Cleats in Clay

by Jackson Cordd

Bobby turned around to watch him.

  Odis returned a minute later with the corncob pipe and lighter.

  “I don’t want that.”

  “Didn’t ask you.” Odis sat on the edge of the bed. “But I think maybe you need some. You need something, anyway.” Odis took a big hit from the pipe.

  Bobby shifted on the bed, turning around to watch Odis. He nonchalantly glanced around the floor for his gym shorts but didn’t see them.

  Odis exhaled. “I’m sorry I said that, about kickin’ you out. I just get defensive sometimes.” He held the pipe and lighter tightly by his lap, as if he had no intention of sharing.

  “All right.”

  Staring down at his hands, Odis rubbed his fingers on the roughened corncob, making a faint scratching noise. “If I asked you something, could you truly think about it and answer honestly?”

  Bobby started to say something flippant, but he glanced over at Odis and saw the serious look on his face. “Well, I guess it depends on the question.”

  “Oh.” Odis sighed in disappointment.

  “Not that I don’t want to be honest, but it may be something I don’t have an answer for.”

  Odis looked up at Bobby.

  Bobby glanced down to the pipe in Odis’s hands. Nathan had always accused him of being a control freak. Maybe Nate and Odis were right. Maybe he did need something. He reached out for Odis’s hands.

  Odis relinquished the pipe and lighter.

  Bobby put the stem in his mouth and took what he thought would be about a medium-sized hit. That warm, spicy flavor danced in his mouth and nose. He handed the pipe back to Odis.

  Odis watched Bobby’s face. “You don’t do this very often,” he commented, holding up the pipe in gesture.

  “No, don’t really do much of anything. Am I that obvious of a lightweight?”

  “Yes.”

  “Damn. I thought I had that party-boy image nailed,” he teased.

  Odis chuckled and waited. He wanted Bobby to hit that mellow glow.

  Bobby looked at the pipe again. “John said something about you grow your own?”

  “Yeah.” Bobby reached out for the pipe again, but Odis clutched it close. “No, I don’t want you getting silly on me again.”

  “Silly?” Bobby sat back. “Not me.”

  “Like a teenage girl, you were,” Odis said, sounding strangely like Yoda.

  Bobby lay back on the bed. His mind… it was hard to define. It was like it was getting warmer somehow.

  Odis smiled. “Now, back to that question.”

  “There’s been lots of questions.” Bobby rubbed his face with his hand. “Which one?”

  “What’s waiting for you back home?”

  “Oh. There’s the house… then there’s lots of legal details, and….”

  “That’s it? Just a house and a bunch of lawyers?”

  “Oh! Sharon’s there too.”

  “Who’s Sharon?”

  “She’s a friend. Well, more Nate’s friend. She’s my friend too, though, I guess.”

  Odis pulled his knee onto the bed and turned to face Bobby. “Anything else? Anyone else?”

  Bobby shook his head in a vaguely negative way.

  “What about your family?”

  “Family sucks,” Bobby declared. “And they’re in Ohio anyway.”

  Odis paused. He was definitely curious about those family details, but he’d save that for a later conversation. “Okay, let me lay this out and make sure I got it all.”

  Bobby nodded as he stroked his hand across his face. “Okay.”

  “So what you have waitin’ for you is a friend of Nathan’s that’s your friend by proxy, a big and empty house full of Nathan’s memories, and legal proceedings having to do with Nathan’s illness and death.”

  Bobby scowled under his hand. “Bastard.”

  “Did I leave anything out?”

  “No, that’s just a nasty way to put it.”

  “Is it not the truth?” Odis studied Bobby, waiting for an argument. “That’s the bottom line, though, right? There’s nothin’ there that isn’t tied to Nathan somehow.”

  Bobby sighed.

  “Then why are you in such an all-fired hurry to get back there?” Odis asked bluntly.

  “Because….” Bobby shook his head. “I don’t know. ’Cause it’s home?”

  “Maybe it used to be home.”

  Bobby sat up and looked at Odis. “It is still home.”

  Odis just met his glance without saying anything.

  “It is,” Bobby defended. “What’s your point in bringin’ all this up, anyway?”

  “No point, exactly. I just wanted ya to think it through instead of falling back on instinct.”

  Bobby could feel his buzz fading. He looked over at the pipe in Odis’s hands. “Okay, I thought about it.”

  Odis offered the pipe again. “Just don’t get carried away.”

  Bobby took another medium-sized hit. As he held the breath, he noticed a familiar lime zest flavor among the spiciness. It was a faint taste he remembered from Odis’s precome. He handed the pipe back to Odis and lay back on the bed again.

  Odis took another hit, then put the pipe on the nightstand.

  Bobby felt that warmth in his mind again, encouraging him to relax.

  Odis stretched out on the bed beside him.

  They looked up at the ceiling in blissed-out silence.

  Chapter 6

  BOBBY closed his eyes as he lay next to Odis on the bed. Like he had some new superpower, he could sense the warmth of Odis’s body lying so close.

  Strange echoes from their conversation kept popping into Bobby’s head. Odis was right. Nothing but Nathan’s memories waited for him back there. Bobby had no pressing reason to hop back on a plane, if any reason at all, really. Well, except the legal shit. But probably most of that stuff could be done with fax and computer video and e-mail. Unless he had some kind of court date.

  Bobby reached up his left hand and absently scratched on one of his right ribs. He felt the jersey material of the shirt under his fingers. Keeping his eyes closed, he turned his head toward that warm spot of Odis. “Why did you make me leave the T-shirt on? You have an athletic fetish or something?”

  “Not really, although you do look pretty fuckin’ hot in those tight jogging shorts.”

  “They were out of large and extra large. Had to get a medium size.”

  “Maybe you should always get mediums. They make your ass look so—”

  Bobby resisted the topic change again. “You didn’t answer my question, though.”

  “Do you want me to?”

  “Of course. You sure get evasive sometimes.”

  “I wanted you to keep the shirt on so I wouldn’t have to look at the tattoo.”

  “I thought you liked my tattoo?” Bobby asked.

  “I do, but I didn’t want the reminder of why it’s there.”

  “Oh?” Bobby asked.

  “I can’t help thinking, sometimes, it’s really Nathan’s tattoo.”

  “Oh.” Bobby sighed. “I know what you mean. Sometimes when I see it in the mirror, I wish it could be like the wedding ring, and I could just take it off.” Bobby felt the warm patch next to him moving.

  Odis kissed his forehead. “It’s too much a part of you, though. You’d hate yourself later if you had it removed.”

  Bobby sighed in agreement.

  “I met him,” Odis confessed suddenly. “Nathan, I mean. I remember from his picture.”

  Bobby sat up. “When?”

  “About ten years ago, I think. At my art show in Key West.”

  Bobby reclined again. “Oh yeah, that must have been the year he and Sharon came down to Florida with me when I started spring training. They had kinda a mini-vacay before they went back.” Bobby rubbed his hand along his chest, unconsciously massaging the hummingbird tattoo. “And you remember him?”

  “Yeah. Like you said, too hunkalicious not to notice him. And he spent almost an hour chatt
ing me up about the different works. He seemed honestly interested too, not like one of the snobby farts just tryin’ to score art points.”

  Bobby made a strange sigh, trying not to remember Nathan.

  Odis leaned over and kissed his forehead again.

  Bobby scratched absently at his nose. “Why do you want to keep me here?”

  “What? It’s not like you’re a prisoner or anything.”

  “You got awfully upset about me leaving earlier.”

  “I suppose I did. I don’t know.”

  “Being evasive again,” Bobby warned.

  Odis took a deep breath. “I’m—” He took another breath. “Well, I don’t know how to articulate it, and even if I did….” Odis hesitated. “I’d just sound like a silly old fool.”

  “Articulate what?”

  “Don’t you feel anything?”

  Bobby opened his eyes. “You mean besides horny?”

  “So this is just you being horny?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know.” Bobby rolled on his side to face Odis. “With Mitch, it was the newness of it all. Nate and I had basically dated over a month before anything… and I already had some serious feelings by then.”

  “You were already in love with him?”

  “Yeah, I guess I was.”

  “And now?”

  Bobby looked into Odis’s face. “Dammit, I—” Bobby sighed. “I wish I had more experience. Some kind of comparison, you know. Maybe if I’d played around a little, I’d know.”

  Odis just nodded.

  “And you?”

  “Well, I’m kinda struggling for a frame of reference myself. I can tell you I haven’t felt anything quite like…. But is it just the novelty of being with a man? I can’t say,” Odis admitted.

  “So, we both need to go out and find some other guy to fuck, just to see?”

  “Oh?”

  “Is that what you want?” Bobby asked.

  “Is it what you want?”

  Bobby brought his hands up and rubbed on his face. “Dammit… not really.”

  “Then let’s not do that.”

  “All right.” Bobby noticed his butt was starting to feel cold. “Do you know where my shorts went?”

  Odis sat up and rooted around in the sheets at the foot of the bed until he found them. “I’m kinda glad you don’t want to find another guy. I don’t know if I could.” He handed the gym shorts to Bobby.

  Bobby pulled them on. “Why not?” He lay back on the bed, closer to Odis.

  “In my whole life, you’re only the fourth guy I’ve even had any kind of attraction for. I don’t think I could just find some random guy in a bar or anything.”

  “I prob’ly could. I went to bars when the team was on the road. Definitely saw a few hotties along the way.”

  “If you were faithful, why go?”

  Bobby laughed. “Believe me, after about a week of nonstop macho bullshit, I needed the gayest place I could find for some cultural detox.”

  “I never thought about that. I didn’t realize you’d be on the road that much.”

  “Kinda made me wish I was better at football. Those guys only have one game a week, usually. Depending on the schedule, we’d have at least five games in a week, plus travel time. In the old days, we could be on the road three weeks at a stretch. But with more plane usage and computer scheduling, it’s been a lot better the last few years.” Bobby frowned. “It was. I keep forgetting it’s over.”

  Odis reached out and rubbed his finger along the furrows in Bobby’s forehead. “I’m sorry.”

  “What are you apologizing for?”

  “I keep bringing up all these bad topics.”

  “It’s not your fault they’re… I don’t know.” He looked into Odis’s face. “I don’t really mind talking about it.” He reached out and took hold of Odis’s other hand. “I don’t mind at all.”

  “I just feel like I’m pouring salt in the wounds, sometimes.”

  “You’re not.” Bobby gently squeezed Odis’s hand.

  Odis noticed Bobby’s face still looked tense and decided to try distracting him. “I just don’t know what you’re doing to me. You’re kind of a problem.” He pulled Bobby’s hand down to his boxers.

  Bobby looked down and saw the tenting of the fabric. “So this is just a lust thing,” he teased. “I guess one of us will have to go find that Walmart.”

  Odis gazed into Bobby’s eyes. “Guess so.”

  Bobby grinned devilishly. “Of course, there are other ways to deal with these kinds of problems.”

  “Oh?” Odis tried to look innocent. “What are these other ways?”

  “I can do what I wanted to do a while ago….”

  “Well, then, you can just talk me through, whatever.”

  Bobby scooted down and freed Odis’s cock through the large fly of his boxers. “Who says I’ll be able to talk?” he asked before licking along the foreskin fold.

  “Oh,” Odis moaned. “In that case—oh… I’ll just shut up—oh damn.”

  Bobby reached his hand into the fly opening and massaged Odis’s slightly fuzzy balls as he continued to work on Odis’s swelling cockhead with his tongue.

  “Oh shit,” Odis moaned louder.

  Bobby chuckled and pulled back. “I thought you said you were going to shut up?” he teased as he gently rubbed Odis’s balls.

  “I meant I would stop trying for coherent conversation.”

  Bobby put his other hand around Odis’s cock and pulled back a little, sliding the skin and exposing more of Odis’s cockhead before placing it in his mouth.

  “Oh holy shit,” Odis moaned as his eyes rolled back into his head. He panted heavier as Bobby worked with his tongue and sucked Odis’s cock deeper into his mouth. “Oh holy. What the fuck are you….” Odis had trouble calming his breathing as he looked down and saw Bobby’s grin. “…doin’ down there?”

  Bobby pulled back, showing that playful grin as Odis breathed heavily. “I guess I’m doing it right? I never played with an uncut cock before.”

  “You’re definitely on the fast train to a protein snack.”

  Bobby lightly squeezed his cock.

  “About a three-minute arrival time, if you keep that up.”

  “Huh, and I thought old men were supposed to take a long time.” Bobby slid back more of Odis’s foreskin and inhaled his cock into his mouth again.

  “Who you callin’—oh holy fuckin’ shit….”

  Bobby had planned to stretch out the oral play a bit more but got carried away by the wonderful taste and feel of Odis in his mouth. He pulled back the rest of the foreskin and worked his tongue at the base of Odis’s cockhead.

  “Oh, fuckin’ fuck, fuck,” Odis yelled as he went into orgasm.

  Bobby pulled his mouth back a little as Odis gushered semen onto his tongue. He applied more suction and swallowed, loving that unique flavor of Odis.

  “Oh fu—stop, stop, stop,” Odis hissed.

  Bobby removed his mouth and scooted up to kiss Odis. He had to back off, though—Odis was panting hard and couldn’t seem to catch his breath. Bobby chuckled. “I thought you said it would take three minutes.”

  “Shut up” was all Odis could seem to mutter.

  Bobby hugged him and stroked his hair as Odis recovered.

  “That….” Odis looked into Bobby’s eyes.

  “That was good?”

  Odis smirked. “More like, over the moon.”

  “You never had a girl give you head?”

  “Not like that.” Odis smiled. “They always went about it like they were doing the laundry or something. I guess that was part of what made it so hot, seeing how much you enjoyed doing it.”

  “I guess I like making you squirm and get all incoherent.”

  Odis kissed him deeply, rubbing his fingernails up Bobby’s sides and feeling him shiver. The passion of the kiss was like a warm, fuzzy blanket that surrounded them with comforting bliss.

  Odis pulled back. “So I’m your first w
ith a foreskin?”

  “Well, it’s not like I’ve never seen one, and I’ve seen some in porn.”

  “You watch porn?” Odis smacked himself in the head. “Oh duh, on the road….”

  “Yeah, spent a lot of nights in hotel rooms with porn for company.”

  “That…,” Odis said as he shook his head. “It must have been lonely.”

  “Part of the job, I guess.”

  Odis nestled in against Bobby’s chest. “So what kind of work are you going to do now?”

  “I don’t know. I could take over the landscaping business, but that was always more Nate’s shtick. He left it to me, but….” Bobby shrugged. “I’m not sure how his mom would feel about me taking over.”

  “His mom? Why would she care if it was Nate’s business?”

  “Well, it was the family business. Nate took it over after his dad died.”

  Odis looked confused.

  “Oh, I didn’t mention? I found out when I went to Nate’s for the family Labor Day barbecue that his dad was my boss.”

  “You were with Nate all summer and he didn’t bother to tell you it was his dad’s landscaping company?”

  “Well, I’m sure at first, he was worried about me taking advantage. Then we got… distracted and just never got around to talking about it.”

  “Humph. And you want to give it back to his mom?”

  “I don’t know, maybe? I’ll have to figure something out this month, though. It’s about time to start gearing up since winter’s over.”

  “That’s part of the legal stuff you were talking about?”

  “Yeah, and some lawyers are pressuring me to file suit.”

  “You don’t want to?”

  “It’ll just start up the circus again.”

  “I’m sure it will.” Odis kissed his forehead. “But won’t it help set a precedent for other gay players? And not just baseball….”

  “I know.”

  They cuddled on the bed together, enjoying the feel of each other.

  Odis broke the silence after a few minutes. “Guess it’s time for that shower now.”

  “All right,” Bobby agreed.

  Odis stood up and stripped off his boxers and dropped them on the bed, then pulled Bobby to his feet. He slipped the gym shorts off Bobby before trying to lift off Bobby’s shirt. He wasn’t tall enough and had to step onto the bed to pull the shirt over Bobby’s head.