Red Zone: Boys of Fall (13 page)

“Love you too.”

The moment passed as they stepped apart and surveyed the room once more. Lela and Tucker had taken to the dance floor as music drifted from Lorelie’s iPod. Wade was still getting set up, Colt and his business partner, Drake, helping him move the amps into place. Jackson and Carter were playing a game of one-upping each other as they reminisced about the glory days.

“I can’t believe they’re all staying in Quinn.”

Joel grinned. “I suspect Lela, Annabelle and Charlene had something to do with that.”

“It feels right…having them all back.”

Joel agreed. He’d felt twinges of jealousy whenever he considered his friends and the places they’d traveled to, but the fact that they’d all returned to Quinn spoke volumes to him. There really wasn’t any place better than home.

The more Joel looked around at the people in his barn, the more he realized he couldn’t leave here. He was happy.

His gaze landed on Oakley, who had taken Sadie’s hand to spin her in time with the music behind the bar. She was laughing and trying to break free so she could pour a drink.

No. He couldn’t leave.

“Damn. If all the girls around here are as pretty as you, I may never leave Texas again.”

Joel and Lorelie turned around at the strange voice. Joel’s hackles rose as a man he’d never seen gave Lorelie a charming smile to match his come-on. Joel started to tell the guy to back off, but as always, Lorelie was more than prepared to fight her own battles.

“Is that a pickup line?” To a stranger, Lorelie would sound sweet, flirty. But Joel recognized the tone. This guy was in danger. Joel stuck around for the show.

The guy stepped closer to her. “Did it work?”

“Not even a little bit.”

He laughed. “Guess I’ll have to figure out something else that might work with you then.”

Lorelie narrowed her eyes. “Yeah. That’s not gonna happen.”

The man didn’t look deterred. In fact, if Joel read his face correctly, it appeared he’d taken Lorelie’s comment as a dare. “Never say never, beautiful.”

Lorelie rolled her eyes. “You know, I made up the guest list for this party and I don’t know you from Adam, which means you weren’t invited.”

The man pointed to a guitar case resting against the table next to him. “Actually, I was. I’m Glen Young, Wade’s friend. I just got into town. Goddamn GPS on my phone took me all around Robin Hood’s barn. Didn’t think I’d ever get here.”

Lorelie pointed toward the stage. “Wade’s up there. I think he had given up on you. Said something to the effect that you were probably three sheets or
between
the sheets with some groupie.”

Glen chuckled. “Wade always was a jealous bastard. So…if it’s your party, you must be Lorelie. Wade failed to tell me how gorgeous you are.”

“You realize all you did was reword the first pickup line that failed miserably. Your efforts are getting worse, not better,” she teased.

Joel still stood close in case Lorelie needed him, but it was becoming more and more apparent she wasn’t going to be calling in the troops.

Glen laughed loudly. “I’m going to sing you a song, Lori.”

She shook her head, but she didn’t look annoyed. “Don’t bother. You’re not my type.”

Glen gave her a curious look. “What’s my type?”

“Blind, deaf and stupid.” With that, she gave Glen a wicked grin and walked away.

Glen’s grin grew wider. “Damn.”

Joel felt compelled to warn the guy off, in deference to Coach. “She’s not a woman you want to mess with.”

Glen only offered Joel a nonchalant shrug, his eyes still locked on Lorelie’s retreating form. “Maybe not, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to marry that girl.”

Before Joel could say more, Glen headed to the stage, where Wade was just about to start playing. He watched the men high-five. Glen had his guitar out of the case and plugged into the amp in record time. Within minutes, he and Wade were jamming out and the dance floor filled up almost instantly.

“Hey, Joel,” Sadie called out. “Thought you were helping us.”

Joel walked over to the makeshift bar, joining Sadie and Oakley in the tight space. The lack of room meant they kept bumping into each other. He took advantage of the opportunity that afforded with Sadie, leaning closer, brushing her ass with his crotch whenever he could.

The sexy smile she gave him and the number of times she managed to run her breasts across his arm as she reached for something told him she was on to his game. And as always, Sadie found a way beat him at it. He had to adjust his pants several times as his cock refused to stay down. It was becoming painful.

The problem was Oakley. There was no way to avoid running into
him
as well. Each time they got too close, Joel backed away.

Twice he caught the hurt in Oakley’s gaze as he dodged his casual touches. Joel hated pulling away from his best friend, but he couldn’t figure out how to make his feelings go away.

It was that damn kiss. It haunted him. Replayed in his mind twenty-four-seven. He’d never kissed a guy. Never wanted to. Now he couldn’t think of anything except kissing Oakley.

He reached out to grab another stack of red Solo cups, careful to avoid touching Oakley.

Oakley frowned, the expression drawing Joel’s gaze to his lips.

God, he had it bad. Joel turned away and looked around the barn, studying the faces. Former teammates and friends surrounded him. Sadie’s dad sat next to Coach with some other guys from town, the fellas who usually packed around the bar in Pitchers the night after a Titans game to dissect and discuss every play. His mother was even in attendance, standing in a corner, chatting with a couple of ladies from church.

What would they think if Joel reached over and kissed Oakley? Right here. Right now.

“Joel?” Sadie pulled him from his thoughts. “You okay?”

He nodded, even as he thought, nope. I am definitely
not
okay.

“Bunkhouse? After the party?” she asked. There was a twinge of doubt in her voice, something he’d never heard there before.

She knew.

How could she not?

But she and Oakley had gone along with him after that kiss. Joel had wanted to pretend it hadn’t happened, had wanted to ignore it. And because Sadie and Oakley cared about him, they’d respected his wishes and pretended right along with him.

Joel couldn’t understand how he could be this fucked-up inside. He was living a dream, sharing the girl he loved with his best friend. The sex was off the charts. He should be happy.

He wasn’t.

He couldn’t give Sadie and Oakley what they wanted. For the first time in his life, the king of people-pleasers didn’t have it in himself to offer them the key to true happiness. It was clenched tightly in his white-knuckled fist. And it was staying there.

“Joel?” Sadie said when he failed to answer.

He was a coward. And a greedy one at that.

“Absolutely,” he said in response to her question. “Come on. Dance with me. Oakley can hold down the fort back here for a little while.”

Joel needed air, space, a chance to catch his breath. He couldn’t let Sadie see him struggling. He feared she’d leave, walk away.

He couldn’t let her do that. So they’d all just keep ignoring. Keep pretending.

Keep believing that this was working.

Even though it wasn’t.

The sun beat down on them, the temperature pushing eighty-five, ninety. Sometimes Texas was a merciless bitch.

Oakley took off his hat and wiped away the sweat that was dripping down into his eyes. It was only midday and there were still too many hours between now and quitting time. Ordinarily, he didn’t mind the long hours or the heat, but he was running on empty. Low on sleep, energy and patience. It was a dangerous combination.

Especially since Joel seemed to share it. The two of them hadn’t spoken three words to each other since they’d gotten up this morning, which left Oakley too much time to think, to fume.

He’d let Joel continue to push him away, to treat him as if he had some contagious disease because he’d genuinely believed his friend would come around. Joel wasn’t stupid, and while he had more than a fair amount of stubborn, he usually did the right thing.

However, the dumbass had wrapped his head around his feelings for Oakley and come to the wrong conclusion. Joel had convinced himself that being with Oakley would be wrong. Fucking idiot. Joel had been a part of that kiss. There was no way he didn’t get it, didn’t see exactly how right this was.

So, they continued to work in silence, trying to let the sun and exhaustion beat away all the heavy feelings. It wasn’t working.

Oakley’s temper sparked when Joel jerked his hand away as they both reached for a tool at the same time.

“Seriously, dude? I’m not going to jump you, Joel, so you can stop looking at me like I’m some pervert waiting to catch you in a dark alley.”

“I’m not doing that.”

“Bullshit. You think I don’t see what you’re doing? We lay in bed with Sadie and the second I get too close to you, you back away. What I have isn’t catching, so you can take it easy. You’re not going to turn into some raging queer if you get too close.”

Joel scowled. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You don’t want me. I get it. Okay? You don’t have to keep ramming that fact down my throat. I’m choking on it already.”

Joel’s state of mind didn’t appear to be any better than his, which pleased Oakley more than he could say. He’d tried to be understanding, tried to walk away, tried to pretend Joel’s distance didn’t slice through him like a knife, but he couldn’t do it anymore. Couldn’t swallow his feelings, pretend like they didn’t exist.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Joel said.

Oakley laughed, the sound pure anger. “Fuck you, Joel.”

Joel’s eyes narrowed, the dark brown turning black. “Fuck
me
? Seriously? You fuck up everything. Everything! And you say ‘fuck you’ to me? No, Oakley. Fuck you!”

“What the hell did I fuck up?”

“We had a good thing with Sadie. Maybe it wasn’t perfect and maybe it wasn’t going to last forever, but for just a little while, we had her. With us. And it was fucking awesome! Then you…you…”

“Kissed you? Touched your balls? Licked your dick? Which part freaked you out the most?”

Joel exploded. A week of pent-up frustration just burst into flame.

And Oakley was ready.

Oakley only fell back two steps after Joel rushed toward him and shoved. He had enough time to plant his feet so that he didn’t actually fall down, but barely. Joel wasn’t holding anything back.

Never one to walk away from a fight, Oakley came back fast, his fist connecting with Joel’s jaw.

Joel had anticipated the punch, dodging in time to lessen the intensity. He retaliated with a hard right that caught Oakley on the cheek. He was going to have a black eye from that. Unwilling to be the only one to wear a mark of this fight, he threw another punch, pleased to see blood welling at the corner of Joel’s mouth.

After that, Oakley lost track of who landed what where. There was a flurry of dust, fists, curses and pain—a lot of fucking pain. Joel was a scrappy fighter and he was inflicting some serious damage. Not that Oakley wasn’t holding up his own end pretty damn good.

The whole thing ended in an instant when they were hit by a blast of ice-cold water.

They fell apart and looked over to find Coach standing next to them with an empty bucket and an expression like thunder.

“What in blue blazes are the two of you doing?!” Coach roared.

Oakley bent over at the waist, holding himself up with his hands on his knees, trying to recover from Joel’s last punch, a hard one right to the gut.

Joel was wiping the blood dripping from his nose with his sleeve. “Nothing.”

Oakley would have rolled his eyes if the left one didn’t hurt like a mother. He could tell without a mirror it was swelling shut fast.

Yeah. Coach was definitely not going to let that non-answer fly.

“Try again, Joel,” Coach said, through gritted teeth.

“It was a misunderstanding,” Joel added.

Oakley snorted mirthlessly. “No, Joel. I’d say we understand each other just fine.” He needed to get out of here, away from all this bullshit. It was starting to eat at him like a cancer. “Sorry about this, Coach. Things got a little out of hand. It won’t happen again.”

With that, Oakley limped back to the bunkhouse. He needed a shower. And then he needed a fucking drink.

“Come with me,” Coach said, crooking his finger at Joel, and then pointing toward the main house.

Joel glanced back at Oakley, who’d made good on his escape. “Coach—”

“Get your ass in the house, Joel. And on the way there, get yourself ready to start speaking the truth about what just happened here. Because if you lie to me, I’ll fire your ass so quick, it’ll make your head spin.”

Joel followed Coach into the house and plopped down on the couch heavily. He didn’t have any more lies left inside him. He’d spent the past few weeks in a constant state of dishonesty. He needed help.

“Okay,” Coach said. “Let’s have it.”

And Joel gave it to him. All of it. Sadie, Oakley, the fling, the kiss, the feelings, the shame, the fear. It all fell out of him in a giant heap.

And through it all, Coach was quiet. Joel had no idea what the man was thinking because he hadn’t lifted his gaze from the floor. Joel couldn’t make himself look into the eyes of the man who was like a father to him and risk seeing disappointment.

Once he’d run out of words, he held his pose, his hands still clasped together, his elbows resting on his knees and his head bent as if in prayer, eyes locked on the rug beneath his feet.

“What’s the red zone?” Coach asked.

Joel was so taken aback by the question, he looked up. “What?”

“The red zone. Come on, boy. I taught you everything you know about football. Tell me what the red zone is.”

“It’s the last twenty yards before the end zone. It’s when the playing gets rough, dirty even. Offense is fighting like the devil to score and the defense is kicking ass to keep them out.”