26. Bennett

TWENTY-SIX

BENNETT

31st of July

"We could fly tomorrow," I tell Luke as he grabs our bags from the bed. He rolls his eyes at me and walks out of the bedroom.

"This is big Mike's wedding, Bennett, and Theo's. Of course we're going today. We're going to spend the weekend with your friends in a fancy ass place in the Hamptons like the rich bastards we are, and then we're gonna come back home to our kids. Then you're going to start your PhD, relaxed and ready to knock every teacher's socks off."

"That's not—oh whatever. You're the rich bastard, I'm not." I protest as we walk down the stairs. "Besides—" I start my next argument but he interrupts me.

"My money is your money, cutie, so yeah, you're a rich bastard. The kids and your parents are staying here with Gordon. Everything will be fine." Luke doesn't even look back at me, but I know he's rolling his eyes again. He walks straight to Robbie who's lying on his train mat in the living room. We replaced the coffee table with toys pretty much permanently a week ago when I came home from Target with the rug.

"I'm gonna miss you, buddy." He picks him up and throws him in the air a few times. Enough for his adorable shouts of laughter to be heard all around the house. If Lizzie was home, she'd be running over to see what's so funny.

I turn to look at Gordon smiling demurely at Luke acting like a big kid. "You have the permit to go pick up Lizzie, right?"

"It's in my car," he says with a now amused smile. It's not huge like it used to be, but it's there. Which is something.

"And if they don't?—"

"Then I'll call Sylvia," he interrupts me, and his expression softens. "I promise it will all be okay. We'll send you videos and pictures every day, but you two need a weekend with no worries and no kids, to let loose. Who knows, you could even get drunk at your friend's wedding, wouldn't that be wild?" Gordon opens his eyes exaggeratedly, clearly mocking me.

"Excuse me, Luke is the one who doesn't drink more than a glass of wine or one beer."

"Maybe you should get him drunk too." The mumbled words are clear enough for me to hear and I look back at Luke, considering.

I know he normally doesn't drink more than one because of his dad's history. I actually don't know if he's ever been drunk. So I'm not sure about getting him drunk. I don't think he'd refuse completely if I suggested it, but would it make him feel uncomfortable?

In any case, I don't need to get drunk to have a relaxing few days. I'll figure it out, whatever. If we are going, then we need to leave now.

"Give him over, I need my goodbye cuddles," I demand.

Robbie comes to my arms somewhat reluctantly but smiles when I drop kisses all over his face. "You be good to your grandpa, okay?" I breathe him in and smile when he nods. "Bye, Robbie."

"Bye Bent." My smile widens like it always does at hearing him call me Bent. Then I pass him over to Luke and take the bags out to the car.

I said goodbye to my sweet pea this morning, and did my best to explain that I'll be back on Monday and she's staying at Luke's place with everyone, but I can't be sure it translated. It's the first time I'm leaving her for more than a day, but also when I'll be so far away. I'm terrified, and I know damn well Luke is too. He's just better at masking it, apparently.

"It sure is nice of you to pick us up on the way," Luke says as he settles into the seat next to me in the jet my friends chartered for the trip. I agree with Luke, making a pit stop in Vegas isn't your ordinary flight plan.

"Of course," Hawk says easily. Derek and Wolf say nothing which is pretty typical. CJ, Adam's childhood best friend who's become a friend to all of us since college, is sleeping on the couch in the back. He's a pediatrician doing his surgery residency in LA, so being asleep in the middle of the day makes sense. "What a bummer that no kids are invited to the wedding, huh?"

"Don't even mention it man, or my cutie here's gonna start crying."

"Like you're not going to be hysterical in a few hours when it sinks in how far away Robbie is," I throw back at him, and he just shrugs then accepts the glass of water the flight attendant hands him. I do the same with my Coke and lean back to enjoy the flight.

"Yeah, maybe. But that's why you're here next to me to hold my hand." He reaches over the arm rests and takes it.

"Man, are you two trying to take the cutest couple award from Theo and Mike on their wedding weekend?"

I look at him, appalled. "There's no way anyone is taking that title from them."

Luke snorts next to me. "At least not at their wedding but we can try at the next friends' meeting." He waggles his eyebrows at me and I snort.

"I bet if we choose the right outfits, we can make Lizzie and Robbie look cuter than even Oscar and Tony, then we'd have it in the bag." I tilt my head as if planning my machiavellian plan.

"I can't wait to meet these famous dogs. Should we get a dog?" Luke asks me.

"I'm about to start a PhD, and your season is starting in a few weeks too. Who's going to take care of this dog?" I demand.

"Gordon." Luke nods as if that decides it.

"No. If Gordon wants to get a dog, then he can get a dog, but we're not getting him a dog, Lucas."

"Harsh, but fair."

"Now it's freaking me out," Wolf pipes up with his raspy, lazy drawl. "You two are, like, not even going to fight a little? At least Derek resists for a few days before giving Hawk what he wants."

"Shut up, asshole," Derek gripes and slaps Wolf's shoulder.

"Well, we haven't really had a fight yet, have we, cutie?" Luke asks, turning back to me. "Worst thing that's happened is when you tried to ghost me."

"Ugh, don't bring that up," I groan. "I said I'm sorry. "

"And I forgive you."

He leans in and gives me a sweet, lingering kiss.

"Yeah, that's too much sugary shit even for me," Hawk says. "I'm gonna sleep now." He brings his legs up to his seat, swirls around until he's basically lying on top of Derek and closes his eyes. He looks peaceful as can be while Derek scrambles to put his glass of water on the table in front of him.

I turn back to Luke with an amused smile and lean in for another kiss when I see he's staring at me with a look full of love. They can complain all they want, but I know they're happy for me. Just like I know Hawk and Derek can be even sappier than anything Luke and I just did.

Wolf on the other hand... Well, the man is an enigma. He's definitely your stereotypical rockstar, except he's sober now. And there's also the way his eyes shift back to look at the back where CJ is every once in a while.

That has trouble written all over it.

Crushing on a straight guy is even worse than trying to date non-ace guys all my life.

But I learned my lesson. I just hope Wolf doesn't hurt himself learning his.

"That was..." Derek says in a thick voice. He clears his throat and then sighs, unable to hold it back anymore. A lone tear falls down his cheek. "That was so beautiful," he says on a cry, and launches himself at Mike and Theo who are saying hi to us now that it's our group's turn for official pictures.

Theo looks over Derek's shoulder at the rest of us, his eyes open comically wide in surprise. But Mike, he just leans his cheek on top of Derek's head and closes his eyes with a happy smile.

"I knew I'd make you cry with my vows," Mike boasts when Derek leans back and wipes his face.

"You did, you absolute asshole. You know I have a reputation to uphold," Derek says with a chuckle.

"Okay, there are around five hundred thousand more pictures to take, so can we move the lovefest along please?" Iris, Theo's sister, tells all of us.

We follow her command without any complaints, and spend fifteen minutes under the harsh summer sun smiling wide and getting blinded by the camera's flash.

We survive, and it's a picture I want to have at my place too, which I make sure to mention to both Theo and Iris.

It's insane to think that only six years ago Adam and Sebas met. That's when we joined forces and football players became part of my core support in life.

Only CJ, Carter, and Wolf are single now, and I just bet something interesting will happen for one of them very soon.

Luke

After a great weekend where I spent hours with Bennett's friends—more than a few of them talking about anything but football—it actually feels nice to come back to the practice facilities and get back into my usual routine.

Although nothing is as usual anymore.

For example, I came here from my first appointment with the therapist Gordon and I found. It was a solo appointment this time, and even though it was hard as fuck to lay all my cards on the table and explain every reason why I think I need therapy, I think it's going to be worth it.

Especially if it means Robbie and Lizzie grow up surrounded by people who have healed.

I walk into the locker room with a smile, but it and everything in me freezes at the sight in front of me.

Felix is here, the only person in here actually, but he's leaning against one of four stacks of boxes, all piled up in front of my locker.

"Oh, you're here!" he exclaims happily.

"What's going on?" I ask, scared to even think what this could mean.

"This is fan mail." Felix gestures at the boxes. "For you," he explains when I stay quiet. "It's been coming in since your press conference, but then with everything that happened, I thought it'd be best to wait a bit before you saw it all."

"Why?" I ask, not understanding at all.

"Because you spoke up, about a lot of things." Felix shrugs. "I thought I'd bring it down so you can read through some, and then you can tell me what you want me to do with all of it, okay?"

"Uh, okay," I say, not at all sure, but Felix just walks out of the locker room.

I open the first box and my eyes bug out. It's filled with envelopes. God there must be thousands of letters here.

I carry it down and set it on the floor in front of my locker. Then get to reading.

And it's amazing.

People who have been through the system, people who were adopted, people who had bad home lives, and people coming out or thinking about coming out .

I'm reading a letter from Allison, a ten year old girl, and crying my fucking eyes out when the guys start coming in.

They seem rightfully confused, but then brighten up when I tell them what the boxes are.

"Can we read some with you?" Jareed, a defensive linebacker asks.

"Su-sure," I stutter.

So every time someone comes in, they start reading. An hour later, Coach Richards comes in, steam practically coming out of his ears because we're not out on the field.

He stops mid-rant when he sees us all reading, most of us with tears in our eyes.

"Sorry, Coach, I guess we just lost track of time," I say as I stand and sniffle. "We'll get ready now."

"It's okay, pass me some, I want to read them."

I do as he says, and after thirty minutes more, he sighs heavily and tells us all to get ready. "We have games to win this season, you can keep reading later."

After a slow but solid practice, where we worked on the technique of the rookies more than anything, I find Felix waiting for me in front of the locker room.

"So?" he asks. "What are we going to do about all that fan mail?"

"I have an idea, but I need to talk to Gab first, okay?"

"Sure." He nods.

Two Weeks Later

The crowd in the stands is going crazy singing along to our pre-game playlist. "…Ready for it?" by Taylor Swift is blaring through the stadium, and I fucking am .

I smile at the way the crowd gets even louder when my name is announced and run out of the tunnel to the field. I see them then, the first ten rows of seats in the stadium are full of the people who sent me mail who could make it.

Gab made sure most of them could come, the angel of a woman invited them. I really don't know how she did it, but I look back when I'm on our bench, search for her suite and see her looking around. When her eyes look down, I give her a thumbs up, all I can do to communicate how I feel about her right now.

Bennett appears next to her with a kid in each arm and I send them all a kiss with my hand even though Lizzie and Robbie aren't looking at me.

On the other side of the stadium are the Kings, and on top of them, Harrison fucking Crawford in a suite with his family. They've always been best friends , I think with an incredulous laugh and shake of my head.

The referees call the captains of the teams to walk to midfield for the coin toss, and I'm pretty sure I surprise the whole world when I give Adam a hug and not only a handshake.

"Good to see you, man." I clap him on his pads and step back, my usual shit-talking self coming to life for the first time in what feels like forever. "You can cry on my shoulder at dinner after you lose, okay?"

He just smirks at me, his blue-green eyes sparkling with the same competitive thrill that lives inside me.

It's like I can read his mind.

Keep fucking dreaming.

Oh, I will.

Because every day since Bennett came into my life is like a dream.