Page 59 of The Forever Vault

“Oh, Lucas. I heard about this.” He pointed to the sling and shook his head, his other hand clutching the top buttons of his shirt. “I’m so sorry this happened.” And then as if a switch went off. “Where are my manners?! I am Grayson Vega, event and wedding planner. I am so honored to meet you. You are the other best man, yes?”

I nodded and managed to croak out a reply. I don’t know why I was surprised someone had heard about my injury. I did just have a press conference after all. I guess it was just a shock to randomly bump into someone that cared enough to apologize.

“Where are my manners? I shouldn’t have brought it up. I just feel like I know you.” He gestured to Ty. “This one, if he’s not busy climbing up his fiancé, he’s talking about you or Pierce or Freddie. How is Declan, by the way?”

“He’s good. Waiting on the tuxes,” Ty answered.

“Oh, thank you. That reminds me.” Grayson pulled out his phone. “I’ll give them a call. Light a fire under their asses. They should’ve been ready last week. We still have to double check the fit.” He turned to me. “All the muscles you guys pump up, they’re a nightmare for the tailor!”

“I’ve also got a list of stuff from Declan to go over,” Ty said, waving his phone.

“That’s right, honey. Keep me on target. That’s what I’m being paid for. Let’s head to my office.”

And then he turned and walked briskly away from us. I heard him say something about Declan being a perfectionist and scurried to keep up with them.

12

Camden

“Nice work today, Cam,” Noah said, giving my shoulder a squeeze. “I know you’re worried, but you look great.”

I scoffed, dropping a towel on the floor. “You still think I have a shot? Even though I’m like the oldest all-arounder here?” I started to pull the bands off my biceps and down my arms. My parallel bar routine this time around was a skin ripper.

“There are actually four athletes older than you I consider to be all-arounders, and yes, you’re a medal contender. Obviously, I wasn’t part of the selection committee, but your scores were close. Woodward followed the scoreboard instead of his heart. He’s a fair man. He didn’t want to play favorites, and that’s honorable of him.”

“I suppose.”

“It’s also why he took you instead of Colton. He can say it’s because you’re more of an all-around athlete, but I know it was the scores. I can look it up. You were probably a tenth of a point away from the team.”

“No, no. It’s fine. I’m on the team now. That’s what matters.”

“Damn straight. Shower up and say hi to Luke for me. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Night, Noah.”

I shoved everything in my bag as I watched him walk away and headed for the locker room. I hadn’t made it two steps inside when I heard Orion say, “I can’t believe he’s out. We need to hire security for you immediately. I’m not going to-”

And that’s when he saw he wasn’t alone. I offered him a concerned smile.

“Send me your location and leave it on. Is Keion with you?”

He turned away from me and I didn’t hear anything else. Not that I was trying.

I put my bag down on the bench and started to peel off my clothes. By the time I was down to just my jock, Orion came around the corner.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“I gotta go, but I can explain later. I need to get to Austin.”

I nodded. “Totally fine. Let me know if there’s anything I can do. Do you want me to call Woodward?”

“Nah, man. Thanks. I need to talk to Austin first. We’ll figure it out.”

We said our goodbyes and I was left alone, questioning if I should call Luke about it. Maybe he knew something I didn’t?

I dropped my sweaty jock on top of the rest of my clothes on the floor, then brought the whole pile over to the laundry bin. There were facilities in the dorms, but we could also get stuff washed this way. I never liked carrying around clothes that were that sweaty.

I grabbed my towel and headed to the showers. I wished this could be a long relaxing one where I played with my dick, making it semi-hard and aching for Luke, but I had plans to grab a quick snack and hit the gym.