Page 31 of Offensive Edge
Theo let out a heavy sigh and covered his face with his hands. “It’s thirteen twenty-seven.”
Well, that was the last thing Rowan had expected him to say. The two of them had kept the same jersey numbers their entire careers. When they were kids, they had matching 1327 phone passcodes. And Theo had never updated his.
“I don’t want to hear it,” Theo said to Rowan’s silence.
“No, no judgement. What do you want me to say to your mom?”
“Tell her it’s you texting. Tell her I’m fine. You’re watching over me.”
Rowan fired off the text. Theo had a ton of texts on his phone. Rowan knew he had a bunch, too. He’d already replied to his family group text. He’d deal with the rest later.
“Ro?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you. I can’t believe you fought their biggest guy for me. I can believe you lost.”
“I’d give you a noogie if you didn’t have a head injury.”
“How ’bout this instead?” Theo asked, stepping even closer to Rowan and pressing the softest kiss to his split lip.
Rowan shuddered. He never thought he would kiss Theo’s lips again. But Rowan had been concussed before. He knew how you could feel like you were practically in outer space. It didn’t lend a lot of trust to Theo’s current agency.
“We don’t actually need two beds, right?” Theo asked. He didn’t linger after the kiss. Instead headed to the bed closest to the door and pulled the sheets down. “I know it’s dumb, but I kind of want you close.”
It wasn’t dumb. It was making Rowan’s head spin, but it wasn’t dumb. He followed Theo and slipped into bed behind him. Big spooning Theo was a little silly. Rowan had always been the little spoon. But it was also nice to hold Theo. He didn’t want him any further away than he was now.
Theo’s phone buzzed with a response from Theo’s mom.I’m glad you’re there, Rowan. Text me updates.
He thumbs-uped the message, then set his alarm for the morning.
Theo let out a breath, and their breathing synced up for long moments, until Rowan thought Theo must have fallen asleep.
“Ro?”
“Mmm?”
“Are you thinking about Felix?”
The question came out of nowhere until he realized Theo might be jealous of Felix. So jealous that it was the thought that came out of the Jell-O his brain was currently encased in. He was too tired to comb through those feelings with the fine-toothed comb they deserved.
“Not in weeks,” he said truthfully. Not outside their texts. Not in a “hold me while I sleep” kind of way. Felix would always be his friend, but he’d wasted too many of those thoughts on him already.
“Wake me up if you need anything, alright?”
“Night, Ro.”
CHAPTER19
THEO
His head throbbedthe next morning. He vaguely remembered falling asleep curled up with Rowan, but he woke up alone. The bed next to his was neat, unslept in.
He could hear the shower running.
Carefully, he rolled over to grab his phone off the side table, and the sharp spike of pain that shot through his head and churn of nausea made him regret it instantly. His phone was tethered to a charging cable. Rowan must have plugged it in. He entered his passcode, and with it came the memory of having to admit to Rowan he had never changed it. Ninety percent of the reason was laziness—his passcode was such deep muscle memory by now that he barely thought about it—and the last ten percent was an inability to move on. The instinct to dwell. To press on a bruise. He would have lived a healthier adulthood if he’d ever just moved on.
Alas.
