Page 44 of The Call-Up
A part of me was hoping that us fucking would have scratched that itch for me. I mean, I always knew it wouldn’t, but I did try to lie to myself. Unfortunately, I can already tell that from here on out, it’s only going to get worse.
He grabs his keys. “You ready?”
“Yeah.” I nod my head, but the truth is no. I’m not ready. Because as soon as he drops me off at Danton’s, the night is over. And I don’t know what comes next.
“Come on,” he says and opens the door for me.
I head out and he catches up with me. I’m surprised when I feel him grab a hold of my hand as we walk to the elevator. He continues to hold it as he presses the button to go down. He doesn’t let it go when the elevator car arrives. He holds it firm ashe walks us to his car. He finally lets it go when we reach the trunk, and we head to either side of the car.
“I wish you could stay,” he says when he gets in and starts the engine.
“Me too,” I say. I look over my shoulder at him and give him a mischievous grin. “But we don’t want Mom and Dad wondering where I am.”
He laughs at that. “I dare you to start calling Danton that.”
“No thanks.” I laugh with him. “That felt wrong even as a joke.”
But what doesn’t feel wrong is this lightness about us, even while I’m feeling heavy about having to leave.
After putting the car in drive, he grabs my hand again. Between us, I feel a thousand words going unspoken. Should we talk about what just happened? Can we do it again? Or, okay that’s done, now do we just go back to how we’ve been?
Personally, I’d like to do it again. But I’m not about to ask Ryan. Not now. I finally got what I wanted. I can ruin it another day. For now I’ll simply try to enjoy this moment.
When we enter Danton’s neighborhood, Ryan shuts his car’s lights off. Then, as slowly and as quietly as he can, he pulls into Danton’s driveway, and puts the car into park. He turns to face me. The serious look on his face stops me from reaching for the door handle. “Would you laugh at me if I told you I was thinking about sneaking in with you?”
Something similar to relief washes over me. Maybe we are aligned on how we want to play this. “Yes, actually,” I laugh. “But it’s more because now I’m imagining the look of surprise on their faces when they catch us in bed together.”
He shakes his head, and his lips pull into a tired and easy smile. “Wouldn’t happen.”
“Would absolutely happen.” I continue to laugh, feeling very giddy. “You’ve lived here before. You know how it is. If Danton doesn’t walk in on us it’ll be one of the kids, or damn, even Moxy would rat us out.”
As if on cue, I hear Moxy’s deep bark in the background.
“See?” I tip my head towards Danton’s house. “She’s probably watching us by the front door.”
He reaches for me and uses his hand to tug me towards him. He meets me over the center console with his lips. “Good night, Brandon,” he says when we break apart.
I reach for the door handle to let myself out. “I’ll see you tomorrow at practice.”
PLAYOFFS
NINETEEN
Ryan
“Aren’t we supposed to be napping?” Brandon says to me as I walk him backwards into the hotel room mattress. He falls onto it once his knees hit the edge.
“You have never once cared about a nap,” I say. “Don’t you dare start now.”
He looks up at me. “It’s always been important to you.”
“And it still is.” I stare at him with wide, annoyed eyes. My nostrils flare as impatience rises through me. “I intend on passing out literally the second after I get off. So let’s get this going.”
“Damn. Where’d the romance go?”
“Bullshit. This is plenty romantic.” I lean down and kiss his neck, a place that I am learning drives him wild. His body squirms beneath mine as I feast. It feels fantastic.
“Yes,” he groans. “Quickies between games and practices screams romance.”
