Apparently not, if his disgusted look is anything to go by. “Charity, yes. I’d just rather do it talking to a bunch of kids or something, not offering my ass up like a side of beef.”
“Aw, Manny,” says Sampson, walking past, “but it’s such a big ass. Almost as big as your head.” With that, he snaps a towel at said ass and takes off as Mannus lunges for him.
“Keep running, dickhead,” Mannus calls.
I suit up, more than happy for the attention to slide off of me and back to Mannus, where it belongs. Only that isn’t the case. For the rest of practice, guys serenade me. On the sidelines, when I’m gulping down Gatorade and stretching out my burning quads, Dean Calloway, the offensive line coach stands beside me, his gaze on the other players, but his mouth twitching.
“Guess I know who’ll be the lead in our annual team musical, Dexter.”
“Didn’t know we had a musical, Coach.” I toss my empty bottle into the trash.
He turns to me. “Maybe we should start one now.” Giving me a slap on the back, he ambles off with a, “Good work, Dex.”
I watch him go, and it occurs to me that although I’ve played for this team for going on two years, I haven’t really engaged. It’s too easy for me to hide away from the world. But laughing with my team, not taking shit too seriously, it feels good.
I could be happy, genuinely happy. There’s only one thing missing, and she’s over a thousand miles away.
* * *
Fiona
I’m headed out for drinks when Dex calls. Which has me grinning even before I answer the phone. “Hey.”
“Hey, Cherry.” His deep voice gives me a little thrill. Every single time. “What you up to?”
“Going out for drinks with Anna.” I dart across 5th and weave past a slow-strolling tourist family.
“Drew’s Anna?” Dex asks in obvious surprise.
“Yep. We’ve gotten to know each other over the years. Gray always invites her and Drew to spend Christmas with us.”
Drew lost both his parents when he was in high school, and Gray lost his mother to cancer around the same time. Gray has made it a priority never to let Drew go a holiday without family. “Family” being him, and now Ivy and me.
“Right, I forgot about that. Kind of kicking myself for going home to my parents’ instead of to Gray’s Christmas party last year,” Dex says with a wry laugh.
Because he’d been invited too. Every year.
“You were being a good son,” I say.
“I was avoiding the temptation of you,” he answers.
It makes me stumble. Frowning, I quicken my step. “Why did you avoid me?”
He sighs, and I can imagine him rubbing a hand along his beard the way he does when he doesn’t want to admit something. “Well, last year you were still in college, and I was a rookie in the NFL. There was absolutely no hope of us ever seeing each other. And, besides, you were Gray’s baby sister-in-law.”
“I’m still that. Although I object to the term baby.”
“Fine, younger sister.” There’s a smile in his voice before his tone goes serious. “I asked him, you know. If he objected to me making a play for you.”
“What?” I practically shriek.
“He’s one of my best friends, Fi. It’s man code. And you don’t mess with the code.”
“And what if he’d said no?” The idea of Gray lording over my sex life does not sit well with me.
“Then I’d have laid out a perfectly logical and irrefutable argument for him to change his mind,” Dex says. “Or I’d have pounded on him until he said uncle.”
I laugh. “So much for the man code.”
“Punching out an argument is an accepted form of conflict resolution in the man code. It’s part of our bylaws.”
“And you say women are confusing.” I laugh and hurry along so I’m not late. “So what about you? What are you doing tonight?”
“Same thing. Going out with my QB.”
“Finn Mannus?” I give a little sigh. “He’s dreamy.”
Okay, I’m still a little irked by Dex’s archaic “man code” thing with Gray, and payback is a bitch.