Page 81 of The Fullback
“Makes sense. I guess you’ve got a lot to do,” Bailey said. He was trying to pretend he wasn’t upset, but he wasn’t a very good liar.
“I do. The kitchen needs scrubbing, the equipment needs boiling to within an inch of its life, if it’s even still useable, and I need to work out when the hell I’ll be able to open again. I might have to take Bacon up on using the pub kitchen. He’d clear space for me, and I’d be out before they opened for lunch.”
My mind was already whirring with the thousand and one things I needed to do. It was going to be a long day, and a late night, but that was my fault for spending two days dicking around instead of scrubbing. Although I guessed spending allthat time on the phone counted for something. But I could have done both.
“Will you… do you think you’ll be able to come up again soon?” Bailey asked. As he spoke, Hunter appeared behind him, obviously confused by what was going on. It didn’t help that Bailey’s expression made it look like someone had died.
“Everything okay?” he asked, looking between us.
“Aiden had a call from his insurance. They’re finally coming to look at his kitchen this morning.”
“This morning?”
“Apparently, they’re in the area,” I said. “I was just saying I’ll go back to mine afterwards. I’ve got a lot to do—I need to figure out how to get up and running again, or when that’s going to be possible.”
“Oh, er, yeah, I guess you need to do that.” He nodded but his face had fallen too. They looked like a pair of sad puppies who’d been told they had to go home from the park. It was both sweet and annoying.
I knew they were trying to act like it wasn’t a big deal, but it clearly was. I didn’t get why they were so upset, though. It had only been two days. And yeah, it sucked for things to end so suddenly after we’d had a nice time, but had they thought things would stay like this? With me here, living in their spare room and wearing their clothes?
“I do,” I said, trying to keep a biting note behind my teeth. It wasn’t their fault I was allergic to emotion.
“Do you think you’ll be able to come up again soon?” Hunter asked, repeating Bailey’s question. The one I still hadn’t answered.
“I’m not sure. It’ll depend on how things go. I think I’m going to be busy for a while.”
“Maybe we could come and see you?” Bailey asked quickly. “We have Mondays off usually. And we’ve got a weekend offcoming up at the end of October. Plus, if we play on a Saturday, then we have the Sunday off—like next weekend! We could come down for the day. Have some lunch. Chill. Fuck.”
That did sound nice. And there wasn’t much commitment attached either. Just sex and relaxation, only at my place instead of theirs.
I’d have access to all my toys if they came to mine too.
But that would mean giving them my address and inviting them into my space, and I rarely did that. Bacon and Greenie only knew where I lived because they’d helped me move in and because Bacon brought me breakfast sandwiches at midnight every time I did something stupid and got too attached to someone. Jonny and Devon might have it, but only if I’d remembered to message them with it, and I couldn’t say for certain that I had.
But I wouldn’t mind it, if Hunter and Bailey knew. There was a strange tightness in my chest at the idea of completely cutting them off and pretending they didn’t exist. And a sneaking suspicion they wouldn’t let me.
They might not know where I lived right now, but I didn’t trust them not to drive round Leicester until they found me. Even if I blocked their numbers, they could go to Jonny and Devon. And Jonny had access to my kryptonite: he knew where to find Bacon.
If there was a weak link in the chain, it was Bacon. Because that bastard had a softer heart than me, and he’d have no qualms about summoning me to the pub under false pretences or kicking down my front door and dragging me out by the ear.
I needed him to find a partner as soon as fucking possible to take his attention off me. Then I’d be able to get away with more shit.
“I’d like that,” I said, offering them both a small smile. I was surprised I’d actually said it because giving them the tiniestfraction of commitment was terrifying. But it was too late to take it back now. Once I got home, I could keep feigning unavailability until they lost interest in me.
“Awesome.” Bailey grinned victoriously, like he’d won something. I didn’t have the heart to tell him there was a good chance nothing more would ever happen. He stepped closer to me and leant down to give me a kiss, putting his hands on my waist. “By the way, don’t think you can avoid us and hope we’ll get bored and let you go. That’s not going to happen.”
I froze, looking up at him in shock. “I… what?”
He shrugged. “Just in case you were thinking about it.”
“In case we hadn’t made it clear, we like you, Aiden,” Hunter said, moving to stand next to Bailey, practically sandwiching me between them and the counter. “And we want you in our lives, whatever that looks like.”
“Yeah, this isn’t a challenge for you to avoid us and see how far you can push us,” Bailey said with a wry smirk and an amused eyebrow. “You might be stubborn, but so are we.”
I wanted to tell them to fuck off and hightail it out of there, but I couldn’t. They’d cornered me and cut off my exits, but it wasn’t malicious. This was their declaration. I was almost impressed.
And suspicious.
They’d known I was going to run and decided to do something about it.
