Chapter 37: Thad

Chapter 37

Thad

“Yes!” I stand so fast my desk chair topples over behind me, and I’m thankful the office is empty at this time of night. But that performance deserves a standing ovation.

Damon and Brady appear from the conference room where they’ve been doing their nightly brainstorming to try to find ways to better and expand in this business—something I’ve actually been invited to join in on since Damon realized I was basically doing something similar. But tonight, I wanted to watch Kelley and analyze every pitch, like doing that could tell me how he was doing emotionally. If his game had anything to say about his emotion, he is doing so amazing that I have to question if he misses me at all.

A no-hitter is a pitcher’s dream, and he not only crushed it, he did it against the team who traded him.

“What happened? What’s going on?” Damon asks. “I heard yelling and then a loud crash.”

Oops. “Sorry, but it’s probably a good thing you’re here. You might want to sit by the phone for incoming endorsement deals, interviews, the works.” I hit Settings on my phone to turn off Bluetooth from my AirPods and turn the sportscast on my phone toward them. “Kelley pitched his first no-hitter as a second-year rookie.”

Brady’s eyes widen, and he grabs my phone off me. “No way.”

“I told myself I was only going to check in on the first couple of innings, but I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He was magic out there.”

“You should’ve gotten us sooner to come watch,” Brady says.

Damon gasps and slaps his nephew over the back of his head. “You should know better.”

“You don’t jinx a pitcher in a possible no-hitter game. Hit him again from me.”

Brady holds up his hand while still watching the feed on my phone in his other one. “Okay, sorry, jeez. And they say hockey players are superstitious.” He hands it back to me and takes out his own phone. “I’m going to text him and congratulate him.”

I should do that too. I want to, but at the same time, I’d rather call him later and hear his voice. Even better, video call him later. Maybe while I can play dirty and be shirtless.

There’s something about seeing him so confident, something about seeing him take something that he was anxious over and turning it into success, that is such a turn-on.

I’ve missed him as a friend, but in this moment, I miss him as a lover. If I was in LA, there is no way I wouldn’t be outside that players’ door waiting for him. I guess it’s a good thing I’m grounded from Daddy Damon and not allowed to chase after Kelley. But also, damn him.

“Ooh, Prescott’s calling.” Brady leaves to answer his phone, leaving me with Damon.

Just like he did a few weeks ago, he pulls over Brady’s chair to sit next to me. If I could sit back down. Which I can’t because my chair is upside down.

I’m quick to fix that and settle beside him.

“You’re following Kelley’s games?” he asks.

“I’m also following Zaka’s. And New York. And Boston.”

“East Coast boy through and through?”

“Of course.”

“That’s a shame.”

I frown. “Huh? Why?”

“The reason I’ve been giving Brady this crash course in being an agent is because as soon as he graduates law school, he’s going to become a junior agent in the LA office. He wants to be there so he can be with his boyfriends. And I was thinking that if you maybe wanted to transfer to the LA office for, let’s say, reasons , then I can look into that and see what I can do.”

“Umm …” This for sure has to be a test. I haven’t yelled out, “Yes, immediately. Transfer me right now,” so that should win me some kind of an award in self-restraint, because moving to LA? Keeping my job and getting to be in the same city as Kelley? Sign me the fuck up. But Damon offering this to me after explicitly telling me Kelley and I can’t have a relationship? Test, test, test. “Thank you for thinking of me, but I’m happy where I am.”

“You are?”

“I feel like I have purpose here now.”

“That doesn’t mean that you’re happy,” he points out. “And if there’s something or someone out there who could make you happy, don’t you think you should go for it?”

If this really is a test, it’s a mean one. “Being in the same city as that someone would be hell for me if I wasn’t allowed to be with him.”

Damon’s lips twist. “Did I say you weren’t allowed?”

“Yes. Right after you basically accused me of being a whore.”

Brady’s voice comes from behind me. “Uh, I’m going to back away and let you two talk.”

“You can stay,” Damon says. “I’m talking to Thad about possibly moving to the LA office with you when you go.”

“What, like my babysitter? Is that the real reason you sent him to the Catskills too?”

“Contrary to what anyone with your last name believes, not everything is about you. Thad’s been putting in long hours, coming up with some great ideas and leads to follow on how to better protect our athletes, and I think hard work should be rewarded.”

“So to get this straight,” I say. “You’re saying you’re giving me the opportunity to move to LA to pursue something with Kelley, and I won’t be fired if we’re together?”

“HR forms would need to be signed, stating you’re both entering into a relationship of your own free will, blah, blah, blah. You wouldn’t be allowed to have any input on Kelley’s career in any official capacity, and if it all goes to shit and you break up, I can’t guarantee a job will be waiting for you back in New York, but if you want it, the offer is there.”

The only things holding me back from jumping right in are leaving my roommates high and dry and moving to the other side of the country, away from my parents. But fuck, I really want this. Even if it doesn’t work out, I can’t say I didn’t try.

Kelley is the only man I’ve ever contemplated getting serious with. Or trying to get serious with. He’s the only man I’ve ever felt like I could fall for. We might have started out thinking we were completely different, but the truth is we’re more alike than I ever could’ve thought.

My fear of failure was holding me back from shining bright.

Kelley’s anxiety over not being accepted affected his light.

We’re two sides of the same coin, and I want us to be together.

“You can think about it,” Damon says, and I realize I haven’t said anything in a really long time.

“I really only have one question,” I say. “One for you and then one for Kelley.”

“What’s your question?”

“Why now? Like, why didn’t you offer this back when Kelley first got traded?”

“Good question. When I first hired you, I didn’t know if you were going to stick it out. And even when Kelley was traded, you were still coasting—those were your words. But since he left, you have proved to me that you’re an asset to this firm. And if I don’t go out of my way to make my employees happy, then I may as well invite other firms to poach you.” He leans forward. “I want you to understand that I was never against you dating Kelley. If you had been assigned as his intern agent instead of Brady, then yes, there would be a big issue, but not one that couldn’t be fixed by simply pulling him off your client list. The problem I had was that you weren’t up-front about it, you kept it from me, and money exchanged hands in a way I wasn’t comfortable with and probably shouldn’t have allowed to happen in the first place. But I can see it. How you feel about him. Tonight, when I came out here and you looked so damn happy to see him succeed, I knew it wasn’t purely a physical thing. As I’ve watched you research for ways to protect future athletes from discrimination and put all your spare time and effort into doing so, I knew your feelings were real. I’ve been contemplating giving you this offer for a few weeks now, but I needed to be sure before I did.”

I know it might be about ten years too late, but is this what it feels like to accomplish something? To excel? Instead of being middle of the pack, I’m making my boss take notice. The fact it’s paying off is just a bonus.

Damon stands. “Brady and I will leave you and let you ask Kelley what he wants to do.”

Well, shit. Can I really do this over the phone?

“He’s probably doing press conferences and everything at the moment. I can call him later.”

“There’s no rush. It will take a week or two for the transfers to come through and to set you up with an LA office ID, get you moved. So even if you say yes, it won’t be an instant thing.”

In that case, do I really want to ask Kelley? What if I get his hopes up and then something with the paperwork falls through, or I tell him I’m moving in two weeks and then get delayed?

I’m already itching to see him, and hearing I’ll have to wait a week or two makes me impatient. I don’t want to put that on him.

“I might head home and give him a call, then.”

“We’ll see you back here in the morning.”

“See you then.”

The walk back home is short, but the anticipation of speaking to Kelley makes it feel like an eternity. The amount of times I almost hit Call on his number is ridiculous.

As soon as I open my apartment door, I’m hitting that button.

It rings and rings, and okay, the short distance between the office and here obviously wasn’t enough for him to finish his interviews, shower, and change, but as I’m about to give up and hit End, he answers, and his smooth and sexy voice fills my ear.

“Did you watch?” The background noise is intense, like he’s in a huge crowd.

“I did. Are you out celebrating?”

“Not yet.” He’s practically yelling into his phone. “The team is about to head out though.”

“Go out and have fun. You deserve it.”

“Thank you.”

“You looked amazing out there. I’m so proud of you.”

He doesn’t answer, but I can’t be sure if it’s because he didn’t hear me or if it’s because he doesn’t know how to take compliments well. Actually, I know the second thing is true about him, but I was hoping that maybe, coming from me, he’d be able to.

I almost chicken out asking him what I need to because I don’t want to bring down his good mood by serious talk. But I have to know.

“I have a hypothetical for you if you have a second to talk?”

The noise dies down behind him. “I just snuck into an empty room at the stadium. What’s your hypothetical?”

“Hypothetically, if you hadn’t been traded, do you think we could’ve found a way to date and make it work?”

His answer is quick and confident. “There’s no doubt in my mind.”

“That’s all I needed to know. Go celebrate with your teammates. I wish I could be there with you.”

He sighs wistfully. “I wish you could be here too.”

Your wish is my command.

We end the call, and I text Damon immediately.

Put me in for the transfer.