“Mason, if ya want to learn rugby, Carson and I could teach ya. You’d make a good tighthead with your size, but your natural position as a center is more like the hooker.”
Mason blushed. “What the hell does that mean?”
We laughed. “Okay. At the beginning of the game, both teams line up in three rows, facing each other. It’s called Scrum. The guy in the middle of the front line, like you, the center, is the hooker. His job is to hook the ball with his foot and kick or pull it out to the fly-half or scrum-half. Those two function like the quarterback. Just like you get the ball to Lennox when we play, it’s just a different delivery with your feet instead of your hands.”
The guys seemed amused. “We could teach all of ya and play a game on the beach.”
“Another position for Len to be a ball hog,” Evan teased.
Lennox shot him the bird, then piped in. “So if I’m hearing you right, what you’re saying is it takes two people to do everything I do on the field.” His smug look was too much.
“Yes, and no,” Colin replied. “In rugby, you don’t have six big blokes protecting you from the opponent. Ya gotta fend for yourself and rely on your teammates to get the ball down the field.”
“We might have to wait till the offseason,” Mason added, “but I wouldn’t mind watching some games. Maybe you could teach us like that.”
Colin got that look in his eyes that worried me. “We can do it! Carson’s even got a big stick for pointing it out. It makes things happen when he…”
I slapped my hand over his mouth, knowing what he was talking about. If I wasn’t careful, he was going to make me hard right here.
The boys laughed. “There’s a story there,” Lennox crowed.
“And you’re not getting it,” I barked, removing my hand from his mouth. Colin laced his fingers with mine, like we’d been doing it forever.
“I’d have to be right pissed to tell it.”
Lennox popped up out of his chair. “I’ll get the beer!”
“Well, what about me?” Drew asked. “What would I be?”
“Either a center or a wing,” I answered. “As quick as you are, you’ll fly down the field.”
“More like a chicken wing if he doesn’t put more weight on,” Lennox called over his shoulder before entering the house.
Drew shot him the bird but smiled. He was Lennox’s other favorite target on the field after Evan.
Colin turned to Mason. “We’ll make a plan. You blokes come over and watch a match, then we can play on the sand. No actual tackling, just some basics.”
Mason nodded. “I’m in.”
He glanced over at the governor’s bodyguard, then looked away.
Colin leaned over and patted my thigh. “Seven on seven. We gotta find some work to do.”
Chapter 22
Colin
The first eight weeks of the season flew by much quicker than I expected. Each week was consumed with practice and studying film for the next competitor. At the end of the day, we stretched out on the sofa and watched footage of our opponent until we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.
When the media picked up on our relationship after the incident with Leland, we gave them nothing to report by keeping our time on the field all business. Carson scolded me occasionally when I made a costly mistake, but I would have reacted the same way if I were in his position. He never failed to apologize with his mouth on my dick when we got home behind closed doors.
We were number one in the conference, going into the third week of October. We were playing well, but Evan wasn’t his normal self. Come game time, he was subdued and made mistakes that were very unlike him. At six-foot-eight, he was an easy target for Lennox, and when they didn’t connect on the field, we knew something was off.
“Do you think he’s okay?” I asked Carson on the way home after practice.
He put his hand on my thigh, his touch grounding me. “Ev misses Hudson. With Jack playing and his responsibilities as governor, it hasn’t been as easy as they thought it would be. Evan said it’s been over three weeks since they’ve seen each other.”
“That’s gotta be rough. I can’t imagine not seeing you every day. Don’t know how they manage it.”
