Page 36

THIRTY-SIX

TEDDY

T he hotel is fancy as fuck. My Crocs make a squeaky sound on the tile floor that’s as shiny as a mirror. I bet if I had a skirt on, you could see right up it, in the reflection. Being a girl must be exhausting.

Rhys is waiting in the lobby, and he grabs my hand and pulls me into the elevator without so much as a howdy-duty. I don’t know what’s going on, but he said he needed me, so here I am.

In the elevator, he pins me to the wall and buries his face in my chest. I drop my duffle bag and wrap my arms around him.

“Are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” he grumbles.

I kiss the top of his head. “Are you going to tell me about it first?”

He looks up at me. “First?”

“I can’t tell if you need to fuck some of the tension out or talk or both.”

He chuckles and lays his cheek against my chest. “I just need you.”

“You got me. What’s next?”

The elevator dings and we step off, Rhys holding my hand down the hallway. He opens the door and I’ve barely put my bag down when he starts talking and doesn’t stop. Something about selling a company, not being the firstborn, his dad not preparing him for this, Owen making suicide jokes, family bonds, and three-inches of paperwork, which anyway you think of it doesn’t seem possible. How tiny is that font if the contract is only three inches? No wonder he’s frustrated, he probably can’t read that tiny writing.

Anyway, my baby is spiraling hard.

“You’re overthinking this.” I grab Rhys’ shoulders and shake him a little to make him stop.

“Overthinking it?”

“Yeah. It’s a real mood killer. You’d be a lot happier if you didn’t think so much.” I shrug. “Just let the world be your guy-stir.”

“I can’t begin to figure out what that means.”

“It means just chill. Let things happen as they will.” The ‘duh’ is implied. Obviously.

“What is a guy-stir?”

I love when he gets confused. There are so many terms he doesn’t know. It’s cute. His eyebrows pull together and make those little lines above his nose. So adorable.

“It’s one of those hot water things that, like, blows up. They’re in Yellowstone.”

“A geyser?”

“That’s what I said.”

“I promise it’s not. Also, that’s not what the saying is.”

“Sure it is. The world is your guy-stir. People say that.”

“Oh sweet summer child,” Rhys sighs.

“I told you I was born in the spring. Do you have a short-term memory problem? Take one too many pucks to the head?” The team doc should probably take note of this.

“ The world is your oyster, is the saying.” He shakes his head. “And no, I do not have a memory issue.”

“Why would the world be an oyster? They don’t even have legs. Or fins or whatever.” I’m trying to picture them in my head. “Are those the ones that look like little vaginas when you cook them?”

Rhys narrows his eyes like he’s thinking about something. “Do you know that oysters can move? And no, those are mussels.”

“Oysters have muscles? Now you’re just being ridiculous.” I push him back to sit on the bed and climb into his lap. Straddling him to distract him with my sexiness.

He runs his hands up my chest, which tells me it’s working at least a little. “How would letting your world be a geyser be a good thing? It’s a hot spring that randomly explodes with boiling water and steam. That sounds like a horrible way to live.”

“Nah, it means don’t worry about the shit that happens later. Go be the amazing natural wonder of the world, and explode on assholes who put too much pressure on you. Stop stressing out your skull jello. You’ll be happier. Like me.”

He smiles and wraps his arms around my hips. “You do seem like a pretty happy guy.”

“I am because I don’t use my brain for things.” Wait. Is that what I meant? It doesn’t matter.

He chuckles this time and it gives me the hot fluffies again.

“Why do you call it skull jello?”

“You ever seen a brain? They jiggle like jello.” I hold my hands out and shake them like a bowl of jelly.

“How have you seen a brain in real life?”

I shrug. “My mom is a science person.”

“She’s a chemist! Why does she have brains?”

“I don’t know! I don’t do the science stuff, and I don’t ask questions I don’t want the answer to. I’m not going to be implicated in a murder.”

Rhys leans forward and rests his forehead against my chest with a groan.

“You’re stressing your skull jello again,” I tsk.

“Stop calling it that or I’ll never be able to eat jello again.”

“You shouldn’t eat it anyway. It’s gross. It’s made of like bones or horse’s hooves or something.”

Rhys lifts his head and looks at me. “Jello is gross? I think that’s the only food I’ve ever heard you dislike.”

“Nope, I also don’t like cinnamon candy. That shit is an assault on my mouth.”

He laughs this time, and I love that smile.

Fuck. I should tell him I love him. But what if he doesn’t love me back? Then I’ll just be here, in his lap, with an awkward stiffy.

“I’m pretty sure my dick has assaulted your mouth more than my gum has.” The smile on his face drops and now he looks concerned.

“What?”

He shakes his head, and I hate all the sadness smooshed into his face. I kiss him and wrap my arms around his neck wanting to make it better.

I like being with him. I love having sex with him. I love making him laugh and when he smiles at me. I like talking to him and spending time with him and texting. I love that we both play hockey so we don’t have to explain the schedule or what’s happening in the games.

Just say the words. I love you. Just say it.

I kiss him, but his energy is still sad. “I have a present for you.”

“Oh no,” he groans. “What is it?”

“You’ll have to open it and find out.” I grab my bag and pull out the gift bag I shoved in there.

“I was wondering why you had a duffle bag. I see it was for nefarious purposes.”

I hand him the slightly crinkled brown gift bag with green tissue paper sticking out the top, and he looks at it like it might bite him. Silly man, I’m the only thing allowed to bite him.

“What is it?”

“Just open it! Don’t ruin this for me!” I’m too excited to sit. My entire body is tense as I try to hold the energy in.

Rhys pulls out the paper, looks inside, and freezes. “You’re kidding right?”

I burst forward, no longer able to hold still. “They’re awesome, right?! I didn’t even know you could get college branded Crocs until you bought mine!”

I rip them out of the bag and hold them up. The top of the shoe is dark blue, and the bottom is a sparkly silvery white with the Gods’ logo in silvery white over the middle. I added a green snake charm to the top of one too.

“Try them on!”

“What?!”

After ripping all the tags off, I drop them on the ground and pull him to his feet. “Come on! You’ll see how comfy they are. Try them in comfort mode first. Trust me, these are life changing.”

“I cannot be seen in these things!”

“Come on, put your foot in it.” I drop to a crouch at his feet to help him. This is obviously a very difficult thing for him. Maybe he’s afraid of change. I have to baby step him.

“I am not putting those things on.”

“Why not? Do you hate comfort? I thought about getting you ones with a snake-skin design on them, but those were lame. These have glitter. Obviously, these are superior.” I look at his feet. “Oh, you have socks on, gotta take those off.”

I grab his ankle, and he lets me lift it to pull the sock off. Before I put his foot down, I slip the shoe on, and he groans.

“See? Heaven, right?”

“Why are they bumpy?”

“I don’t know, something about pressure points?” I shrug. “I heard once that if you push on the right spot on your foot, it’ll make you shit. That has to be fake—I hope—I don’t want to shit in my Crocs.” I grab his other foot and pull the sock off, slipping the other shoe on, then sit back and admire them.

“Admit it, they’re amazing and you never want to put feet binders on again.”

“Feet binders?”

“Shoes. They’re too constricting. It’s much better when your feet have room.”

“Shoes are not feet binders. They’re shoes and if you get the right size, they don’t constrict anything.”

“Pfft. These are better.” I stand and grab his face to kiss him. “Be silly with me. I promise you’ll feel better.”

“How does pretending nothing is wrong make things better?” Rhys rests his forehead against mine and I wrap my arms around his shoulders.

“It’s not pretending nothing is wrong, it’s focusing on the better stuff. How much of what happens with Oliver and Owen and the company do you really have control over?”

“Because of how many shares I own, I have a vote in what happens. I don’t have to be involved, but they need my vote to win.”

“Do you want to be involved with your brothers and the business?”

“I don’t know. I want to have brothers, and I guess I want them to like me, but I don’t understand a lot of it and it’s a lot of money.”

“So this is about money? Cause money isn’t everything.”

“It’s not just money. It’s a lot of trust and it feels so heavy.” Rhys drops his head back on his shoulders.

“Or is it about wanting your brothers in your life? Because if it’s one or the other, I’m picking my brother. He’s a pain in the ass, but I’d still pick him.”

“It’s a mind-boggling amount of money. I could set up my mom and myself for life. She wouldn’t have to struggle anymore.”

“Do you need more money? I thought you got a butt load when your dad died.” Seems easy to me. I have to help him untangle his head. His anxiety is really off the charts. He needs to talk to someone about that. For as much money as he has, it’s super weird to worry about more.

“I did.”

“Then why would you want more?” I give him a hard look so he takes me seriously, while planning to help him get a therapy appointment.

“It’s not about wanting more. It’s about losing it and the stress of keeping the company because then I have to learn a lot about it.” Rhys sighs.

I stare, pretty sure he’s missing the obvious. “Do they need your help? Because I thought you said Oliver didn’t want it and you were just stressed about that.”

“You really do listen to me.”

“And if you sit here and stew on it, be all jumble-y belly and sad face, how much is that going to change the future? Zero. You don’t know what you don’t know yet. So you might as well focus on the better things and just deal with the harder shit as it comes, or you’re robbing yourself of the good shit. You said there’s a lawyer? Let him figure out, no sense in worrying about things you don’t know.”

“You have a good point.”

“If you don’t need the money, and you don’t want to be involved in the business, just let Oliver deal with all the stress and the hard stuff and then you two can have a good relationship. Easy peasy.”

“That’s…remarkably smart, even if it hurts my head a little.”

“Being smart is a lot of work. That’s why I try not to do it often.” I give him a very serious nod. “I’m telling everyone you think I’m smart.”

“Yeah? Who? Your mom?”

“Yes.”

Rhys kisses my nose. “Why are you so adorable?”

“Because I focus on now instead of letting Future Teddy’s problems weigh me down today. It makes me awesome, and that’s why everyone likes me.”

“I love you,” Rhys says against my lips.

I’m jump scared by his words. I might have screamed. But we are going to ignore that.

How did he know I’ve been thinking about love all day? I can’t believe he said it first. He really said it? I stare into his eyes, realizing how happy I am.

“Well, that’s not good.” Rhys pulls back.

“What?!” I ask, grabbing him so he can’t get away.

“Nothing.” He keeps fighting my hold, but I do not let him go.

“It’s something!” And then I realize I was so surprised I didn’t say it back! “Rhys! Do not try to escape. I love you too!”

“Don’t say it just because I’m upset and you feel like you have to.”

“I’m not! I swear I’m not. I would never do that!”

He keeps fighting me.

“Rhys Gregory Godfrey, listen to me right now!” I yell.

He gets a funny look on his face. “Why do you think my middle name is Gregory?”

Why do I think that? “Just sounded like it would fit.”

“It’s not.”

“What is your middle name?” I ask.

“I’m not telling you now.” He finally gets away from me.

I cross my arms over my chest. “Listen to me. I don’t care what your middle name is, but I do know I love you, Rhylander Godfrey.”

He starts laughing and I’m left confused. “What?”

“You can’t really think my name is Rhylander…”

“Tobi told me it was ages ago.”

Rhys keeps laughing. “He lied to you.”

I narrow my eyes. “That buttfucker.”

“I can’t believe you just believed him!”

“Well, I’m sorry, but did you hear me? I love you!”

“You love me but you don’t know my name?” he asks, but he’s fighting a smile.

“What is Rhys short for?”

“Nothing, it’s just Rhys.”

“That seems weird,” I say like all names aren’t weird. They are just sounds we made up to call people like dogs. In fact, come to think of it language is just weird, and I don’t like it.

“Do you really love me?” Rhys asks.

I nod very seriously.

“Then why didn’t you say it back?”

“Because I was in my mind palace thinking about how happy I am and I forgot.”

“Well I guess that tracks….”

Standing in the lobby of the fancy as fuck hotel the next morning, Rhys’ phone buzzes with a text.

“Car is here,” he says, reaching for me. I link our fingers, and we grab our bags to head outside, side by side.

We’re barely past the doors when Rhys stops and I’m forced to, as well.

“Fuck,” he says under his breath and I look up to find my brother standing there with his lip trembling, hands shaking, and tears threatening to fall.

“I fucking knew it.” The words are harsh through his clenched teeth. “Both of you have been lying to me for fucking months. How could you?”

“Tobi—” Rhys starts but is cut off.

“Shut up!” Tobi yells. “I don’t want to hear any more of your lies!”

My heart is fractured and ripping apart a little more with every word. We knew this was going to happen, but we pretended it wasn’t. It’s our fault he’s hurt. My fault.

“Tobs, I’m sorry.” Each word hurts to get out.

He turns those betrayed eyes on me. “Get fucked, Theodore.” He laughs but there’s no humor in it. “I guess you already are. Congrats on stealing the one thing, the one person, I had that wasn’t yours.”

What the hell does that mean?

He laughs that broken sound again but ends with a sob. “I hate you.”

“That’s not fair,” Rhys moves closer to Tobi. “This isn’t all on him.”

“No, you knew how I felt about him—” he points an angry finger at me “—and you did this behind my back anyway.” Tobi sucks in a shuddering breath and points to Rhys. “You lied to my face. Some best friend you are. I’ve seen him over at your place. A lot more than just when you needed to talk about whatever bullshit was going on with your brothers. There’s nothing fake about what’s going on here.” He looks ready to throw hands, so I step between them. If Tobi wants to hit someone, it’ll be me. I more than deserve it at this point.

He keeps talking to Rhys like I’m not there. “You are so oblivious, so wrapped up in your own shit, that you didn’t see me sitting right fucking there when you walked past.”

What the fuck? I checked his location before Rhys got there, every time. Did he shut it off? Hide his phone in some other location?

“I even saw you after I texted you, watched you look at the screen, and ignore it.” His voice breaks on the last two words. His breathing is a mess and he’s starting to lose his composure. He’s starting to cry and it’s a knife in my gut. I can’t take my eyes off my brother’s face, off the agony etched into every line. We did this to him. I did this to him.

“And you.” He looks murderous for a second but in the next blink, he’s broken. His shoulders droop, his hands loosen at his side, and the tension in his face goes away. He shrugs and shakes his head. “No point in wasting my words for something you’ll never understand anyway.”

My brother turns and walks away without a backward glance. Not that I blame him.

I’m the enemy. I am a traitor. But it wasn’t against my team. It was against my own brother.