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“But it was good while it lasted.”
“Right.” Weird that Coury hadn’t thought much about her, or any of their time together. The reason was sitting across from him. He pushed aside the notion he could drop Beckett off and come spend time with Liam. It was one night.
“Tonight, you might get lucky again.”
Coury didn’t look up this time. “Maybe.”
Just one night.
* * *
The crowd at the third party was worse than the first two. Drunker, louder, and less attractive. The room was dimly lit, the furniture well used by generations of sorority sisters. The overcrowding made it stuffy, all of which made for a pretty normal weekend frat/sorority party.
He’d never noticed how not fun they were before.
Beckett, however, was happy. According to him, the sorority house had a better female-to-male ratio. Funny how he never acknowledged Coury’s bisexuality.
“Yo,” Beckett tapped Coury’s shoulder and pointed. Two girls were looking in their direction. “Those two are interested.”
They were pretty. If he wasn’t emotionally invested in Liam, he might consider it. “Go you. Two at time.”
Beckett drunk-slapped his arm. “Doofus, I meant one for each.”
“Gonna pass, big guy. But go for it.”
“Dude, what’s wrong? Those two are smoking.”
“I’m leaving, remember?”
“Yeah, but this is a hook-up.”
“For you. I go to school here.” It probably wouldn’t work, but Beckett was drunk. “Go for it. Don’t let me hold you back.”
“You sure?”
That was the nudge Beckett needed. “Totally. I’ll chill here for a bit.”
“Sweet!” He took a step then stopped. “I’ll come back next week, and we can try again.”
“Great.” He flicked his fingers in their direction.
Coury looked at the red cup in his hand and set it down. The distance between him and Beckett sucked. They’d been wingmates forever. Hiding this affected how they interacted; everything about the night had been a lie.
And Beckett planned to do it all again next weekend.
He needed to convince Liam they had to tell Beckett the truth. Coming clean couldn’t be any worse.
* * *
Liam
The orange sponge ball hit the ceiling, and Beckett caught it in his left hand. Tossing it up again, he used his right to pluck it from the air.
Liam had returned to his room after his shower to find his brother camped out on his unmade bed. It reminded him of the good times they’d had growing up. Maybe Coury was right; hiding things wasn’t going to help.
“Does C-man seem off to you lately?”
If Beckett’s back hadn’t been to the bed, Liam’s face would’ve given him away. He took a breath, dropped the towel, and stepped into his boxers. “Off? How so?”
“He had no interest in any of the hot girls I pointed out. I even tried a few guys at the end. Nothing.”
The tug of emotional war inside scrambled his thoughts. It thrilled him Coury was so disinterested that Beckett noticed. On the other hand, Beckett noticed.
“It’s been a long week. He’s trying to get back in shape to throw for the scout next week.” He lingered over picking a T-shirt, hoping the Coury talk would end.
“Nah. We’ve gone out after long weeks before. I think he’s still hurting from his breakup.”
“Really?” He grabbed a long-sleeve white shirt with a whale on the back. “They broke up before Christmas.”
He tugged the shirt over his head.
“Yeah, but he hasn’t been himself. If you know what I mean.”
Liam went to his closet for jeans. “He seems the same to me.”
“No offense, Squirt, you don’t know him like I do.”
You don’t know him like I do, he wanted to say. “Which supports my point that he seems the same to me. Was Hailey there?”
“I didn’t see her.”
Beckett tossed the ball, but Liam swatted it aside. “Seriously?”
“It’s a Nerf ball. You could catch it if you tried.”
Once he had his pants on, Liam tracked down the ball and flipped it to Beckett. Hopefully they could move on to a different topic.
“I think she hurt him more than he’s letting on.”
“She who, hurt him who, more than he who is letting on?”
“Now you’re acting weird. Does living with Pop muck with your brains or something?” He went back to his toss and catch routine. “Hailey hurt Coury more than he’s admitting. She cheated on him with some rich douche canoe.”
“I heard.”
“Did he tell you she did it because he wouldn’t give up baseball for her?”
“No.” His stomach did a dozen flips while he tried to unpack that.
“She wanted him to give up playing pro-ball.”
“Why?”
“Said she didn’t want to follow him around to all those “D” list cities while he chased a silly dream that would never pan out.”
“Wow, harsh much?”
“Right? Didn’t mean she should cheat on him and then rub it in his face.” Beckett swung his legs over the edge of the bed. “He said he wasn’t interested in anyone because he’s leaving, so why bother.”
The punch to his gut made it hard to breathe. “I see.” Coury had been right. Beckett worried about his best friend because he didn’t know the truth.
