Page 23

23

LEVI

Soft lips on my cheek stirred me from sleep. I hummed, turning into what I thought was Stetson’s touch. “Hm, someone’s feeling better.”

“I am now.”

My eyes shot open. I rolled, spearing my fingers through Barrett’s hair and tugging him into a deeper kiss. “What are you doing here?” I asked. “I wasn’t expecting to see you until morning. You could’ve called!”

“I’m sorry.” Another kiss. “My phone died on the way to the airport and I lost my charger. I just wanted to get home.”

Barrett’s voice cracked, and I wrapped him tight in my arms. He wasn’t much of a crier, so I didn’t comment. I held him while his body trembled softly. Muffled sniffles were the only indicator of his feelings. Tears or not, I didn’t need to ask. I knew exactly how he felt. This situation did nothing more than dredge up feelings from the past that we preferred to keep buried.

Our relationship almost ended Barrett’s career— both our careers. I put on a decent front, but it was all for him. Since I had to be the strong one for Barrett, Mikey had been the one to hold me together. He was the one to introduce me to the lawyer, and it was his idea to end my contract with Barrett and have him sign elsewhere. We got lucky, solving the situation rather quickly. By the time the hammer would have come down on us, the storm blew over.

Slowly, Barrett’s sniffling faded away to soft breathing. My eyes shut, but I didn’t go back to sleep. I wasn’t sure how long we lied there wrapped up in each other, but I started to wonder if Barrett had fallen asleep. When he stirred some time later, I let my eyes flutter open. “Where’s Stetson?” he asked groggily. “I thought you’d bring him home after what happened.”

“What do you mean?” I sat up, finding the other side of the bed empty. The bathroom door was open, the space beyond it dark. “Was he in the kitchen? Or the living room?”

Barrett shook his head. “No, the house is empty.”

Then it hit me. “Your phone died.”

“Yeah…”

“Stetson’s been trying to call you all night.”

Barrett attempted to shake off the haze of sleep. “You don’t think he went to Minnesota, do you?”

I grabbed my phone, found Stetson’s contact, and called him. Voicemail. “I don’t think he’d go that far to get your attention.”

Barrett scrubbed a hand over his face. He tossed the blanket aside and got out of bed. “I thought that incident on the field would be the worst of it.”

“So did I.” I tapped my phone against the palm of my hand, trying to figure out where he could be. It was two in the morning. All the bars were closed, even the ones in the city.

Barrett re-entered into the room with his phone in his hand. I hadn’t even realized he’d left. “He didn’t answer for me either.”

“I thought you said your phone was dead.”

“It was.” The device in his hand was buzzing practically nonstop, and he threw it down on the bed in frustration. “I didn’t want to deal with all of that, so I charged it in the living room. “Where do you think he is?”

Our options were limited but thankfully, my phone rang. Thank fuck . “Baby, are you okay?”

There was a nervous chuckle on the other end of the line. “Wrong person.” The guy cleared his throat. “It’s Maverick.”

I closed my eyes and let out a deep breath. Why the hell didn’t I think of that? Of course he’d want to run to his best friend. “I’m going to assume he’s with you.”

The bed dipped behind me and Barrett’s hard body molded to my back. His hands landed on my shoulders, and I relaxed into his touch. Maverick confirmed that Stetson was there, and the tension in my body melted away—somewhat. “Is he okay?”

There was a muffled commotion in the background, and a conversation that I couldn’t make out. “He’s uh…”

I sighed. “Is he sober?”

“Far from it. He asked me not to call you, but I don’t know what to do. I’ve never seen him like this.”

My heart twisted so violently that I felt sick. “I’m on my way.” My throat was so tight that I doubted Maverick heard me, but he ended the call. I let my phone fall to the floor and found Barrett’s hand on my shoulder. “I need to go get him.”

“I’ll come with you.” Barrett scrambled off the bed after me, stifling another yawn.

“You’re exhausted. Stay here and get some sleep.”

“You’re just as sleep deprived as I am. Stetson is our responsibility now. You might be his Daddy, but he’s acting out right now because of me. We do this together.”

Had the situation been any different, I would have kissed Barrett silly for saying something like that. When we set out to find a boy for me, Barrett was happy to sit on the sidelines. Watching him fall for Stetson as fast as I did had been a bonus.

I didn’t argue further as we dressed and climbed into the car. Judging by the timing, Stetson slipped out minutes before Barrett walked through the door. If he’d gotten pass-out wasted in that short amount of time, I knew we were in for one hell of a ride. Drunk Stetson was rowdy on the best of days. Drunk, angry Stetson was a different story entirely. Something needed to be done about this kind of behavior, but I couldn’t worry about punishing a boy tonight. Tonight, Barrett and I would have to work hard to comfort our partner.

We drove into the heart of the GSU campus, and Barrett put his hand on my thigh. “Will you let me handle this one tomorrow?”

“What do you mean?” The car came to a stop outside of Stetson’s old apartment building.

“I’m not trying to step on your toes but if this is all a way for him to get my attention, it can’t keep happening. I want to see him thrive as much as you do, even if it means the death of my career. You do your Daddy thing tonight. Tomorrow, when he sobers up, let me handle it. I’m the one that can show him what’ll happen if he doesn’t clean his act up.”

I brought my hand down to cover his, twisting our fingers together. “Are you sure? He might not take to it very well.”

“I know. I’ll tag you in if I need you, but at least let me try. If we’re in this together, we need to be all in.”

The decision was easy. I nodded. Barrett was right: another athlete might be able to get through to Stetson better than I could. I was his Daddy, but we were both his partners. “Come on,” I said, brushing a kiss across Barrett’s fingertips and unclicking my seatbelt. “Let’s go see what the damage is.”

We could hear the music the second the car door opened. Granted it was a college town, but even the students were fast asleep. Barrett and I shared a look, bracing ourselves. We were immediately buzzed through and the music grew louder. Maverick must have been waiting nearby, because he stood in the doorway as we approached. We’d briefly met him when we helped Stetson move, but it was without the fatigue painting his features. Despite being the middle of the night, he was dressed for an occasion.

“I’m really sorry,” I told him once I realized it was game day.

He responded by shaking his head. “There’s no need for that.” He allowed us to enter the apartment while he moved to cut the offending music. My ears almost hurt from the absence of noise.

I looked past Maverick to the shape on the couch. Stetson laid on his side, fully dressed and softly snoring. The dim light from the TV illuminated his booze-flushed cheeks. An empty bottle of vodka laid on the floor next to him. As if on autopilot, my legs carried me across the room. I knelt next to the couch, hearing soft voices behind me.

“Do you want us to lock up for you?” Barrett asked. “You shouldn’t miss your shuttle time.”

Maverick let out an audible sigh of relief. “Are you sure?” I was sure Barrett nodded. No matter the sport, athletes understood a schedule like no other. “Stetson’s got a key if you can work them out of his pocket. Good luck. He’s dead weight when he’s this drunk.”

“Trust me; I know,” I said with a chuckle. “Thanks for calling me, Maverick.”

A few more hushed words, and the front door clicked shut. Only then did I stroke my fingers along Stetson’s cheek. He whimpered, knocking my hand away and curling further in on himself. A universal sign that meant, “Leave me alone and let me sleep.” I tried again, this time giving his arm a squeeze. “Baby, it’s time to wake up.”

The sound of my voice seemed to do the trick. Those beautiful blue eyes fluttered open, shining when they landed on me. Had I not been so damn scared, it would have made my heart burst. “Daddy?”

“The one and only.” He let me take his hand and help him sit up. “Barrett’s here too.”

Stetson swayed, dropping his head into his hands. “I don’t feel so good.”

“I’m not surprised. Why don’t we get you home and in bed?”

He happily agreed to that, and Barrett and I helped him to his feet. “I’m s-sorry.”

“Shh,” Barrett whispered, pressing a kiss to his temple and looking to me for guidance.

“We’ll deal with it later,” I told him. “Let’s go home.”

Stetson folded himself into my arms, leaving Barrett to fish for his keys and lock the front door. We didn’t so much walk Stetson out to the car as we did carry him. The alcohol hindered his movements, seeming to weigh his legs down. Barrett helped me pour him into the seat and get him buckled in. By the time I started the ignition, he was fast asleep again. The half-hour ride home was silent, save for Stetson’s soft breathing in the back seat. When we parked, Barrett went to open the front door while I rushed to deal with the vomiting disaster that ensued. I got an odd sense of déjà vu guiding Stetson into the house. Only this time, he allowed me and Barrett to help him change and brush his teeth. When we slipped into bed, it was with Stetson between us.

Despite knowing that one hell of a conversation was coming, I found a sense of comfort in that. I combed through Stetson’s hair while Barrett’s arm wrapped around the boy’s waist, his hand softly stroking my arm. “You know we’ll have to wake him up soon, right?” I whispered.

Barrett nodded. “You go have your coffee. I’ll do it. He’ll need a couple hours to sober up.”

I leaned over, giving Barrett a soft kiss. After pressing my lips to Stetson’s temple—and resisting the urge to fall asleep with him —I slipped out of bed and went to the kitchen.