Page 19

NINETEEN

PARKER

“ O h man, I am beat,” announced Tanner, dropping his bag on the floor as the elevator doors closed behind us.

Lux hit the button for our floor. “Didn’t you sleep on the plane? You were snoring like you did.”

“I don’t snore.”

“Dude, you snore.” Ace scoffed. “Snoring like a little baby.”

“No, I don’t.”

“You’re gonna need to get it under control if you want to hook up with Millie. She won’t put up with sleeping next to a jackhammer.”

Tanner lifted his head from where it was resting on the elevator wall and frowned at Ace. “I don’t want to hook up with her. I want to be her boyfriend.”

“Saying it as it is. I like it, Tan.”

Tanner yawned wide and shrugged. “No point pussying around it. I do. You should take my advice.”

The best I could do was nod in agreement.

I didn’t bother to point out he hadn’t given any advice because I was currently lacking the energy and mental capacity to add to this conversation.

It was somewhere around three a.m. Eastern, but we were on the West Coast where we’d be enjoying the California sunshine for the next few days, before flying home via Chicago. I normally didn’t mind the travel, I could sleep anywhere, but this journey was particularly brutal. At least we could sleep until lunchtime tomorrow before we had to be over at Dodger Stadium.

The only plus side of it was the efficiency of the Lions travel department, which meant we were off our plane and onto the buses waiting for us within five minutes of touchdown, forty-five minutes after that and we arrived at our hotel for the next three nights.

Or would have been if we hadn’t got stuck in traffic.

“Was Scout on the plane?”

I opened one eye and nodded at Ace. “Yeah, she was up at the front.”

He waggled his brows in response, which I ignored, and went back to leaning against the wall with my eyes closed.

She’d been one of the last to get on the plane, and so I hadn’t had a chance to talk to her. Once we’d been wheels up, the air stewards came around with our usual postgame snacks, then it was lights out for everyone to get as much rest as we could. She’d gone onto a different bus, and I hadn’t seen her since.

Man, this elevator was taking forever.

“What room are you?”

“Sixty-two fifty.”

“I’m sixty-two forty-five. I asked to have joining rooms again so we can set the PlayStation up.”

“Not tonight, we’re going to bed.”

“In the morning.”

“Those numbers don’t sound like you’re joining,” muttered Lux, who also seemed to be giving in to the tiredness.

“If they’re not, I’m having another word with the travel team.” Tanner huffed.

I was saved from having to answer by the bell dinging to announce our floor. “Fucking finally.”

Checking the signs outside the elevator for which direction we needed to head, I took off to the left without bothering to look back.

“Night, dudes. See you manana .”

I could hear Tanner mumbling about joining rooms as he turned right and walked away.

It was impossible to stifle my yawn as I passed each door, checking the numbers until I found mine. I was so focused on getting in and collapsing on my bed, that I didn’t immediately notice a small, person-sized lump slumped on the floor at the end of the corridor. But as I got closer, it became very clear that there was indeed a person sitting on the floor, knees pulled into her chest.

One more step and I realized that this person was my person.

Tiredness whooshed so quickly from my body that I almost saw it flying back the way I’d come, while a million questions whirled around in my brain—mostly, was I really this lucky that Scout was waiting for me? Because if so, screw sleep.

Although it looked like she was asleep.

“Scout?”

Blue eyes flew open to meet mine, and she let out a yawn wide enough I had to stifle my own. “Parker?”

I stopped in front of her, holding my hand out for her to stand up. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m waiting for housekeeping. What are you doing here?”

Glancing at the door she’d been sitting against, I spotted the numbers 6248. “This is your room?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

I spun to the door behind us. Sixty-two forty-nine.

Holy shit.

This was way better than being next to Tanner. If he’d been in this room, I’d currently be having a conversation about what time we’d kick up the PlayStation. Or at the very least, ignoring him while he talked about PlayStation.

The Lions travel gods must have been shining on me.

I glanced once more at my key card just to double-check I wasn’t imagining things. Nope. I was correct. For the next three nights, Scout and I had adjoining rooms.

“I’m next door to you.” I grinned. “But what are you doing out here? Doesn’t your key work?”

She nodded, her shoulder dropping with a loud sigh. Not exactly the response I was expecting after delivering the best news ever. “Yeah, it works.”

“Then why are you sitting outside?”

“There’s a bird in there.”

“A what?”

“A bird. Or was, I dunno now.”

“There’s a bird in your room?”

She nodded and rubbed her eyes. “Yup.”

My focus flicked to the door and back to her. “I know it’s three a.m., but could you rewind a little?”

“When I got to my room, someone…housekeeping…I dunno, had left the balcony door open. And there was a bird sitting on the bed. A massive bird.”

“A bird?” I repeated.

“Yes, a seagull or something. Anyway, it’s massive and crapped everywhere. I walked in, it started flapping, I screamed and ran out. And now I’m here.”

My body might have woken the second I’d spotted Scout sitting on the floor, but my brain was still struggling to catch up.

“Did you say housekeeping was coming?”

She nodded. “Yeah, but that was…” She glanced at her phone. “Twenty minutes ago.”

“Did you go back in?”

“No way. I called them from my cell, and I called the travel team, but no one’s answered. I guess everyone is asleep.”

Taking a deep breath, I held my hand out before I could decide whether what I was about to do was really fucking dumb, or the best idea I’d ever had.

“This is my key, I’m next door. Go and take your stuff in there and give me your key.”

“Parker…” She frowned. “We’re not swapping rooms.”

I shook my head. “No, but we need to get rid of the bird before we make any decisions, and housekeeping hasn’t arrived yet. Give me your key,” I repeated.

Placing it in my hand, she swapped them out, though the expression on her face never changed. It still told me she thought I was nuts.

A possibility.

“I’ll be a couple of minutes,” I told her. “Go on, go next door. If you’re going to sit down, at least make it a couch. Leave the latch on for me to get in.”

“Okay.” She picked up her bag, hoisted it over her shoulder, and trundled a couple of yards down to my room, giving me one final look before entering.

I swiped the key over her lock and carefully pushed open the door. The light was still on from when she’d entered earlier, the drapes at the end of her room flapped from the swirl of air, and there on the bed, where she said it had been, was a very large seagull. Though from a distance it could be mistaken for a small dog.

This is not how I thought my night would go.

The bird stared at me, with its big beak and beady eyes.

From the looks of the half-eaten bowl of fruit on the table, it had clearly been making itself at home, and from all the crap on the floor and desk, he’d been here a while. Though I couldn’t understand why he hadn’t left already, even if the room was cozier than a Los Angeles rooftop somewhere.

As my eyes scanned around, I spotted the problem. The drapes had blown into the room and were blocking the gap the bird had come in from. All I needed to do was open the door wider and move the drapes.

“Easy, fella, I’m going to help you out…” I inched along the far wall, avoiding the crap on the floor. “Because, you might not know it, but you’re helping me out.”

He watched as I eased open the window, and pulled the drapes back far enough that I could wedge them behind the chair in the corner to stop them falling back in place.

“There you go.” I gestured to him, the first time in my life I’d ever had a conversation with a bird. The bird didn’t move. “Okay, suit yourself. But you can’t stay here forever, and I’m going to bed.”

Passing by the connecting door, I flicked the lock to open, saluted the bird good night, and let myself out the way I came.

I found Scout on the couch, kind of slumped against the cushion, doing her best to stay awake. The noise from me dropping my bag on the floor had her sitting upright.

“Was it still there?”

I nodded with a grin. “Yep. He said thanks for the bed.”

“Ugh. I am so tired.” She groaned. “Housekeeping didn’t arrive?”

I shook my head. “Did you try them again?”

“Yeah, but no one answered.”

“I’ll call them. But…” I paused, momentarily questioning my sanity. “You can sleep here tonight.”

Scout stared at me, I could see every single thought running through her brain, which was almost exactly the same thoughts I was having. Except she probably wasn’t worrying about how she’d keep her hands to herself while she slept next to me.

Because that’s all I could think about. Maybe I could fashion a straitjacket out of my sweater.

But whatever decision she was battling, tiredness won. “Are you sure? I’ll sleep right here. I won’t be any bother.” She patted a spot on the couch next to her.

I shook my head. “Uh-uh. No. You’ll take the bed, my momma would never allow me to sleep on the bed while a girl took the couch. Do you want to go and get ready or whatever you need to do? I’m going to run back down to the front desk.”

“Parker, you have a game tomorrow. You need rest,” she argued.

“I’m good. I’ll be back in fifteen,” I blurted, running back out so quickly I forgot to grab the key. But there was no way I was sticking around while she got changed into pajamas or whatever.

And that’s when it occurred to me. What did Scout wear to bed? What if it was panties and a tank, or worse…nothing?

Oh fuuuck.

Maybe I should go and sleep with Tanner. His snoring had to be a thousand times better than the torture of sleeping next to Scout in panties.

And then I remembered that I usually slept naked and I couldn’t exactly do that now. Nor could I even remember if I’d packed anything appropriate for sleeping.

What the fuck had I set myself up for?

I panicked about it all the way down to the lobby. All through the conversation with the front desk about what a shit show Scout’s room had been while they apologized profusely and promised to fix it immediately. Then I panicked all the way back up to the room, where I trudged slowly out of the elevator and down the corridor, trying to prolong the freedom I had before my suffering began for real.

Sleeping next to Scout. Something I’d dreamed about for nearly a year, but not like this. Not with the torture of not being able to touch her.

My bedtime routine included a jerk-off in the shower, but I wouldn’t even be able to do that. Not with Scout less than ten feet away.

Stopping outside the room, I gave it another minute to both summon the courage to knock and give her longer to get dressed, or undressed. Whatever.

Fuck my life.

I rapped hard on the door. Scout opened it so quickly I had a feeling she’d been waiting for me.

Immediately I was assaulted with the scent of lavender and fresh cotton, warm and heady, with a hint of toothpaste lingering in the air. It should have been enough to make me fall asleep there and then, except it had the opposite effect.

My body pinged awake as I stepped inside and took her in. Her hair was tied up with one of those bow things girls wore, her face so clean and shiny it almost sparkled. She wasn’t in bra and panties, it was worse. I don’t know how or why, but it was much, much worse.

A full pajama set covered in baseballs.

Baseballs, baseball gloves, baseball bats.

A wet dream come to life.

A freight train couldn’t have stopped my mouth falling open.

“I know, it’s dumb,” she tugged on the hem of her shirt, completely misreading my expression, “but they’re my lucky pajamas. I bring them on every away series I come to, and so far they have an eighty-seven percent success rate.”

“Are you telling me that eighty-seven percent of the time you’ve worn those, we’ve won?”

She nodded. “Yeah, on away series.”

“Well…they’re definitely not dumb. And maybe you should travel with us more often. In fact, you tell Penn Shepherd that and he’ll have us all wearing them.” Scout meant to laugh, I’m sure of it, but instead she snorted loudly. Her hands flew up to her mouth as my eyes widened. “Maybe I should go and sleep with Tanner, he might snore, but he definitely doesn’t snort.”

This time her face fell into her hands. “Oh no, I’m so sorry. I’m really putting you out.”

“Davison, enough. You aren’t at all. It’s only one night, it’s no big deal.”

She turned around to face the bed, though it was more like the elephant in the room, then back to me. “I don’t want you on the couch, it’s not fair.”

“I’m fine on the co?—”

She held her hand up. “Let me finish. I was thinking the bed is so big, that we could just build a line of pillows down the middle then it’s like we’re in separate beds. My brother and I used to do that when we were kids.”

I pointed to the bed. “You want me to sleep in there? With you?”

She must have sensed the nervousness in my voice, or seen it all over my face, because her tone became way more assertive than it had been two minutes ago.

“Yes. We’re both adults, right? Nothing’s going to happen. And it would make me feel a whole lot less guilty.”

“Okay…sure, we can try your pillow line.” My eyes flicked to the bathroom, thank fuck it was a proper bathroom with a closing door and not one of those all-access area type ones without walls. “You get it ready, and I’m going to hit the shower, and I’ll see you back here in five…no, ten.”

I’d probably only need thirty seconds for what I had planned.

“Sure.” She smiled, her fresh pink cheeks reflecting the downlights. “I can do that.”

I snatched up my overnight bag and marched into the bathroom.

“Which side do you sleep?” she called out as I locked the door, staring at myself in the mirror, still trying to find any clue as to what I thought I was doing but it was nowhere to be found.

“Doesn’t matter. Whichever side you don’t want.”

I didn’t bother to add it was unlikely I’d be getting any sleep at all.

Turning the shower on full blast, I stripped off. The baseball gods must have taken pity on me because as I waited for it to reach that scalding temperature I really loved before bed, I rummaged through my travel bag and found some workout shorts and a T-shirt I didn’t remember packing.

The second I stepped under the water my dick hardened, a Pavlovian response to a nighttime routine. I reasoned for both our sakes it was better to follow through with jerking off than risk Scout being nudged awake in the night if I rolled too close.

Pillow fort be damned.

As predicted, it took me less than a minute—thanks to the very real fantasy in my bed and one flimsy hotel wall between us—before the force of my orgasm punched me so hard that I needed to prop myself up. Almost immediately, tiredness took over.

I’d been awake for eighteen hours, played an intense game of baseball, flown across three time zones, and tried to extract a Labrador-sized bird from Scout’s bed.

I was done.

Scout was scrolling on her phone over the far side of the bed beyond a wall of pillows so high I could barely see her in the dim light. She’d even taken the cushions from the couch.

“Are you okay over there?” I chuckled, setting my phone to charge on my side of the bed.

“Yes, I’m good. Any water left?”

“I left you enough,” I replied, sliding between the sheets, and switched off the light only to immediately flick it back on again. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay, you can turn it off.”

There’s something about having a conversation in the dark, whispered, reverential almost. Even the most trivial topics become memorable—I knew I’d never forget this, anyway.

“What time do you have to be at practice tomorrow?”

“We report at one p.m. I’ll sleep late, what about you?”

“I’m meeting the team at ten thirty.”

“Do you need the alarm set?”

“No, I’ll wake up. I’ll move back next door so I don’t wake you, the cleaning crew came in. The bird is gone.”

“That’s good.” I chuckled, staring up at the ceiling as my eyes adjusted to the darkness until a soft glow shrouded the room.

“Is this the mattress you have at home?” The gruff, sleep-coated tone of Scout’s voice was not going to help me fall asleep.

“Yeah, awesome, isn’t it.”

“So comfy, I feel like I’m on a cloud.”

“Same.”

“Parker?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for sharing your bed with me.”

“Anytime.”

“Good night, Parker.”

“Night, Davison.”

There was silence.

I held my breath, waiting for the moment when she finally succumbed to tiredness and her breathing leveled. Thirty seconds passed…sixty…and then the pillow between our heads moved, and I found myself staring at Scout’s sleep-filled face barely six inches away.

Her warm breath ghosted over my skin. Her eyes barely opened as she leaned in and brushed her lips against my cheek. They burned as a brand would, intensely hot and shocking me awake.

Call it tiredness. Call it whatever you want. But a man can only take so much of having the girl he’s wanted for a year lying in bed next to him.

Twelve months of pent-up frustration, of longing, of lusting after this girl in my bed, and I couldn’t hold it anymore. The feel of her lips on my skin was a step too far.

My fingers speared through her hair, pushing into her pale gold strands, barely held together with the tie until they loosened in my hands, and I pulled her to me.

My mouth surrounded hers, spearmint and peppermint clashing as my tongue slid inside, warm and wet.

A soft moan rumbled up her throat and down mine as she relaxed into me. Warm fingers tickled my beard, my grip tightened on the back of her head, trying and failing to get closer, deeper. I needed more, but the mountain of pillows between us thwarted me, though without their protection, I knew I’d already be nestling myself between her thighs.

That one truth had me pulling away, because when the time came, it wouldn’t be an exhausted and rushed ten minutes. No, I planned to worship her for hours.

Her eyes were still closed when I pressed my lips to hers one last time and rested back on my pillow, falling into the deepest sleep I had for months.

When I woke up, she may have been gone, but I was still wearing the smile I’d had when I closed my eyes.