about for the past year is how awesome it’ll be for us to be the first father and son in the club,” he responded.
His arm tightened around my side, like I was his lifeline. It wasn’t the first time I’d gotten that impression, but the more I learned about him, the more terrifying it was to think he was relying on me to hold him up.
“Your dad played?” That got a reaction out of him. His eyes shot open and he gaped at me, as if I’d asked the dumbest question ever. “Sorry, I told you I’ve never been a fan of baseball. My dad was okay, but he walked away when our mom found out she was pregnant with twins. I’m pretty sure he still regrets retiring, and sometimes he acted like we owed it to him to follow his dreams.”
“Huh,” PJ huffed, still staring at me. “I guess there’s a lot we don’t know about each other, huh?”
“Yeah, it seems that way.” We needed to get dressed. Sex was off the table and I didn’t want to play twenty questions while naked. Especially if we were going to talk about jobs and family and other inane topics. P
lus, it wouldn’t be long before Zach called again to see what the plan was for the day. Even if I couldn’t tell PJ, I knew I’d follow him to Miami if he was serious about the invitation. “Let’s get dressed and find something to eat. It’ll be like a first date.”
“Do you always put out before the first date?” PJ teased as he pulled clean clothes out of his bag.
“There’s a first time for everything,” I said, my words true on so many levels.
Zach wasn’t thrilled when we told him over breakfast that I was going to ride with PJ to Miami. PJ had invited him along, but Zach declined, saying he had shit to do. I knew that was bullshit since I was the one who told him what was on his schedule. Besides, twenty-four hours ago, he was ready to take some time off and just be a regular guy for a few weeks.
No, Zach was doing this because he wanted to give me time to figure out what was going on with PJ and didn’t want to be the third wheel. I’d have to find a way to thank him for that, because more than once, we’d had potential partners scared off because they didn’t want to feel like they were dating both of us.
“You heading home?” I asked as Zach shoved his suitcase into the trunk.
“Nah, I’m still going to hang around for spring training,” he said. There was a glint in his eye that told me he was up to something. I hoped like hell that something wasn’t causing issues for the Lightning. All it’d take was one phone call and he could blow the lid off this crap PJ was going through. “If I get bored, I’ll be sure to call you guys. I’m thinking you’ll be too tired to fuck within a few days.”
“Screw you,” I groaned. He wasn’t entirely wrong, but I got the impression PJ would make sure we paced ourselves so we didn’t have to take breaks. And I’d found out while we showered that he was indeed versatile and eager to screw me. My heart melted when he admitted he wasn’t going to do it in some generic hotel room, that he’d much rather wait until we got to his place. “I’ll call you later tonight to make sure you haven’t changed your mind.”
“Seriously, don’t worry about me,” Zach insisted. He draped an arm over my shoulder and pulled me in for a hug. “I’m happy for you. It’s about time you do something for yourself. I was starting to think you were going to keep trying to make my life easy until you realized it was too late for you to live for yourself.”
“It’s not like that,” I argued. “You know I’d have told you if you were taking up too much of my time. I like working for you. For one thing, not many bosses would let their employee get away with blowing five grand on a date.”
“Still, happy looks good on you,” he said before releasing me.
PJ and I waited until Zach was out of the parking lot before we climbed into his truck. We barely made it to the highway before my eyelids sagged and I drifted off to sleep.