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“Fuck, dude.” Barker scrubbed a hand along his jawline. “Does Coach know? Does Tucker’s coach know?”
“Nope.” I shook my head. “We planned on it staying that way until we figured shit out.”
“Do you two… You’re not throwing games or anything for each other, right?”
“What? No fucking way,” I barked, caught off guard. I’d fucking relished taking the Rush on, and I loved football too much to ever do something like that. But goddamn, I supposed I could understand why he asked that. “I wouldn’t do that shit, and neither would Tucker.”
Barker put up his hands. “I didn’t think so, but dude…I think you need to talk to Coach. This could call our entire record into question if it gets out.”
I turned a steady gaze on him. “Is it going to get out?”
“Not from me, but trying to keep something like that secret is playing with fire. And if the press picks up on it first, they’re gonna have a fucking field day. I think—” He squinted his eyes shut. “I think you need to tell Coach. You need to tell him or cut it off and tell him. I can’t unsee it, dude. I can’t just forget about it, and I’ve got too much on the line here. I’m sorry.”
I sank against the side of my car and winced. He was right, and asking him to keep quiet felt disingenuous and just…wrong. “I’ll talk to him,” I said at last.
After Barker walked away, my instinct was to call Tucker immediately, but then panic set in, and I made a different call instead.
* * *
“I need a beer,”Houston said when I finished spilling the details to him an hour later. I’d asked if I could come to his place and talk, which had probably confused the fuck out of him initially. We were cool, even after the incident at the club, but we weren’t what I’d call close.
He extended a beer to me and plopped back onto the sofa as I twisted the cap off and took a long swallow. I needed about a bucket more of these. “I know, it’s bad.”
“It’s complicated, that’s for fucking sure. Jesus. I thought the two of you hated each other.”
“Hate is a strong word,” I ventured, even though it was totally the word I’d have used before Tucker turned everything on its head.
“Okay, strongly disliked. How…?” He waved a hand. “Never mind, none of my business how it started.”
“Tucker’s going to flip his shit, and he has every right to. It was my carelessness that caused this, and if this ruins his career, I don’t know if I’d be able to forgive myself.”
“Maybe the two of you should’ve considered that before you started down this road.”
“We didn’t expect it to amount to anything. It was supposed to just be a hookup here and there.”
Houston chuckled. “Funny how many times I’ve heard that before. Funny how many times I’ve said that before.” He arched a pointed brow. “And now?”
I paused, trying to choose my words carefully. “It’s not just hooking up to me. Tucker either. I know that. But if it ruins his career…”
“What about yours?”
I shook my head. “I don’t care. I’ll take all the heat. Shit, maybe that’s what I should do. Maybe I can just say that it was my mistake, my fault.”
“Your fault that the two of you have been bumping uglies as often as possible? His dick just kept falling out of his shorts on accident when the two of you were alone?” Houston’s wry tone made me sag in defeat. Yeah, that wasn’t gonna work. I’d had a knot in my stomach for hours, and I didn’t think it was gonna let up anytime soon, especially if Tucker took any heat for our relationship.
“Fuck, this is a mess. He’s gonna be pissed.”
“Hey.” Houston thwapped me on the thigh, causing me to look up and meet his steady gaze. “You know what Tucker is like. He’s not gonna hate you, not gonna blame you. Shit, it sounds like he’s in love with you, and he’s not one to just cut someone off when things get tough—and believe me, it’s gonna get tough. Talk to him first, come up with a plan, an approach, because I agree with you and Barker that admin needs to know.”
I groaned. “Yeah, alright. That’s what I’ll do.” I pushed to a stand. “Thanks for hearing me out.”
Houston rose with me and clapped a hand around my shoulder. “For what it’s worth, I’ll stand beside the two of you if your integrity is called into question. Tucker’s like a brother to me, and you—”
“I’m an asshole.”
He chuckled again. “Sometimes. But I’ve seen your dedication to the game. I know you’ve got that same integrity, too. And if you and Tucker make each other happy, that’s all I need to know. Makes you family, too.”
I swallowed against the lump that had suddenly formed in my throat at “family” and nodded. “Thanks, man. That means more than you know.”
