Page 34 of The Battery

Cody

I once found the long, three-quarter turn stair in Leo’s home beautiful.

Now, I stared at an infinite gauntlet of torture.

My left hand curled around the newel post of the banister, left foot on the first step and looking up at my destination.

Go figure, I had never been upstairs before and now that I had a chance, I was an injured bird who couldn’t fly.

“I’d offer to carry you,” Leo said beside me, “but that’d be more painful. Only one option, Hill.”

“I know, I know, I’m just trying to psych myself up. If I get winded halfway through…”

Leo burst into action and in no time at all, he was at the halfway point.

Barefoot, impossibly short shorts, and a loose t-shirt.

He looked at ease in his own home. Daylight poured in through the windows along the foyer.

He would need to leave for the stadium in a few hours.

After picking me up from the hospital that morning, he likely wanted to make sure I was settled before heading out.

“Come to me,” he said in a mockingly seductive way.

I snorted, then hissed from a lance of fire shooting through my chest. I held up my right hand and pointed at him accusingly. “As much as I want to flirt with you, you really need to tone everything way, way down. I need the classic ‘leave me the hell alone’ Leo right now.”

In response, he crossed his arms and hit me with the look I needed.

Right foot up. Not bad. Leaning forward to bring up my left foot caused my chest to constrict in a way that didn’t feel good.

I resorted to one step at a time, favoring my right foot while holding onto the railing with my left hand.

Thankfully, I didn’t get winded, which I thought I would.

Any deep breathing blinded me, so everything had to be shallow and quick.

At last I reached the halfway point. Leo didn’t move or congratulate me. “Ready?” he asked. I nodded and together we ascended the rest of the stairs in no time at all.

A brightly lit hallway greeted me with white, wainscoted walls, crown molding, and golden-accented wall sconces.

“You’re to the left,” Leo said and led the way.

I ambled slowly, posture upright and stiff.

Two doors down and we were at the farthest room on the west-facing side of the house.

Leo pushed open the door. King-sized bed that looked like it could raise and lower with the touch of a button.

An Eames chair and paired ottoman in front of a gas fireplace.

A bureau as tall as me, topped with a mirror that reached the vaulted ceiling.

One door led to the en suite bathroom, another to the walk-in closet.

Two large windows made up the left side with a view of the trees separating Leo’s house from the next.

Windows on either side of the bed gave a great view of the backyard.

“This is really nice,” I said and advanced fully into the room. A wall-mounted television sat over the fireplace. A nook built into the wall held three different gaming consoles.

“Freddie swung by yesterday and dropped off a lot of your clothes. He mostly got all the comfortable ones. You should be all set for that.”

“That bed looks incredible.”

“Came recommended. There’s this mattress liner on it that heats or cools. You’ll be in seventh heaven in that thing.”

I had a flirtatious comment on the tip of my tongue that I bit down on. Instead, I said, “Can I see your room?”

Leo’s lips pursed. He weighed options, none of which I thought could possibly be serious. I just wanted to see his space.

“Sure.”

We slow-walked down a long hallway, passing by the other bedrooms and shared bathrooms. A linen closet.

Laundry room. A small study with a circular window overlooking the front yard.

His room sat opposite mine and was much larger, though the layout was mostly the same.

King-sized bed on the far wall, a nightstand on either side.

Windows, windows, windows. So much light.

A fireplace and television. Walk-in closet beside a bathroom.

I peeked inside that. Huge, tiled shower that could fit a party. Claw-foot tub.

The whole room was suffused with the scent of his cologne. I didn’t want to leave. I closed my eyes and took in as deep a breath as I could, which wasn’t much. It sounded more like a sniffing dog.

“Okay, okay, you creep,” he said and gently guided me by the shoulders back into the hallway. “I’m locking this door when I leave.”

He brought me back to my room and over to the bedside. “Try it out,” he said. “Let me know if it’s going to be good for your chest. Need help?”

I held up my hand to hold him back. I lowered my ass to the bed, then found the remote to raise the back until it was near a forty-five-degree angle. Then I rotated carefully and lowered myself, letting out a long sigh. Not too much pain.

“This is perfect. Thank you, Leo. Really, thank you.”

“Good. Now some ground rules.”

I wanted to laugh, but the anticipation of pain stopped me. “Oh, hell. Here we go.”

He sat on the bed beside me. His hand extended to cup my hip, his thumb tracing along the bone. “We’re gonna date each other.”

I snickered through my nose and felt the pain. “Leo…”

“Yes. We can have dinners or meals when I’m home for them. They can be our little dates to get to know each other. As far as I am concerned, this section of the house is yours and is as far away as your place with Freddie. I won’t cross the line in the middle of the night.”

“Dating but living together, got it.”

“Something like that. The priority is your recovery, though. Everything else takes second place. If you’re having a tough day at rehab, there’s no need to worry about ‘going on a date’ that night.

” He grabbed my hand. Our fingers interlocked.

“You’ll be in fighting condition by postseason.

I knew you’d help carry us to the pennant, Hill, and I’m not letting you off the hook this easily. I need you.”

I shot of fear lanced through me. I had no doubt Leo would work to get me in fighting condition. But… what if all this happened again? What if another return struck me in the chest again?

I shoved the fear aside. Focused on Leo.

“You have me,” I said. “Or, I should say you will .”

“Before, I just took what I wanted from you. This time, let me earn it. All right?”

I looked away for a moment. “You already earned it. You don’t need to prove anything.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. But I need to prove it to myself, at least.”

I shook my head. “Don’t carry the weight of the world. It’s just me.”

He unlaced our fingers so he could lean forward and cup my cheek.

“That’s exactly my point.” He stood so I didn’t have a chance to respond.

“Let’s go through your medication protocol.

I want to get everything set up on the kitchen counter before I leave and then make sure you’re all set.

PT comes tomorrow. They gave you exercises to do in the meantime, right? ”

“Right.”

“Good. We’ll go over those and then I need to head out to the stadium.” I had been openly staring, which caused him to falter. “What?” Leo asked.

My phone dinged in my pocket from an incoming text. “Nothing,” I said. A second ding. “You’re a machine.” A third. Fourth… fifth.

“Your moms,” Leo said, not needing me to confirm.

Leo pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned on the camera. Pointed it at me. “Smile as best you can.”

“What? Wait, why?”

Click.

I wasn’t smiling. More like giving a confused look. In seconds, Leo’s phone chimed rapidly as his thumbs danced over the screen. My eyes widened.

“Do you… Leo, do you have my moms’ numbers?”

“Yup,” he said as he continued to fire off texts, likely in response to them.

“Do you know how easy it is to bond with strangers over a…” He fumbled.

He probably wanted to say “loved one,” and we both weren’t there.

Yet. He cleared his throat and continued, “Over someone you care about? Besides, they asked me to let them know when you were settled. Come on, let’s go downstairs. ”

We went over everything that Leo indicated, all of it with rote efficiency.

He had presented me with a new notebook, this one a handcrafted, leather-bound journal where he wrote out everything that would be required of me.

He had spent my three days in the ICU penning out a schedule after speaking with doctors and the physical therapist. August would be spent getting back into shape and breathing right, September would be attending games but not playing, and then actually playing in a few minor league games at the end of the month.

Then, October. I would be back, and with a vengeance.

The dreaded hour approached and Leo asked if I needed help getting back upstairs.

After what felt like five solid minutes of argument, he relented and made me promise him that I would keep my phone on me at all times and would call for help when needed.

My sincere promise to do so seemed to placate him.

I walked with him to the mudroom that led into the garage. He was already running late but the plane wasn’t leaving without him.

“Be sure to watch tonight,” he said. “Now that you’ve lived through it, I want to hear your objective opinion when watching on the screen. There can be—”

“Leo,” I interrupted. “Stop rambling. You’re gonna be late.”

“Right,” he said. He had a duffel bag slung over one shoulder and was dressed in more appropriate shorts and a shirt.

He’d change to a suit once he reached the stadium, where they would leave from.

“Right,” he repeated. He turned to walk to the door that would bring him to the garage.

Reached it. Stopped. “Look, I know I said—”

“You give the best hugs,” I said carefully. “Nobody said we gotta be making out.”

He unslung the duffel and came to me cautiously.

I couldn’t lift my arms to sling around his neck, so he delicately placed his right hand at the nape of my neck and he pulled me in so we were at least close.

Any amount of pressure anywhere north of my waistline would be excruciating, even in the lightest circumstance.

He dropped his face in the nook of my neck.

I felt heat rise in my body. His hand caressed my face as he planted a soft kiss on my cheek.

The new stubble he sported in place of the beard tickled. I loved it.

“Text me when you can?” I said and tried to keep the desperation from my voice. He’d be on the road for the next ten days. It felt like it would be a month.

His other hand cupped the other side of my face. Both were on me now. That gaze of his, like he could see what lie behind the physical and into something ethereal.

“You’ll be okay,” he said. That was for him, I realized. It wasn’t a question or a statement to me. It was him, reassuring himself that I would be fine while he was gone.

This man. We had gone from hot and heavy trysts to cold showers, to… what was this now? The building of something strong?

“You’re making my heart beat faster,” I said with half-lidded eyes.

“I’ll text you,” he said. A soft kiss on my cheek, his lips lingering.

Then he was out the door, the smell of his cologne lingered in his wake like an amorous ghost.

*

The television in my new bedroom showed the Riders up by three runs against the Jacksonville Barracudas. The Floridians fought like hell, though. Those three runs came at a high cost. Rome had almost taken a fastball to the head if he wasn’t as quick as he was.

The announcers mentioned me from time to time and even showed some replays of the night I was hit.

I, of course, had seen these replays dozens of times.

I had no memory of waking up and the only knowledge I really had was the searing pain in my chest when I moved the wrong way.

That and the Holter monitor. A wireless pad stickied over my chest that connected to a loaner smartphone they gave me.

I wondered if they would be able to tell when, uh, certain things occurred.

I stared down at my own phone. Leo had snapped a quick pic in the locker room before game time.

I don’t know how he snuck it, but he was half naked and in the process of changing into his uniform.

I passed the time by zooming up on the tattoos in search of a new spot for the fourth pennant.

At least that’s what I told myself I was doing.

The Riders ended up losing at the end and I was half asleep when the game finished.

The bed Leo had purchased for me really was comfortable.

The temperature-regulated mattress cover used water circulating through coils to cool the bed.

In the July heat, it was perfect, even with the AC going in the house.

All the lights were off in the room save for the glare of the TV.

My head was back, the bed at the right angle, and I was about to fall asleep when my phone chimed.

Leo—letting me know he was on his way to the hotel and that he’d call shortly.

I ended up falling asleep in the short time it took him to get to his room. I tried slapping my face and clearing my throat—which hurt—to make it seem like I was still up.

I answered the video call. Leo popped up on my screen, shirtless and leaning back in his bed, one hand tucked behind his head. “How’s your pain?”

I reached to the bedside and rattled a bottle. “Dropping low now that I’ve taken my nighttime dose.”

He sucked at his teeth. “Shit. That means you’re falling asleep. I didn’t bother you, did I?”

“Oh, no.”

“Liar,” he said and shook his head. “I won’t keep you up, then.”

I didn’t want to argue that point. I truly was drifting to sleep, seemingly against my will. “Think of me when you go to sleep, okay?” I said drowsily.

“I do every night.”

“You do?”

He nodded. “I told you the only way I get to sleep…”

The swirl of drifting to sleep blocked the memory until I forced it through. Ah, yes. The hotel room. Leo, sprawled naked on a bed, touching himself while staring at me.

“The supply closet,” I said. “One of my favorites.”

“Oh yeah? Mine’s actually imaginary.”

I woke up a little at that. “Spill it.”

“Not in a million years. Get to sleep, Cody. I’ll text you in the morning.”

He hung up. That son of a bitch. I’d rage if it didn’t hurt too much.

Shortly afterward, however, a received a photo from Leo.

Perfect angle, great lighting. He must have leaned the phone against the lamp to snag the shot.

He was on the bed, sprawled out, sheet covering the only spot that mattered, his muscles lean and taught as he flexed and looked at the camera like he wanted to do bad things to whoever saw him.

I stared at it until I couldn’t keep my eyes open.