Page 10 of Saved By the Pitcher

Maria dropped her eyes. “It may have been muttered at some point.”

James’ anger rose, and he turned an accusatory gaze on his brother. “Billy! What the fuck? Why would you do that?”

Billy held up his hands in defense. “It wasn’t a big deal, was it? I’m sure he knows some guys are into him, too. It just slipped out. Sort of.”

James snarled. “How does that just slip out? Hey, you’re Mike Cooper? My name is Billy Vicksburg and oh, by the way, my brother wanked to your poster in high school? Jesus!”

Maria looked uncomfortable. “Don’t get upset, James. And don’t use the Lord’s name in vain.”

“That’s the thing that shouldn’t have been said?” James shouted to Maria. “My brother just told a famous person that I masturbated when I looked at his poster!”

Nadia shrugged. “I agree with Billy. You and thousands of other people did the same thing. Do you think Cooper is so naïve that he poses for underwear ads and doesn’t realize there are guys as well as girls fantasizing about him?”

“I repeat, I never said I did what Billy accused me of. That’s Billy’s dirty mind projecting,” James protested.

Billy smirked. “Dude, there were dozens of posters of Mike Cooper in uniform you could have bought. The only reason an eighteen-year-old buys the one where the idol is shirtless is because he’s boning for him. And let’s face it, at that age—you were going to jerk off to something. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the picture was just as much inspiration as the Cindy Crawford bathing suit poster you had hanging next to it.”

“Okay, puppy,” Maria chastised. “Stop embarrassing your brother.”

James wiped a hand over his now sweating upper lip. “This is a nightmare.”

Billy shook his head. “I don’t think so. If Mike Cooper isn’t into dudes, it didn’t seem to bother him when I made the comment. He still wanted to meet you, and he seemed to like you well enough once he did. I was getting a vibe. He even wants the pictures of you two together.”

“He’s being polite,” James snapped. “And what do you mean, you were getting a vibe? He’s dating a woman!”

“So? You date women all the time,” Nadia noted. “Like the tramp who stopped by the dressing room earlier.”

James shot her a warning glance. “She’s not a tramp. She’s just…friendly.”

Maria put her fork on her plate so she could join the conversation. “She’s not the one for you, James.”

James rolled his eyes. “Maria, I’m not looking for a relationship, so stop talking about ‘the one’. I’m just having fun.”

“I don’t think you are, puppy. I think you are not having fun at all,” Maria responded. “I think you have a hole in your heart, and you are medicating by sleeping around. James, they are the wrong people. You think it is fixing your pain, but it isn’t. Your fear of getting hurt has you doing things that hurt you more.”

“Christ, can we just eat?” James complained, pushing more salad into his mouth.

“James,” Maria reprimanded. “I don’t like you using the Lord’s name like that.”

James was about to object that he didn’t share her religious beliefs, but he loved her too much to disappoint her. Instead, he turned to Billy. “I just don’t understand why you thought it was okay to say something that would humiliate me.”

Billy grimaced. “I don’t think sex is something to be ashamed of. And if you saw the way his eyes lit up when he heard we were related to the—quote—‘good-looking, dirty-blond guy on the print ad,’ you’d understand why I thought it might be good to put it out there that you could be into him.”

“That’s ridiculous,” James said. “You sensed he was interested in me because his eyes lit up?”

Nadia chimed in, “They did. And you left out the part that he called you good-looking. How many straight guys lead with that? I had the same thought as Billy.”

“You’re just trying to defend him,” James countered.

“I thought it, too,” Maria added. “And the way he was acting in the dressing room made me believe it even more.”

James shook his head with disbelief. “He was acting like a normal human being, unlike the three of you! Again, the guy has never dated a man to my knowledge. He’s dating a woman, as we speak…”

“One he’s breaking up with tonight,” Nadia pointed out. “It was an odd thing to share with us, don’t you think? Maybe, subconsciously, he wanted us to know he would be available. Maybe he wanted you to find out he’ll be single.”

James dropped his utensils on the plate. “My God. And to think of the four of us, I’m the one that spent time in an institution.”

Billy pushed his phone toward his brother. “Look at the pictures of you two. You’d make an awesome-looking couple.”