Page 31 of Catching Kyle (Football Heartthrobs #1)

Michael Cunningham

By the time book club rolls around, I’m officially unemployed.

My last day of work was today, and now all I have is the revenue coming in from my old OnlyFans videos.

Now that Kyle and I are officially dating—well, officially yet still secretly together—I’m not making them anymore, per our agreement.

I’ve never been one for open relationships, and besides, the sex with Kyle has been too good to pass up.

I forget how wonderful sex can be when you have it with someone who has your heart.

Finally having a boyfriend who is emotionally available has been so helpful too.

All the tingles I get from a good conversation with Kyle, the warm chills I get when he runs his hand down my back in bed—all these experiences give me a lived understanding of how romance develops.

This is what I’ve been looking for. I’m no longer distracted by the unhealthy love I had for David.

The romance coming out of my fingertips feels organic, inspiring, and hopeful .

After I’ve been writing for a bit, Skye arrives and sits down across from me in at a small table in the café.

“Howdy howdy,” she says, setting her stuff down. She’s wearing a pink dress and a rhinestoned cowboy hat.

“You look like you’re going to a Chappell Roan concert,” I say.

“Thank you,” she says.

I chuckle. “You’re welcome.”

“So tell me,” she says, opening her laptop covered in stickers. “How’s the fake-dating life going?”

I think back to the last time I saw Kyle—a couple days ago.

“Honestly, better than I expected,” I say.

“You-know-who and I just spend time at his house a couple times a week. We don’t go out in public, but that’s not too bad.

You should probably ask Amani how it’s going.

” I lower my voice. “She’s the one acting as his beard. ”

“Cool,” she says, beginning to type. We write in silence for a while, and I mull over what I just told Skye.

Spending time with Kyle—now as his boyfriend—is really nice.

And I’m spending the night tonight. But it sucks that we can’t be open.

If we stay together past the next football season, we won’t have to worry about this.

There’s a lingering, annoying feeling that tells me that time won’t solve everything about this. But I try to just chalk it up to worry.

“I’m curious,” Skye says once we wrap up our writing. Book club people are showing up, and we know it’s a matter of time before it’ll get too loud to focus.

“What’s up?” I ask.

“Why is you-know-who so dead set on playing this next year?” she asks. “Like, hasn’t he been playing for forever?”

“Yeah,” I say, almost defensively. “He’s wants to win the Championship Game.”

“I get that,” she says, putting her laptop in her bag. “But what I don’t understand is how he’s willing to put his life on hold for just a season, one game even. I would get it if he was young and had his whole career ahead of him. But he’s been, what—playing for like almost a decade now? ”

I put my computer away and fold my arms. I think back to that moment he came out to me, how hysterical he was, and all the times I’ve seen him since.

He’s told me that he made a promise to his dad that he would win a Championship Game for him, which made enough sense to me.

I’m not close to my dad, but I know how emotional those relationships can be.

“His dad,” I say. “He made a promise to his dad that he’d win the Championship Game for him.”

Skye nods, but something about her face tells me she’s not fully convinced. And then my heart starts to race, and I get that uneasy feeling in my stomach.

When I was dating David, I also thought that everything was fine. Even when he was rampantly cheating on me behind my back. Could there be something bigger here that Kyle isn’t telling me? There has to be. This relationship we have is too good to be true, anyways. He has to be hiding something.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “You’re getting that distressed look you get when you don’t like the feedback you’re getting.”

I blush. “Sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry if what I asked was too personal.”

“It’s fine,” I insist.

Kelley, one of the booksellers, comes to our table and asks if we can set it aside and put our chairs in the circle for book club. And as we’re moving the table, I get that sinking feeling in my chest, the same one I get when I think about all that David did behind my back.

Skye grabs my arm. “Are you okay?”

I just let it out.

“What if you’re right?” I ask as people take their seats around us.

“Right about what?” she asks. “Michael, I just asked why Kyle wanted to play this last season.”

“Yeah, but you were insinuating that maybe Kyle has something to hide.”

She shakes her head. “I wasn’t insinuating anything. You’ve said yourself how Kyle is so much better than your ex. How he’s honest. I was just curious, anyways, not suspicious. Playing to keep a promise to his dad makes sense. ”

“But should I be suspicious? He was closeted for so long. What if there’s something else here?”

“Okay,” she says, pulling me out of the gathering people. “Let’s talk about this.”

She pulls me toward a quiet corner of the bookstore. She’s rubbing my arms, and she tells me to take a deep breath. Once I do, I feel a little better. Enough to talk without panicking.

“What’s going on?” she asks.

“I’m just worried,” I say. “Your question—it got me thinking. What if there’s some other reason Kyle has to play? Or what if there’s some other secret that he’s kept hidden?”

“Have there been any secrets that Kyle has kept from you so far?”

I pause for a beat. “Just that he was gay. And why he was in book club.”

“And he eventually told you, didn’t he?”

I nod.

She sighs. “Then it sounds like he is honest. It just might take him some time. I think you’re letting your fear from your last relationship get in the way of this one.”

Her words echo off of something similar my sponsor told me a while back. “Yeah,” I say. “I tend to have a tendency to self-sabotage. Kyle is nothing like David.”

Skye chuckles. “Well don’t do that to yourself! It sounds like Kyle really likes you, and he’s been honest with you so far. And if you’re worried, talk with him. I think the truth comes out regardless, anyways. You don’t need to stress about it beforehand.”

By now, my heartrate has gone back to normal, and I feel that exhausted, soothing feeling of having my exerted myself but now being able to rest.

“I’m seeing him tonight too,” I say. “I think I’d like to ask him more details about this promise. But you’re right. I don’t think I have anything to worry about. Thanks for this. ”

She pats me on the arm. “Anytime.” She eyes the circle of women. The discussion is about to start. “Come on,” she says. “I can’t wait to discuss this werewolf smut.”

The discussion gets heated faster than any other book club session I’ve ever been to.

Skye gets into a polite, yet bordering on aggressive, argument with someone else about the nature of ‘knotting’ and whether it was accurately described in this book.

I manage to chime in how now that I’m unemployed, I’ll have time to binge the whole series.

When Kelley asks the question about whether or not this book is a good representation of the Omegaverse, I swear more hands are raised than are possible to answer.

And with how long some of the explanations are, Kelley has to cut some people off.

And when we talk about the scene where the vampire has to feed off the werewolf to survive, the room just about loses it.

In short, this is my favorite book club session yet.

Quickly, the anxiety I had to toward Kyle and whether or not he’s lying to me about something dissipates.

Like Skye and my sponsor have said, this is just a lingering fear that I have from my previous relationship.

Nevertheless, I do want to know more about this promise Kyle made to his father.

I’m just sure, though, that Kyle will be honest. There’s nothing to be afraid of.

When the session wraps up, various threads of topics are still being vigorously debated by several others, including Skye. I put my chair away, and I’m about to pull out my phone when Kelley approaches me.

“Hey, can we talk a minute?”

My stomach clenches just like it did on the first day when she pulled me aside. But then I steel myself. I doubt I’ve done anything wrong.

“Sure, what’s up?”

“I’m sorry to hear you lost your job,” she says. “But we may have an opportunity for you.”

My stomach flutters, but in the good kind of what. “Opportunity?”

“We’ve been hiring for a while,” she says. “Specifically looking for more booksellers who would be willing to host more book clubs. As you can see, this one gets pretty big. ”

I gaze over at the dozens of women perusing the aisles, many of them joining the checkout line that stretches all the way to the front door. “No kidding.”

“In this club, we’ve been reading all sorts of romance subgenres, but these other book clubs would exclusively focus on some of these subgenres. For example, a romance fantasy book club.” She gestures to me. “An LGBTQ+ romance book club.”

I put my hand on my chest. “So if I was hired, I could lead some of these book clubs?”

“Potentially yes,” she says. “We’d have to go through the interview process with the store owner just to make sure, but we know you well at this point. I think you’d be a shoo-in.”

I stand there, my hand on my chest, and a smile forms on my face.

For years, I’ve been searching for a bookish and writing community to call my own. I’ve started building that from the first day I walked into Ruckers. I met other readers, received inspiration, met Skye, got Amani back to writing, met Josue. And of course, I can’t forget this is how I met Kyle.

“I’m super down,” I say. “What do I need to do?”