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“Great goal,” Alex returned, grinning back.
Lee chuckled. “Ready for Kieran’s ‘I told you so’?”
Before Alex could reply, Finley and Callum barrelled into them, shouting their own congratulations, and yeah, it was just a practice game—but any goal against Oliver was hard-earned. Alex stepped back to make room, absently noting how Lee’s jersey clung to his athletic frame, which …enough already. With that thought firmly in mind, Alex turned away to start trotting back towards the other half of the pitch.
Enough.
Lee liked routine,always had. Maybe it was down to how he’d been deprived of it as a kid, his mum just as likely to let them skip school so they could spend the day at an amusement park as she’d been to stay out all night without any notice.
In that sense, rooming with Alex was easy. Alex’s alarm went off at the same time each morning, and while he rolled out of bed and into the shower, Lee either dozed for a few more minutes or eased into wakefulness with the guided meditation app Kieran had recommended. Once Alex was done in the bathroom, radiating energy as he moved to dig out his clothes for the day, Lee went to brush his teeth and take a shower himself, careful not to let his thoughts stray too closely to Alex in just a pair of skimpy boxer briefs, parading around the room and perfectly oblivious to how bloodydistractingit was.
When Lee was finally ready to leave for breakfast, he collected Alex so they could head down together, typically finding him out on the balcony, enjoying the morning freshness as he tapped away on his phone. At breakfast, they sometimes sat at the same table but more often split up to find Oliver and Jeff.
It worked, for the most part.
The one time Lee dared to complain about Alex’s choice of underwear to Oliver over a plate of scrambled eggs, Oliver laughed at him.
“Sorry, mate.” Oliver lowered his voice. “Not feeling particularly sympathetic about you getting to share a room with the guy you fancy while my wife’s all the way back in the UK.”
“One” —Lee shot a quick glance at Toby and Finley, sitting across from them at the table and engrossed in a conversation about action movies— “I’m merely appreciating the view. Two, when you see her, you actually get to touch—I don’t. It’s hard, okay?”
“I bet it is,” Oliver stated casually, and Lee sent him a scandalised look.
“Oliver. Have you been spending time with Jeff?”
“He’s selectively amusing,” Oliver said.
“Just don’t…” Lee hesitated, fishing around for the right words only to settle on, “You know. Don’t let anything slip.”
Oliver’s eyes turned serious. “I wouldn’t.”
“I know,” Lee said, and he did, hedid, but sometimes he just wished that things were a little easier, that he didn’t have to be so fucking careful all the time. If Ben had done it a decade ago, would it really be such a big deal if Lee came out now?
Probably, unfortunately—yes. Things had changed, but it was a glacial drip, not a landslide. Lee wasn’t sure he was ready for that kind of pressure and attention. He’d have some people in his corner, sure, but he’d still have to essentially walk the road alone while Ben had been in a long-term relationship with his now-husband.
Or maybe Lee was a coward looking for excuses.
“Hey, what’s going on with you?” Oliver asked softly.
Lee raised his gaze from his plate, frowning. “Are you asking as my friend or my captain?”
“As your friend. You’re doing just fine on the pitch, and you know it.”
Lee did. He was quite possibly in the best shape of his life, and the Spanish summer heat bothered him less than it did others. Especially now that he and Alex had found a rhythm, he’d been able to score some pretty sweet goals in their practice games, even if he did say so himself.
“Yeah.” He pushed some parsley to the side of his plate. “And I don’t know. Just a bit tired of pretending, I guess. Or…” He lifted the corners of his mouth. “Maybe it’s just been a while since I got laid.”
“Anything I can do?” Oliver asked.
Lee arched a meaningful eyebrow.
A brief moment passed before Oliver got it, then he snorted. “Dick.”
“That’s the general idea,” Lee confirmed. “Also, youhavebeen hanging around Jeff.”
“I can neither confirm nor deny that.”
Lee kicked him under the table, received a kick in return, and went back to eating his eggs, smiling.
