me doing these exercises, but they don’t seem to work.Nothing really does.”
I nodded.“That’s the way.”My own knee had never really recovered.An injury that was bad enough to end a career was not much fun to live with afterward.I would always be just a little stiff.
I shot a glance at Keaton.He was staring at his plate.Bewildered.
“Do you have any allergies, honey?”Aubrey asked.She stood behind Keaton’s chair and laid one hand on the back of it.“Or anything you don’t eat?”
Keaton blinked up at her.“Um, no,” he said.He was deep in his own head.I don’t think he’d even noticed her coming to stand beside him.“No, I eat pretty much anything.”
“That’s good,” she smiled.“Though, I’d be happy to change up my cooking if you needed it.Now, you boys don’t just talk shop, you hear me?There are other things in the world than sports management.”
Caleb and I scoffed at the same time.“Like what?”I asked.
Aubrey shot me a meaningful glance and tipped her head down at Keaton.My heart stuttered for a second.Thank god he couldn’t see her from the angle his head was at.
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” she said.She turned back towards the kitchen to begin serving the food.
“You know, Keaton, this guy here was the one who brokered my first-ever sponsorship deal,” Caleb said conversationally.Keaton’s eyes swiveled to him.“That was back when we were both playing together.We came up on the same team.”
Keaton nodded automatically.“The Crowhill Cove Crows.”
“Has he been bragging around the office?”Caleb grinned.“I was on the verge of going pro and Olly here had his first knee injury.”
“Don’t say it like that,” I interrupted.“Tell the truth.”
Caleb rolled his eyes.“Fine, I gave him his first knee injury,” he said.“An accident in training.He was all riled up about something and forgot that you don’t try to go up against a brick wall with pure force alone.”
Keaton’s lips twitched upwards at the edges.“You’re the brick wall?”
Caleb nodded.“That I am.So, this guy, he’s sitting in bed for weeks resting, and he hates it.I’m visiting him now and then and bringing him gossip from the locker room, and I tell him about this company that wants me to wear their stuff for my social media posts.He immediately tells me that I’m not doing it for free – I didn’t even think it was the kind of thing you could get paid for – and negotiates a deal on my behalf.”
“And you spent the whole lot on a night out for the team,” I recalled with a shake of my head.“One of the most brutal nights we ever had to recover from.”
