4. Sterling

FOUR

STERLING

May

I interlace my fingers with Jules' as soon as the doors of the private elevator at the Winner Resort close. Since no other people will be calling for this elevator, we don't have a lot of time before arriving at the penthouse suite.

Jules has a very rare day off. It's the playoffs, but the Pirates won the second round against Toronto in four games, so they're waiting for the other teams to play a few more games.

I decided the best way to spend the day was to get Jules to relax a little. I had a lot planned, and then Gab called. Well, her daughters called, actually.

There's very little Jules wouldn't do for his fearless leaders, and joining the bachelor party of her nephew is something he didn't hesitate to say yes to. Especially because if anyone gives him shit for still being hungover when he's back to practice in two days—which Lucy and Alex assured us we will be—he can blame it on her.

Now that the moment is here, I realize this is the first time Jules is going to meet the man we're going to name our son after. The man who put things into motion that led to us being married and expecting our second child.

Jules made it very clear he doesn't want me to say anything about it to anyone. He's still not sure if he ever wants to tell Adam what his actions mean to him, but also, a bachelor party isn't the time or place to have such a conversation.

We arrive at the door to the penthouse and step out.

"Alex said we should wait for her to open the door for us," Jules says, and looks at his phone to see the time. "We're right on time, though."

"Good." I nod and smile at him. "It's going to be fine, even fun."

A second later the door opens and Alex smiles warmly at us. I smile and walk in, dragging a suddenly hesitant Jules behind me.

Like it always happens when I arrive somewhere unexpectedly, shocked faces greet me. A lot of faces. At least twenty, I think. Then jaws drop even more when Jules moves to stand next to me. He smiles half-heartedly at our audience. I pull him closer. "C'mon baby boy, we got a babysitter for forty-eight hours and we're only spending like ten of those with these guys. Smile a little."

I lean in closer to whisper in his ear when he doesn't relax. "I'm taking you to Provoke tomorrow." I get what I want when his shoulders fall and he finally has an honest smile on his face.

"Jesus, did anyone else pop a boner just from seeing that?" a lithe, brunette guy says and fans his face.

Everyone, us included, chuckle at that. He seems like someone who always dissipates tension in the room, and a few minutes later, I find out he's the other groom, Sebas. He introduces everyone present and then two women step up in front of the TV and address us all.

"All right everyone, here are the rules of the game. Each groom will have a draft where they pick their teams, you each get eleven picks. Once they're done, we'll explain the challenges they have to overcome with the help of their teams. Please proceed with the ceremonial coin toss."

A man steps up to them, looking way more serious than I think is needed, but it makes me smirk. Everyone here is clearly a football fan. They even do a ceremonial coin toss as if this is an actual game.

Sebas wins the coin toss and cheers obnoxiously which only makes me smirk again. I like that dude. The teams are then chosen, and I'm surprised when Adam chooses me, then Sebas chooses Jules. I guess we won't be spending a lot of time together then.

When everyone's been picked, one of the women from before speaks up again. "We have five categories on which you will both be judged by the unbiased judge panel Alex and Lucy prepared for us. You have to present proof of capacity and competence in cooking," she says, and starts counting off items with her fingers. "Romance slash lovemaking, childcare, finance management, and household chores."

"What?" Adam demands. "How the fuck are we supposed to prove that?"

"Get creative and prove it with a video. You have to be in the videos, but you can get one person on your team to help out in each of them. It has to be a different person for each challenge. Our panel will watch all videos here at ten p.m.tonight. Alex and Lucy, you're not allowed to disclose who the judges are." It's ten in the morning now, so that gives us twelve hours. I don't think that should be too hard, I'm already thinking of videos we could make.

"Oh," the other woman calls out. "And you have to take a shot every half hour. All of us."

A chorus of groans and laughs is heard all around the filled suite, me and Jules included. So that's the catch. Okay, I spent twenty years as a typical rockstar, I bet I can keep up with all these twenty-year-olds. Two cases of tequila bottles appear, and we're sent on our way. I kiss Jules softly and tell him, "Try to have fun, okay baby?"

He nods and gently nuzzles my cheek, then walks away. Alex walks up to me and smiles. "You think you can corral all these youngins ?"

I growl at her. "I'm here to drink and to have a good time. I'm not a dad here."

She laughs lightly and Luke Riggs, the Las Vegas Rogues quarterback, steps up next to her and offers me a hand to shake. "Nice to meet you," he tells me.

"Same. There's no way we can get all the videos without going to some places, how are we going to handle the crowds?"

We're two very known men in Vegas, there's no way we won't be stopped for selfies every second step if we go out.

He shrugs. "We'll make it work."

I nod and I'm about to say we should get started when an alarm goes off. I look back and see one of the women who explained the challenges, I guess they're on different teams. She grimaces then looks back up at us. "Time for the first shot. Hope you all had a good breakfast."

I finish chewing on the last slice of my pizza and lean back to sprawl on the couch. It's so fucking comfortable. I start to close my eyes and smile at the drunk sleepiness that's taking over.

I've had more fun today than I thought I ever could while hanging out with ten people who are half my age.

After we filmed the third video at Target five hours ago, we all decided we needed food if we had any chance of getting to the judging part of the evening alive.

We bought everything we needed to make Adam's cooking video, and I spent the whole time we were in that magical store in the makeup section with Bidy and Mariana. Mariana's married to one of Sebas' brothers and she's the one who organized this whole thing with her sister-in-law. I may have bought too much, but I was already fourteen shots in, and honestly, who lets twelve drunk as fuck adults parade around Target for two hours? The living room of the suite is barely visible under all the white and red bags.

I can guarantee eighty percent of those are from our purchases. I went crazy, buying them everything they wanted, and they had a lot of fun putting my credit card to the test. I kept laughing every time they used it for some reason. I had a lot of fun, and almost started crying when they ended up buying me an adult-sized onesie with guitars, drums, and microphones all over it. Then they showed me they bought one for Ava too and I lost the battle against the tears.

I thought I could hold my liquor, but even though my belly's full of dough right now, my head's still spinning. At least I didn't puke all over the place like George, one of Adam's football buddies. I snicker to myself thinking about the house chores video we shot.

Man, I hope we win. We had so much fun making these videos, I think we should attend more bachelor parties. Though I really hope I can spend all day with Jules for the next one. I miss him.

When is he getting here? I haven't seen him in soooo long.

The first seven hours were insane. With Alex, the daughter of the most famous woman in the city, as well as Luke and me on the team, we were stopped a lot.

It was only worse when people noticed Adam and George were with us as well.

Now, after our room-service order arrived a little while ago, we're all settling down, quiet, and probably about to fall asleep.

Mariana's phone blares a second after I have that thought and every single person in the room groans.

"I thought we didn't have to drink any more after we were done," Santi, Sebas' brother whines.

"Nope," Mariana tells him, and everyone passes bottles around including Sebas' team.

The two biggest football players of the bunch burst through the door, and fall from the cackles racking through their bodies. They look unhinged, but I don't spend too much time focused on them. I go straight to Jules, who looks like he's about to fall asleep leaning against the wall of the foyer.

"Hey, baby." I kiss him softly then wrap my arms around him. "Did you have a good time?" He nods against my shoulder and sighs.

Sebas' team are already demanding various plates from room service, and I lead Jules to them so he can get something too.

"We're screwed," I slur at Alex the second Jules' teammates come into the suite. Turns out Mater, Santa, Bear, and Bates are the surprise judges panel she and her twin arranged for this thing.

The big guy, Mike, I think his name is, has Theo in his lap. Apparently, they're together. Theo didn't really talk to me much today, but I like him a lot, especially after he gave us brownies. I have no idea when he had time, or the brains to not burn the suite down, but I appreciate it since they're the best brownies I've tasted in my life.

Jules is standing behind me, and he pats my back in commiseration.

Yeah, he knows his teammates all worship the ground he walks on, even if it makes him feel awkward as fuck. So of course they're gonna side with him.

Lucy and Alex—now standing—are on the opposite side of the couch, staring at each other with narrowed eyes. They're absolutely having a stare-off. I guess they didn't consider that the team with Jules in it would have an advantage when they invited the "judges" to this event.

"Uh, ladies," Santa interrupts, risking bodily harm by walking up to them and placing a hand on each of their shoulders. They both turn identical disgusted stares at his hands, but he seems unbothered by them and keeps talking. "Don't fight. We are impartial and only want to make fun of Picard, and maybe of all the delicate, tiny football boys, too."

A chorus of protests rings out, and a second later Theo is unceremoniously dropped on my lap. He tenses all over, and I smile at him to tell him it's okay. His very not-tiny boyfriend—seriously, he's like six inches taller than Santa—walks over to the Russian and stops until their chests are almost touching. He gets in his face with an amused, and somehow still kind, smile.

"Wanna say that again, doll?" he asks, looking down at Santa. I have to bite my lip to keep the chuckle in.

Santa scoffs. "I say, you are all delicate flowers." The balls this man has... someday it'll get him beat up, I swear.

"Well, this delicate flower can pick you up and sit you at a tiny table to have a tea party, doll." The twins smirk while I and everyone else snickers and chuckles. "Why don't you drop the macho attitude and sit down to see some videos?"

There's a silent pause where they just stare at each other. Then Santa unleashes his big smile, and a loud, boisterous laugh follows it. "I like this one," he tells Bear, while pointing at Mike with his thumb.

"All right," Alex sighs. "Let's do this, even if we all know they'll give the win to their leader. Fucking sports dude-bros, " she mutters at the end, and I laugh again. Ain't that right.

Everyone finds a place to sit in the incredibly crowded room and then the twins play the videos. There are laughs and groans galore while we watch everyone make a fool of themselves. I laugh hard as hell as I watch Adam listen to my instructions in the Target parking lot.

"You have a child, you left home without your diaper bag, and you can't go back and get it. You have to buy everything you need for one whole day." Adam nods and sprints inside the store. Luke was holding the phone and keeping up with Adam's long strides, and I can finally see he did grab everything I could think of buying pretty quickly.

I think I fell asleep with my eyes open for the last two videos because I don't remember anything about them.

"Come on, Santa. Tell us who won," Jules says, the impatience in his tone brings me out of my sleepy daze.

"Well, team Sebas won the cooking one, then Adam's team won romance and childcare, just because they were funny. We all agree with Sebas' opinion on how to spend money on what you love, so he gets that one... and the chores one, I gotta say it was unanimous. Sorry," he winces at my husband. "Team Adam wins."

"Yes!!!!" Santi and Sando jump up while Sebas wails, "NOOOO."

"What's the prize anyway?" Theo asks, back in his boyfriend's lap.

"Honor," Adam says with a smug grin.

"Ugh, you're never gonna let me forget this are you?" Sebas asks his fiancé.

"Never," Adam mutters, as he circles Sebas with his arms and leans down for a slow kiss.

I can't help but smile at them. I stand and walk to Jules, circling him in my arms as well. I kiss the protest he's about to voice. He's a sore loser, of course he is, but this competition doesn't matter to us.

"Let's go, baby."

He looks at me with a dazed look, licks his lower lip slowly, then nods. There's so much heat in his eyes, that my body is blazing in seconds.