Page 25 of Offensive Edge
“Please be a grownup about this. I promised Jules…”
“Fine, fine, you can go,” Theo told him, like making sure Rowan wouldn’t die was the ask of a lifetime. “Get away from the germs. He doesn’t need two minders.”
“You sure?”
Theo let out a heavy, full-body sigh. Rowan was barely still on his feet. “Yeah, bud. Go see your girl. I’ll deal with pukey over here.”
Vic went upstairs to change out of his suit, and Rowan remembered he needed to do that too. It sounded exhausting. He must have looked as tired as he felt, because Theo nudged him toward his room.
“Trying not to violate you here,” Theo told him, as he started carefully stripping him out of his suit. He tossed the suit pieces onto the chair in the corner of Rowan’s room and slid the shoes under it. He left Rowan in his undershirt and boxers, and pulled the edge of his covers back so he could climb into bed.
“I’m going to go change, too. You need anything else?”
Rowan shook his head and immediately regretted it. “Garbage,” he said, and Theo grabbed him the one from Rowan’s ensuite.
“Alright, aim your puke right here,” he said, placing it right next to Rowan’s bed.
“I’m sorry.”
There was a pause as Theo leaned against the doorframe and looked at Rowan’s pathetic form. “Nothing to be sorry about.”
Theo disappeared out of the room, and Rowan’s thoughts mashed into a sticky sludge that hovered on the edge of sleep.
He didn’t know how long Theo was gone for, but Rowan’s door cracked open again, and there was Theo, in his pajamas, a bowl of soup in his hands.
“It’s canned, but I figured it was better than nothing. You think you can eat?”
“I dunno,” Rowan said.
“You wanna try?”
Rowan sat up. Resting for a little while had helped a bit, and he accepted the soup bowl from Theo’s hands. He ate a spoonful. Chicken noodle.
“It’s good,” Rowan said. It was even the right temperature. Theo was such a temperature baby—he always ordered his lattes at kids’ temp—so Rowan chalked it up to that.
“Good,” Theo said, smiling at him.
“Am I hallucinating this?”
“What?”
“You smiling at me?”
“Shut up,” Theo said, a soft dismissal. “Just fulfilling duties from the captain.”
“I’m not kidding.”
“I’m glad you haven’t died on my watch. Coach would have my head.”
“Tooth hole is still cute,” Rowan said, reaching out to poke at the gap between Theo’s teeth like he did when they still loved each other.
“Alright, bud, focus on the soup, and not spilling it, please.”
He had forgotten he was holding soup, which was not a good idea.
He ate most of the bowl, and Theo took it back to the kitchen. He made one more appearance for the evening, bringing him a bottle of water and a Pedialyte. Where had he gotten Pedialyte?
“I’m going to sleep on the couch, alright? So holler if you need me.”
