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“Working on it,” Lee said lightly. “It’s just that miracles take a minute, you see?”
“Lose the attitude.” The amused spark in Kieran’s eyes ran counter to his words. “Oh, and Lee—since you asked about meditation apps, I just saw that the one I use lets me give you a free thirty-day trial. Come find me before dinner and we’ll set it up.”
A meditation app? Lee was just full of surprises.
“Great,” Lee said, and Alex waited until Kieran had moved on before he let his lips twist into a lopsided smile.
“You know you make enough to pay full price for some app, right?”
“Okay, one” —Lee toed the ball up from the grass and bounced it on his knee— “I never say no to free stuff. And two, remember that thing about bankruptcy and pro athletes? Not planning to be one of them.”
“And getting thirty free days out of an app is going to prevent that.”
“It all adds up.”
They were both smirking now, watching each other while Lee kept the ball in motion. Alex couldn’t have said what it was that tipped him off, but when Lee suddenly feigned to the left and darted right, Alex was ready.
“Bloody frustrating,” Lee repeated, one corner of his mouth twitching upwards as Alex danced away with the ball.
“Just remember how it could come in handy,” Alex told him with no small measure of glee, and Lee huffed out a half-laugh, gesturing for Alex to return the ball so they could start another manoeuvre. Just to be a dick, Alex aimed his pass too far to the left—turned out that Lee could read him too because he was moving in the correct direction before the ball even left Alex’s foot.
“Cute,” Lee commented idly.
“Cute, pretty—you sure know the way to a boy’s heart.” A second too late, Alex remembered that this wasn’t Jeff. While he and Lee might be getting more comfortable around each other, jokes of the suggestive persuasion were a far cry from where their comfort zones overlapped.
Lee raised an eyebrow, sunlight brightening the deep brown of his eyes to a lighter shade. Humour coloured his tone. “I consider myself somewhat of a specialist, yeah.”
Now thatwasthe kind of response Jeff might have given, except he would have underlined it with lewd hand gestures to illustrate just what kind of specialist he considered himself to be.
“Thank you,” Alex said.
Lee blinked. “What for?”
“Keeping it appropriate for general audiences.”
It took a moment, then Lee smiled. “Jeff?”
“Let’s just say I know far more about his sex life than I’d like.” Given Alex’s extensive awareness of Lee’s … well,everything, this was starting to feel like a risky conversation. What if Lee decided to take his cue from Jeff? Alex didn’t care to know what lube Lee favoured and whether his last girlfriend had enjoyed a bit of bondage now and then. Just … no. Thanks.
Blessedly, Kieran picked that moment to call everyone over and split them up for a practice game. Alex wasn’t surprised when he ended up on the same team as Lee. Blue jerseys it was, for both of them.
Even though it was past eight in the evening, the day’s heat lingered—good training for their upcoming matches that would all kick off around this time of day. While Alex didn’t love playing in temperatures like this, he didn’t mind it as much as some of the others did, just needed to make sure he stayed hydrated. Lee, on the other hand, seemed impervious to the heat, likely used to it from his time in Italy before Ben Jimmer had lured him back to the UK.
Alex needed to reduce the amount of space Lee took up in his head. They spent a fair bit of time together these days, and Lee was both intriguing and objectively hot—it was natural for Alex to get a little fixated, but that way lay slumbering dragons. Best not to wake them.
He was here to play football. That was it.
There was something inherently beautiful about the rhythm of the game under the glow of the setting sun—the ball zipping across the grass, the harsh echo of cleats biting into the turf, Kieran shouting instructions as both teams tried to outsmart each other. More than two weeks into their training, Alex had come to know the other players and their styles, the way they moved across the pitch, their top speed and whether they threw their whole body and weight into a challenge or preferred to sneak up from behind.
Maybe it was because Kieran’s words hung fresh in Alex’s mind, but there was this moment, a split-second decision—two red players pressing in on Alex as he moved the ball across the halfway line, most of the blue team behind him with the exception of Jeff and Lee. Jeff was in a better position, yes, but a red midfielder was hovering just behind him, and Alexknewhow Lee moved. So he slid the ball through between two red defenders and right into the path Lee had chosen, having started half a second before the ball had left Alex’s foot. No offside.
Oliver loomed in the red goal as Alex darted to the left and Jeff veered right, Lee at the centre, defenders already beaten. Upper left corner. The ball sliced through the air in a beautiful arch, sailing past the tips of Oliver’s fingers.
Goal!
Lee whooped, face shining with delight, and then Jeff pounced on his back with a triumphant yell. Alex hesitated for half a step, just long enough for Declan to catch up and join the celebratory huddle, then Alex reached them too, patting Lee’s shoulder. For a second, their eyes caught.
“Great pass,” Lee told him, grinning, flushed and breathing hard from his sprint.
