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She grins, giving me her true happy smile. She’s been doing that a lot more lately.
“You look happy,” she says quietly, wrapping her arm around me in a hug. “I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.”
“Thank you for sticking with me.” I squeeze my eyes shut and wrap my arms around her back. “I know I was a shitty friend for a long time, but I know I wouldn’t have made it this far without you.”
She lets out a little sound that’s somewhere between a breath and a sob.
“I always knew you had it in you; you just didn’t believe it.” Her voice breaks, and she swipes away a tear quickly when she stands up. “You weren’t a shitty friend, by the way. I knew if I needed you, you would be there in a heartbeat. I never doubted that.”
With a watery smile, I grab my stuff, and we head out to the game. She’s coming with me today to meet some of the WAGs. I think she’s a bit jealous that I’ve been hanging out with other people since she’s still in LA.
We take an Uber so we don’t have to deal with parking and traffic after the game, then wander through the tailgaters to the stands.
At some point, I’ll be comfortable wearing his jersey number, maybe once he’s publicly out. I don’t know. I expected this to be worse than it has been, honestly. The team and families know. I’m able to be who I am around them.
Jordan hooks her arm through mine and steers me toward the gates. Her ripped-up blue jeans, jersey, and combat boots make her look like a badass.
We get checked in and escorted to the box where there’s catering set up and a bar.
“Elliot!” My name is shrieked in that way that only women can master, and I smile when I see Ashley coming toward me with her arms open for a hug. I give her a quick squeeze before stepping back to introduce Jordan. She’s on the shorter side with long dark hair and piercing green eyes. She’s sweet and funny and was the first to accept me into the group.
“Hey, Ash, this is my best friend, Jordan. Jordan, this is Ashley. She’s married to one of the linemen, Hopkins.” They shake hands and give each other those fake polite smiles that everyone does.
“How’s your boy doing today? Get all his rituals done?” She waggles her eyebrows at me, and I laugh. All sports players are superstitious, and a lot of them have a ritual that revolves around sex. Asher’s include a blow job before he leaves on game day.
During away games, he wants video call sex in the morning. I’m not complaining, it’s hot as fuck.
“Of course, yours?”
She winks at me and starts to say something, but her little girl starts crying, and she leaves to take care of her.
“Aren’t you mister popular?” Jordan comments after three other wives come up and say hi to me. She hands me a mimosa, and I hide my smile behind it as I take a drink.
“I was really nervous to meet them, but they’ve accepted me with open arms. Mostly.”
Jordan lifts an eyebrow. “Mostly?”
I sigh and nod toward the seats so we can sit. “There’s always one, right? Luckily, she stays away from me and doesn’t make a fuss.”
Jordan and I settle into our seats, and a group of wives moves toward us. One of the little boys, Carter, who’s about three, crawls into my lap and plays with my necklace. I smile at him and offer him some fruit from my plate that he happily munches on.
“Carter, you have your own food,” his mom, Bethany, sighs and offers me the boy’s plate.
“Don’t you know it tastes better off someone else’s plate, Mom?” I smile at her, and she smirks as she rolls her eyes. She drops down into the seat next to me in case he starts acting up and she needs to intervene. I haven’t had any problems with him, but other people have, so I understand the hesitance.
“How do you guys know each other?” Bethany asks me, motioning to Jordan.
“She’s my best friend. Basically, she found me in a bar one night and decided to keep me.” I smile and Jordan shakes her head.
“Not far from the truth. I knew you were one of mine the minute I saw you.” She nudges me.
“You look familiar,” Bethany says to Jordan who laughs.
“Yeah, my dad is a musician, but I didn’t want to go that route. You might have seen pictures of me with him.” She doesn’t want to say who her father is. It’s always the same questions once someone finds out.
“Oh, who’s your dad?” Bethany asks, interest piqued. Shit.
“Jay Barker.” Jordan sighs. As the lead singer of Sons of Chaos, a lot of people know his name.
