Page 28 of The Forever Vault

"Does everyone know?!"

"Everyone does now, cowboy," Colton, to my left, added with a wink.

"You might want to follow through on that, Ezra. Hate sex can be great," Zeph added.

"That's what I said."

"Excuse me, Luke. How would you know?" I asked.

"I meant...that, uh...I had heard...from…"

"Uh huh. I'm teasing anyway. I'm sure you meant to be helpful."

"When did you have hate sex that was great?" Ezra asked Zeph.

"Would you gentlemen like anything to drink?”

"Oh, sweet Jesus." Ezra buried his head in his arms on the table.

"Don't worry, hon. I've heard a lot worse in my time."

After we ordered, Zeph went on to explain. "Well, as most of you know, there was a time where Colton and I weren't together. I was struggling to come out of the closet. There were rumors about me and other players as well. Shit talking with this one guy on another team turned into a private bet about who would get fucked by the winner. Needless to say," Zeph stretched his huge arms behind him and rested them on the back of his head, "I won."

I had heard the story before, in more detail, but watching Miles and Ezra soak it up was hysterical. Miles' mouth hung open and Ezra looked like he was in heat. Like that gif of James McAvoy fanning himself.

"I think you broke Ezra," Austin teased.

"I think he would break me if the rumors are true," I heard Ezra mumble under his breath, though it was likely everyone had heard. He wasn’t very quiet.

I felt Luke's hand run down my thigh to find my knee. I pulled my hand from off the table to meet his and intertwined our fingers.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you more," I replied.

"Oh jeez, rub it in my face, why don't ya?"

"I'm sure you'd like that, Ezra!" Austin kept at it.

"Can't I say anything without it becoming a dick joke?"

"Y’all have met, right?" Colton asked. "It's always been about dicks with this group, buddy boy."

"Welcome to the club," Orion added, raising his glass, which led to an impromptu toast to, apparently, our discussing dicks club.

"If you wouldn't mind…"

I turned to look at Miles. It was the first time he had spoken that night.

Easily the smallest on the team, Miles had short dark brown hair, shaved on the sides. He had a great smile on the rare occasions he showed it. I heard he was gay from Luke, but he was more reserved than the rest of us and I wasn’t confident that would change over time like it had with Orion. Miles pulled off his hoodie, but in doing so, it pulled up the shirt he had on underneath to reveal his bare stomach and...nipple rings.

"Shit, I didn't know you had piercings," Ezra said.

"Oh, uh, they're usually barbells. He- I changed them today."

"They're hot," Zeph added.

Miles' face turned red immediately, and he glanced down at his hands. His fingers were fumbling with the ends of the hoodie’s drawstrings. That's when I noticed his shirt wasn’t a t-shirt. It was a Dallas Stallions jersey.