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THIRTY-SEVEN

RHYS

“ D o you need a hug?” Wolfe asks when I walk into practice the next day.

I glance around, sure there must be someone behind me Wolfe is talking to. “Me?”

“Obviously.” Wolfe opens his arms.

“Will you leave the kid alone? You’re scaring him.” Seaborn shoves him, but because Wolfe is so massive, he doesn’t move an inch, which is wild because Seaborn is an enforcer. A type of defensive player whose entire job in the sport is to go after other defensive players who are going too hard on his offense. He’s big and made to pick fights.

“I am not. He needs a hug,” Wolfe argues, trying to shove Seaborn back who also is an immoveable wall.

Not the two dudes I want to be stuck between.

“You can’t just ambush a guy,” Seaborn says, annoyed.

“If you’ll just let me get by so I can get dressed.” I try to step around them, but they are taking up the entire hallway just inside the locker room.

“Hug first.”

“Down Wolfe.” Seaborn snaps his fingers.

“I’m not your pet! I have an owner!”

Both Seaborn and I stare at Wolfe.

He grins like a shark and shrugs.

“Anyway, can I just get by?” I ask again.

“No, even if you reject Wolfe’s weird advances, we need to know you’re okay.” Seaborn crosses his arms.

“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” I ask. I’m not okay, but what the fuck else is new? My entire life is crumbling around me.

“Lancelot texted me and told me you’re not doing so hot.” Wolfe starts side-eyeing Seaborn.

“We were told that your best friend is mad at you. Do we need to get the team psychologist out here? Teddy said it might help with your anxiety, which has been bad lately, to have your chickpeas aligned, whatever that means. But it sounds serious.” Seaborn looks more serious than I’ve ever seen him.

“Is this an intervention?” I scrub a hand over my face. It was a mistake introducing them. Fuck my life.

They exchange a glance.

“Maybe,” Wolfe admits.

“You did miss your shot against your boyfriend and we are worried you’re stressed out. There are actually a lot of medications that can be taken while playing NCAA sports that we can have the psychologist look into.” Seaborn puts his hand on my shoulder.

I look at the ceiling. “I’m fine.”

“We know you’re not.” Wolfe wraps me up in a hug. “You can’t gaslight us!”

“Consent, my dude,” Seaborn says from somewhere behind Wolfe.

I would object, but I can’t breathe, so I wait until Wolfe puts me down to speak. “Okay, I’m not fine, my life is falling apart around me and there is nothing I can do about it. That’s it.”

“Do you want me to call off the dogs?” Cox calls out from behind the wall of muscle.

“Please!” I say, hoping he’ll be a voice of reason.

“Down boys.” Cox laughs.

Wolfe and Seaborn glance over their shoulders.

“We are trying to help,” Wolfe says.

“I’ll get Archangel.” Cox says in an almost parental tone.

Wolfe grumbles. “I will be checking in to make sure he talked to someone! Therapy is for dudes too!”

“You done too?” Cox asks Seaborn.

“I’m the muscle. I’m just doing what I’m told.” He holds up his hands. “We just want our homie to be well.”

“I got it from here,” Cox says and I could hug him.

“At least you’ll tell coach if he’s not doing okay,” Seaborn says, seeming to feel better about things before going to change.

“You okay?” Cox asks.

“Just more of the same. My brothers just want me to side with them. I’m barely speaking to my mother, and my best friend found out I’m dating his brother right after he professed feelings to me. I feel like I have no one.” It hits me in the chest as I say it. I guess I’m worried that Teddy will stop seeing me if Tobi is too upset about it, but I don’t say that part out loud. “So it’s been a week.”

“Fuck bro. Do you need to sit this practice out? Take some time for yourself? I can talk to Coach.”

I shake my head. “The ice is the only place I feel semi-normal.”

“Fair. I’m the same,” he hesitates. “Let me know if that changes. Okay?”

“Okay.” I walk past him to go to my cubby.

“Hey, Rhys.” Cox calls.

I turn back around. “Yeah?”

“You know we’re your family, right? The whole team? Wolfe and Seaborn and all the guys wouldn’t do that shit if they weren’t worried about you.” Cox’s words sink in and he’s right.

They have become my family, and if that’s all I have, that’s a lot more than most people do.

“Thank you.”

I decide during practice that I need to go talk to Oliver myself. I can at least work out one of my issues since I tried to talk to Tobi, and he has my number blocked. I get a car to Oliver’s office, figuring he’ll still be there.

Frank is at the desk outside his door when I step out of the elevator. “Rhys! So nice to see you. I’ll tell him you’re here.”

“Thank you.”

Frank winks, and it makes me want to go to a few of the leather clubs in the city just to see him in action. Merely for curiosity’s sake. I bet Teddy would go with me…

“You can go on in, honey,” Frank says.

I give a nod of thanks and push into Oliver’s office.

He stands with his hands clasped behind his back, looking out over the Hudson.

“I’ll do whatever you want,” I say, keeping it short.

“What brought on the sudden change of heart?” Oliver asks without looking at me.

“Teddy had some great insight and helped me see what really matters.”

Oliver lifts a brow, glancing over. “Your boyfriend Teddy had insight?”

“He’s brilliant sometimes.”

“What words of wisdom did he deliver?”

I laugh. “He told me that if I don’t need the money, and I don’t want to be involved to just let you handle it. You’re good at it and it’s stupid to take on the stress and hard stuff when you want to and while I’m dealing with everything else. Then he asked me if a relationship with you and Owen was more important than money I don’t need. I decided I’d rather try to be brothers than try to control something, at the end of the day, I really don’t want to care about.”

Oliver stays silent for a long moment, considering my words. “I’m astonished. He is brilliant and I do not say such things lightly.”

“He’s really great.”

“Keep that one,” Oliver says, amused. “Advice I never thought I’d give.”

“I’m going to try.”

“Do more than try. Godfreys don’t try,” he scoffs like I should know better.

“I’m worried he’ll choose his brother over me and I can’t really blame him for that.”

“You have so much to learn.” Oliver considers me for another minute. “Never go into a battle without the odds stacked in your favor. Don’t allow any other choice to be an option. Fix it. There are few things that can’t be obtained with enough money, time, or blackmail.”

“His brother is in love with me.” I don’t know why I’m telling Oliver any of this.

“A difficult situation, sure, but I’ve seen the way the himbo looks at you,” he says himbo like it puts a bad taste in his mouth and I laugh.

“How does he look at me?”

“Like you put galaxies into the universe and he can see them for the first time.”

“I guess orgasms will do that,” I mutter.

Oliver’s lip curls in disgust. “I could have gone my entire life without that information.”

“You’re welcome.” I shake my head. “Now what do I need to do?”

“Wait, if it comes to a vote, I’ll call you. But knowing you’re on our side, I hope it won’t come to that.”

“You’re going into battle already having won it, aren’t you?”

“I don’t give advice I don’t follow myself.”

After we say our goodbyes, I take a car to Summerset, determined to see Tobi. I walk in behind someone and go to his floor.

I knock on his door and wait.

He opens it, spots me then slams it.

But I stick my foot in it, so it doesn’t shut all the way.

That’s going to hurt later.

“Tobi, please talk to me.”

“No.” He tries to shut the door again. “Move your foot.”

“Not until you hear me out.”

“There is nothing you can say to me. You lied to me.”

“I know. I’m so fucking sorry. I should have just told you, but I didn’t know how. I half convinced myself it wasn’t more than a sexual thing and by the time I realized how serious it was I didn’t want to hurt you.” I press my forehead into his door, feeling like the biggest jackass in the world. “But I didn’t know you liked me. I would never have done anything with him had I known.”

“It’s too fucking late now.”

“I know,” I whisper. “I don’t want to lose you.”

“But you’re not going to stop seeing him.”

“I love him.” I admit because I’d rather he hears it from me than Teddy.

Tobi takes a shaky breath, holding back a sob, and it rips my heart out. “Can you leave now?”

“I love you too. It’s just different.”

“It’s not the same at all.”

“Yes, it is. It would kill me to lose your friendship. You are so important to me.” I don’t know how to get through to him, or if that’s even possible.

“But you’re willing to lose me to keep him.”

“No, if you really want me to break up with him, I will.” I’m not really sure that’s true, but it just comes out of my mouth and maybe it would be the right thing to do. I don’t know anymore. It would kill me to lose Teddy, but it would also kill me to lose Tobi. This feels impossible.

“It doesn’t matter. You’ll never love me, so do whatever you want.” His tone turns cold.

“I’m sorry. But I do still need you.”

“I need time. Please respect that.”

“Okay,” I say but it breaks my heart.