Calling the Play (8 page)

“I don’t want what we had,” Brian told him. “I want more.”

“I don’t know if I have more to give,” Ty said, sounding sad and lonely. “Not anymore.”

“Fair enough,” Brian said, completely understanding. “Football it is.”

“Oh, please,” Randi said with a loud, rude raspberry. “You guys are so screwed. Football, my ass.” She turned and headed for the pool, pulling off her tank top as she went. She was naked underneath, and dove into the pool with nothing on but her tiny bikini bottom.

Brian wished he could be as sure as Randi that football would lead him back to Ty.

Randi thought Ty was going to strangle her when she asked Brian to stay for dinner. It was as obvious as the nose on her face that the two men still had more to talk about. They needed to get over this “just football” thing. Because there was no way Randi wasn’t going to be the girl filling in that sandwich. The sexual tension between them was thick enough to choke on, but it seemed to her they weren’t going to get anywhere without a little divine Randi intervention. So if she had to lead them to each other through her, who was she to argue with that? She was more than a little sad that her time with Ty was going to end sooner than she’d like, but she wasn’t going to come between him and Brian, not when they had history and obvious feelings for each other. A girl could dream, but she didn’t have to be a bitch about it. She was still on Ty’s side, but she could see Brian’s side of things, too. Hadn’t she thought the same things he’d talked about today, that Ty would move on? Guys like Ty didn’t stay with girls like Randi. She guessed they left for guys like Brian, guys who were gorgeous, successful, confident, and sincere.

“Are you sure?” Brian asked after she’d asked him to stay. He looked at Ty as he said it. Ty was glaring daggers at her. She was still in the pool, her arms resting on the side as she floated, lazily kicking her legs as she watched the two men pick up the last of yesterday’s trash. When Brian had offered to stay and help, Ty hadn’t complained.

“The least he can do is feed you after you cleaned up his pool,” Randi said.

“I cleaned most of it up before he got here,” Ty said sarcastically. “With very little help from you, I might add.”

“You could add it, but you won’t,” she said. “After all, I got them all to leave yesterday, didn’t I? You could still have some of my good-for-nothing cousins lounging by your pool if I hadn’t intervened.”

“
You
invited them,” Ty said, standing with his hands on his hips as he gave her a lopsided smile.

“So I did,” she agreed. “And then I uninvited them. You can thank me later.” She wandered over to the steps in the shallow end and climbed out of the pool. It was a calculated move. She knew she looked damn good, all wet and half-naked in the sunlight. Both men watched her as if she was ESPN on draft day. “So, Brian, can you cook?”

“What?” he said, sounding confused for a second. “I mean, yeah. Of course I can cook.”

“Then I am definitely sure you’re invited for dinner.” She walked up to the steps that led to the patio, where both men still stood in the same places they’d been when she’d risen from the pool. She just stood there and let them look their fill for a minute. It took that long for Brian to figure it out.

“Wait a minute,” he said suspiciously. “Am I cooking?”

“Yep,” Ty said. “I still can’t boil water.”

“I can’t even pour my own cereal,” Randi said, one-upping him.

Brian laughed, and the spell her nakedness had cast on the men was broken. She took the stairs two at a time and grabbed her tank top, pulling it on.

“Aren’t you going to dry off?” Brian asked. He was staring at her soaking wet tank. Well, he was staring at her boobs through her soaking wet tank.

“Nope,” she said.

“Why not?” Brian asked. He looked like he had a pretty good idea of what she was trying to do and couldn’t decide if he was happy about it or not.

“Because my tits look better in a wet tank than a dry one,” she said. “And since you guys seem so fascinated by them, I thought I’d do you a favor.”

“Thanks.” Ty threw a towel at her. “But don’t catch cold on my account.”

“Maybe it’s on Brian’s account,” she replied, not catching the towel. It fell to the stones on the patio. Brian scooped it up.

“Brian thanks you, too,” he said, walking over with the towel. “But you don’t have to put on a show. I already like you.”

“Like?” she said. “As in ‘I like coffee’? Or ‘I like watching golf on TV’?”

“Like as in ‘My eyes have been glued to your body since I first saw you across the pool yesterday,’ ” Brian admitted. “You don’t need any embellishments, or tricks, or wet T-shirts to make me appreciate your body.”

Randi frowned. “What kind of man are you? Guys love that shit.”

“If I loved it any more I wouldn’t be able to walk normally,” Brian said wryly. “I didn’t say I didn’t like it, just that you don’t have to do it.”

“Hey, remember me?” Ty said, waving from across the patio. “What’s the deal? I thought you weren’t done with my dick yet.”

“I’m not,” she told him. “I’m sick, psychologically. I have to make every guy who sees me want me.”

“Just walk into a room,” Brian advised her. “That ought to do it. What am I making for dinner?”

“You are going to be so easy,” Randi whispered to him as she walked past.

“You have no idea,” Brian murmured back.

Ty sat on a barstool at the kitchen island and watched Brian cook with a weird sense of déjà vu. He could feel himself getting sucked back in by Brian’s charm and charisma and whatever it was that Ty had always found so fascinating.

“You gained weight,” he said.

Brian chuckled. “Gee, thanks for noticing.”

“I didn’t mean it that way,” Ty assured him, inwardly cringing at his utter lack of finesse around Brian. He felt like that immature college freshman again. “I just meant you’ve grown up, too.”

“I hope I have,” Brian told him, tossing the salad in a big bowl Ty hadn’t even known he owned. He’d had a decorator do his place, right down to stocking his kitchen. “I filled out a bit more, is all,” Brian continued. “I’ve hit a good weight and it’s easy to maintain.”

“You still work out,” Ty observed. Brian’s biceps strained the arms of his plain white T-shirt. He still dressed to fade into the background, plain T-shirt and shorts. Nothing fancy with Brian. Just complicated. “They have special T-shirts for guys with muscles, you know.”

“Do they?” Brian looked down at his arms with mild curiosity. “I didn’t think I needed them. I’m pretty normal looking.” He moved over to the stove to check the pasta. It was one of the only things in Ty’s pantry.

“Normal looking?” Randi came into the kitchen, smelling like his body wash. She’d changed into a tiny pair of shorts and a tight T-shirt. God bless her for her tiny wardrobe. “Are you kidding me? What planet are you from that you’re normal? Because it isn’t planet Earth.” She hopped up on the barstool next to Ty. “What’s for dinner?” she asked.

“Pasta,” Brian answered before Ty could. “He didn’t have much else. We’re going to have to go shopping for you, Ty,” he added. “Have you forgotten everything about diet?”

Ty gave a long-suffering sigh. “No, I haven’t forgotten,” he said. “I just don’t cook for myself. During the season I eat with the team at the facility. They cater for us.”

“And off-season?” Brian faced him, arms crossed, and the sight of him in his kitchen, cooking for him, lecturing him, made Ty dizzy with that sense of déjà vu again.

“Off-season I fend for myself,” Ty said. “And before you yell at me, I haven’t gained any weight over the summer. I’ve been a good boy.”

Randi raised her hand. “I can attest to that. He’s a very good boy.” She looked between them. “Wait. We’re not talking about sex, are we? My bad.”

“Set the table,” Brian said to no one in particular. Both Ty and Randi hopped down to do his bidding and they laughed.

“I’m hungry,” she said.

“You’re always hungry.” There was something about doing the domestic routine with Brian and Randi that felt very good. Ty steeled himself against it. He was tired of wishing for the moon and getting a fistful of nothing for his trouble. Brian had already run from him, and Randi was probably putting on her track shoes, especially since she’d been here for the drama with Brian.

Dinner was simple, but delicious. Brian had always had a knack for that, for making the simple things seem better than they ought to be. It had grounded Ty back in the day when he was just starting to get attention and special privileges for his football skills. Maybe Brian and the Rebels were right. Maybe he needed that again, the grounding in what was simple and fundamental.

After dinner, they wandered back out to the patio. Ty put some music on low, and Randi started dancing slowly around the patio, swaying her hips as her wineglass dangled from her fingertips. They didn’t talk, and the silence stretched, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. He just enjoyed the warm night air and sitting with Brian, watching Randi. She went over to Brian and crooked her finger at him. He started to get up, but then he hesitated, looking at Ty. “Go on,” Ty said, anticipation tingling in his veins. Brian stood up and went to her as if he had strings attached and she was pulling on them. Ty knew the feeling.

He knew Randi was up to something, had known since yesterday that she was interested in a threesome with Brian. And God knows he liked to watch Brian with women. It used to be his favorite thing in the world. He rubbed his chest, suddenly feeling a nostalgic ache there for what they’d once had, what he’d thought they could have. And Brian was back, and apparently he wanted the same things now. But Ty didn’t know if he could trust him like that again. Randi’s desires were the only thing preventing him from sending Brian home right now, because his own needs and desires and confusion were tangling him up inside.

Randi wrapped herself around Brian and they did a slow grind on the patio, their hips meeting and sliding in time to the slow, sexy beat. Ty knew what Brian was feeling, knew she felt so freaking fantastic against you, soft and warm and made to be fucked. Ty sat in his chair, half-hidden in the shadows as he watched them. It was hot as hell, like a private performance just for him.

“So,” Randi said, as she leaned back, one arm still wrapped around Brian’s neck as she brought her wineglass to her lips.

“So,” Brian said. The air was charged, and Ty knew what that meant. Knew where it could lead if he let it. He’d drawn his line in the sand earlier, hadn’t he? Maybe not. Maybe, as with everything else in his life these days, he had been vague and unfocused and willing to be persuaded.

“Ty should dance with us,” Randi said. Brian didn’t look any more surprised than Ty was.

“I think that’s my cue to leave,” Brian said, nuzzling Randi behind her ear. She tipped her head to the side to let him. “You should be dancing with Ty.”

“Don’t you dare leave,” Randi said. Even though it wasn’t spoken like one, it was clearly an order. “I told you yesterday I wanted you with me and Ty.”

“No, you asked me if I was busy on Tuesday,” Brian answered. “I said yes. And today is Sunday.”

“You like my body,” Randi countered, with a sinuous undulation of her hips against Brian’s. Ty squirmed a little, his dick getting hard as he imagined what Randi was feeling as she rubbed against Brian.

“I like more than your body,” Brian told her in that plainspoken way of his. “I like everything about you. But you heard Ty earlier. Football, nothing else. I’m not going to make him compromise himself.”

Randi looked at him and Ty realized she wasn’t drunk at all, despite finishing the better part of a bottle of wine. Not one little bit. She knew exactly what she was doing. “Come on, Ty,” she said in that “let’s do it” voice of hers. “I want it. And I know you do, too.”

Ty was pretty sure his internal struggle showed on his face. Randi was practically begging, at least for her, and in his own way, so was Brian. He hadn’t moved. If he didn’t want it too, he would have left, would have just ignored what Randi was saying.

“Forget it,” Brian said with a tight smile that somehow managed to convey unhappiness better than a frown. “I know the score.” He kissed Randi’s cheek. “Goodbye, sweetheart. Thanks for dinner. And thanks for trying.”

“Wait.” The word came without thought, and again Brian stopped, Randi still in his arms. She was right, damn it. Ty did want it. He wanted to be with Brian again. Maybe it wouldn’t be the same. Maybe he’d find his feelings for Brian had been exaggerated in his mind with the passage of time. Testing it now was probably a good idea. They could get it out of the way so the
what-ifs
and sexual tension wouldn’t interfere with football. Because he wanted—no, he
needed—
Brian’s help. His game was tanking and Brian was a lifeline. His magic had made Ty’s college career and they both knew it.

Even more than being with Brian, he wanted to be with Brian
and
Randi. Together. It didn’t have to mean anything. He’d learned that the hard way. Fucking Randi with Brian didn’t mean he had to fall in love again. If he wasn’t careful, Randi could hurt him as badly as Brian had. She clearly didn’t want to be exclusive, or she wouldn’t have suggested the ménage. She probably didn’t realize she was begging him for the one thing he’d always wanted more than anything, even more than football—Brian and an incredible woman who could accept them both. It was the best of both worlds for Ty, a dream he’d watched Cass and Beau and Marian living, and had wanted more each day. Except Randi wasn’t that woman, not on a long-term basis. And there was too much water under the bridge for him and Brian to pick up the pieces. But a good time? Hell, yeah, Ty had always been on board for that. He raised his head and speared Brian with a hard look.

“What do you want?” he asked Brian, point-blank. “No bullshit. No talking around it or analyzing it or trying to figure out what would be best.”

Brian didn’t hesitate. “I came for you, Ty. I want you.” He looked at Randi. “And you. When I saw the two of you standing together outside the police station the other day, saw the way you were looking at each other, I wanted to have you both. Just like we used to,” he added for Ty.