After a lot of eye rolling and cursing, not to mention quite a bit of good-natured ribbing when Harry was picked last—Gingers have no souls, Levi had explained—we finally had our teams. I was on Koz’s team, which I’d fully expected after giving the rules for the selection process. We also had Colesy, Radek “Radar” Cernak, Harry, Bobby, and Axel “Jo-Jo” Johansson. That should make for an interesting mix for the task ahead.
We went inside, and the owners explained what would happen. Each team would be locked in identical rooms that had been filled with pictures, boxes, objects, and other sorts of clues that would require logic, problem solving, and teamwork in order for the team to escape within the one-hour time limit. The first team to finish would be rewarded with getting to select the first recipient of the thunder hat. It would go to the guy who best helped the team as a whole to win a game, and it was hideous. It looked like a thundercloud, and it boomed every time you turned your head. The last team to finish would be buying the rest of us lunch. If any team failed to escape, they’d be funding a night out for the team once we got back to Portland.
Once everyone understood the rules, we headed into our separate rooms, and the game was on.
“Bunch of fucking idiots on this team,” Koz muttered.
“You chose us,” I pointed out, shrugging when he shot a glare in my direction.
I started looking around, trying to sort out what we were working with but not trying too hard. I wanted Koz to take charge. I wanted him to pull this team together and get us all working toward the same goal.
He didn’t. He found a chair and sat down, sulking like a child.
The rest of the guys spread out, everyone opening boxes and turning objects over, trying to sort out the clues. No one was helping anyone else, though. After a couple of minutes, Colesy came over to me with a bottle in his hands that had some markings on it. “What do you suppose this is about?” he asked.
“No clue,” I said, even though I’d already discovered a notepad with similar markings on it. Those markings might lead us to deciphering a code of some sort, but I wasn’t leading this team. This wasn’t my show. I knew I might be shooting my team in the foot, but I wasn’t going to give in. I couldn’t, or my plan would backfire. Koz was going to have to bring everyone together or we would be party planning soon.
Even though I kept going through the room, checking things out, more than anything I was watching to see what Koz would do. A few of the guys took things over to him, and he brushed them off at first. But then I could see it starting to get to him. Around fifteen minutes into our hour, Jo-Jo had the bottle Colesy had brought me and was showing it to Koz, and I could practically hear the battle going on inside the kid’s head. He had figured something out, but he didn’t want to be part of the team.
“Radar!” he called out after a very pronounced moment of silence. “Bring me that notepad you had a minute ago. And Harry, what did you do with that thing that looked like a compass?”
“Why should I bring it to you?” Harry grumbled.
“Because I’m the only guy in this room smart enough to fucking decipher this code.”
I had to give him credit. Koz might not have a lot of tact, but he was probably right about being the only one of us able to sort out the code. I had followed the other guys over, and none of it made any sense to me, but within minutes, Koz had grabbed a pen and was making notes on his arm.
“Twenty-two, forty-seven, three,” he said. “Babs, try that on the lock.”
Lock? I hadn’t seen a lock. I’d been too busy trying to figure out how Koz’s mind worked to worry about looking for clues and figuring out how to get out of here. “What lock?” I asked.
“The one on that box right behind you.” Apparently I didn’t move fast enough for him because he got up and shoved me aside. “Just let me do it all, then.” He spun the dial a few times and put in the combination he’d come up with.
Sure enough, the lock opened. He removed the lock and lifted the lid off the box, taking out a photograph. “The teddy bear. The fucking teddy bear.” He looked over his shoulder. “Bobby, what the fuck did you do with that teddy bear?”
Bobby led him to it, and my plan was starting to come together. I took a moment to sit back and be proud of myself for figuring out what made our newest asshole tick. I didn’t take too long, though. We were still locked in this room, and the clock was ticking.
I might have been willing to lose if it meant getting through to Koz, but now that it looked like we might get through to him and we could possibly win, there wasn’t any point in sitting on my ass.
“I think I’ve seen the umbrella in that picture, too,” I said.
Koz’s head popped up. “Where? Did you open it to see if it said anything?”
I hadn’t. It wasn’t something I would have ever thought to do, but Koz had. Within four or five minutes, he’d solved another logic puzzle and gotten the first clue for the next part, and he was directing the rest of us to sort out the things he needed. That was the first time I felt as though I understood the guy. We might be dealing with a fucking genius, or at least with someone whose thought pattern worked in a different way from most of us. I tended to think in straight lines, but Koz saw things as a bunch of spatter drops that made up a bigger picture. That meant I was going to have to talk to him in a different way if I was going to get through his thick skull.
I may not have solved this team’s problems in one day, but I was definitely a hell of a lot closer to getting everyone on the same page than I had been before. Not only that, but I never would have come up with any of this if Katie hadn’t steered me in the right direction.
I couldn’t wait to talk to her once we were done here. More than that, I couldn’t wait to surprise her with what Brie was helping me plan. I only wished I could give her the surprise as soon as she’d been able to help me sort through my issues with Koz.
One thing at a time.
Katie answered on the first ring. “Took you long enough to call me today. Dad said you guys had the day off,” she said without any sort of normal greeting. She sounded sleepy even though it was the middle of the afternoon. I might have interrupted a nap, which made me feel guilty, but only for a second.
“We had the day off from anything the coaches were involved in,” I said. I was in my hotel room. Coop had gone out with a few of the other guys to enjoy the sunshine since it was a gorgeous day in Raleigh, so I was alone for once, and fully prepared to take advantage of it by talking to my girlfriend.
“Oh. You called a captain’s practice?”
“No practice. We went to a place where we got locked in a room and had to escape.”
“That sounds…odd,” she said. And she laughed. “Did you enjoy it?”
“I enjoyed being on the winning team.”
“You don’t like to lose.”
“Nobody likes to lose.” But she was right. I really didn’t like to lose. Most professional athletes were the same in that regard. “What have you been doing today?”
“Thinking about you.” There was a heaviness to her voice that I hated. I wanted to smash it, but it wasn’t something real and physical and tangible. It was just there. “I went out back for a while. Sat on my swing under the tree with a pad of paper and a pen. I thought maybe I could try writing a song, but nothing happened. I couldn’t come up with anything to say.”
“So then what happened?”
“I fell asleep on the swing for a bit. Then I woke up with Julianne yelling for Blackbeard to come back.”
“What?” I nearly choked on my laughter.
“She ran into your cat sitter when they were both showing up. She thought maybe Blackbeard would like to see me from the other side of the fence, but he apparently didn’t understand he was supposed to stay over in your yard.”
“Did he climb you?” I had no doubt that was what he’d intended. He liked curling up on Katie’s breasts as much as I liked playing with them. A whole fucking hell of a lot.
> “The cat sitter caught him before he got to me. He was about three or four feet away, which was closer than he should have been, but it was only for a second. We called a vet to be sure it wouldn’t hurt him. They said he should be okay since it was such limited exposure.”
She stopped talking for a minute, and I thought I heard her sniffle.
“You all right?” I asked.
“Would it be bad that I wanted him to come snuggle with me even if it was dangerous for him? Just that little bit of contact would— Never mind. I’m fine.”
She wasn’t fine. She wasn’t even close to fine, and it had only been a few days. I didn’t know how she was going to get through a month of this. I didn’t know how I was going to get through a month of not being able to touch her, to hold her and comfort her, to tell her everything was going to be all right and know that what I was saying was the truth.
“What are you doing right now?” I asked, hoping to move her thoughts away from her loneliness.
“I told Mia I was tired and needed a nap. I’m alone in my bed. Thinking about you. What are you doing right now?”
“The same. I’m alone in my hotel room and thinking about you.”
“Coop’s not there?”
“Out with the guys,” I said.
“When’s he coming back?” She sounded devious. No, that wasn’t quite right. She sounded sexy.
I groaned, already getting hard just from thinking of all the things that couldn’t happen right now. “Not for a while,” I said.
She made a quiet humming sound. “Lock the door.”
“What?” I sat up in the bed, sure I was hearing things.
“Lock the door so he doesn’t walk in on you while you’re…while we’re… Just get up and lock the damn door.”
I got up and locked the damn door. “Okay. Done. Door’s locked.” Now what?
“What are you wearing?” she asked.
“Jeans and a T-shirt.”
“I’m still in my pj’s. I never got dressed today since I knew I wasn’t going out. It’s a satin shirt that buttons down the front and reaches almost to my knees, and it slides over my skin like butter.”
I imagined her gliding her hand down that material. Without conscious thought, I rubbed my hand over my cock. “Are you touching yourself?” I asked, lying on the bed again, one knee bent and the other leg stretched out.
“No. Do you want me to?”
Fuck, yes. But I said, “If you want.”
“My nipples are hard, Jamie.” Not only that, but her breathing was heavy.
“Are you touching them?”
“Yes. I’m pinching my nipple and rolling it between my thumb and fingers, and it’s straining for more.”
“Are you wearing a bra?”
“No.”
I swallowed hard. “Panties?”
Silence. A lot of silence that stretched into forever. Then, “Not anymore. Are you touching yourself?”
“Yes.” My voice cracked.
“Are you hard yet?”
“Hard enough to crush stone.”
“Take off your pants, Jamie.”
“I’m on it.” I held the phone in place with my shoulder and lowered my jeans and boxers to my knees.
“Did I tell you that I’m wet?” she asked. “I’m already so wet. My fingers can just slip and slide wherever they want to go.”
“Dip a finger inside,” I said. I stroked myself, eyes closed, imagining it was her mouth on me.
“I have two fingers in there. And my thumb is circling my clit, and it feels good, Jamie. It feels almost as good as having you touch me.”
“I wish I could touch you right now.”
“What would you do if you could?” she asked.
“I’d push your knees apart and put my mouth where your hand is, and I’d lick you. I’d lick your pussy until you came, and then I’d roll you over on top of me so you could ride me, and I’d play with your breasts until you came again with me inside you.”
“Are you rubbing your cock?”
“Yes. Pretending it’s you instead.”
“What are you seeing me do?” she asked.
“Your mouth is on me.”
“On you how?”
“Your lips are around me, squeezing, and you’re taking as much of me as you can. Hot and wet. You’re using your hand, too.”
“Teasing your balls?”
“Yes. Massaging and tugging on them.”
“I’m pretending it’s you inside me.”
“Oh God.”
“Yes. You’re in me, and you’re so big and hard, and you want me so much that you’re filling me all the way. It hurts, but it’s a good hurt, you know? The kind that is about to give way to the best feeling ever.”
“Am I moving?”
“Fast and hard. So hard. Almost bruising, but not. Just enough to leave me tender tomorrow. The kind of tender that makes me think of you every time I feel it, and then I want you all over again.”
“I always want you,” I said. My mouth was dry from wanting her.
“Are you close? I’m close, Jamie. I’m so close.”
She was. I could hear it in the way her breath was hitching and in the soft, whimpering sounds she was letting out.
“Yes, I’m close,” I said.
“Close your eyes.”
“Already closed.”
“Mine, too. Can you see me? In your mind? Do you see me there?”
Always. I would never be able to see anyone but her. “Yes,” I rasped.
“I see you, too. I see you, and I hear your voice and the harshness of your breath in my ear, and I can almost feel you, Jamie.”
Almost. This was as close as we were likely to come any time soon.
I was past the point of no return. “I’m going to come,” I said.
“Do it. Come, Jamie. I’m so close, too.”
So I did on a groan, stroking my length until after the spasms stopped.
“You always sound the same when you come,” she said. “Did you know that?”
Was that normal? Did some people sound different? I shook it off, preferring to focus instead on helping Katie to join me in at least that one way. “If I were there right now,” I said, “what would you want me to do?”
For a long moment, there was nothing on the other end of the line but an occasional gasp or whimper. “Hold me,” she finally said, but this came out as far more than a whimper. It was a plea. A prayer. “Just hold me.”
It was all I wanted to do.
With every day that passed, I felt better than I had the day before. I had been expecting that, of course, since I’d been through this whole rigmarole recently enough that there wasn’t any chance I would forget it. That being said, the effect on that first day had been more intense than I’d remembered, but this was a different treatment plan than what I’d gone through the first time. Same side effects, different severity.
When Friday finally rolled around, my first forced isolation came to an end. Now, at least for a few days until my next treatment, I was allowed to have limited contact with other people. I was still supposed to avoid children, pregnant women, and animals as much as possible, so no hanging out in the owner’s box at Storm games, but at least I could hug my mom again without worrying about causing her harm.
Jamie and the rest of the team weren’t due to return until early the next week. He and I talked every day, as often as possible. Our first experience with phone sex had turned into a way to connect on a physical level—even though we weren’t truly touching each other—at a time when I wasn’t allowed any physical contact with anyone. I hadn’t been so sure about it when Soupy had initially made the suggestion, but I was glad I’d given it a shot. In some ways, it was helping to keep me sane.
The other thing keeping me sane was my garden out back. I spent more and more time there, especially in the late afternoons and early evenings. Sunset was the time that called to me. I took my notepad and a pen, sat, and listened to the sou
nds of the world passing me by. I’d started jotting down a few lines, scattered and fragmented phrases, much like my thoughts. I could always make sense of them later, but for now it was enough just to get them out of my head and put them on paper.
Now that my visitors weren’t limited to two hours of contact at a go, Mom was spending most of her time with me. Well, more at my house than with me. I couldn’t get her to stop cleaning. She was constantly going around my house with her protective gloves on, wiping down surfaces and throwing bedding and towels into the laundry, dealing with all the things that could be contaminated with radiation. She wouldn’t stop no matter how many times I asked her to just sit with me.
I understood it. She needed to do something, and right now the only thing she felt as though she could do was take care of things so I wouldn’t have to. Still, I wished she would just sit next to me and talk to me about things that were going on outside my little house. I was feeling more and more cut off from the world.
Over the weekend, we went shopping for furniture and equipment to put in my studio. Dad was going to finish the built-in once the team got back to town, but I wanted to go ahead and get everything else in now, particularly since this first week of cancer treatment had proven to me just how isolated I was going to be. I needed an outlet. I needed a way to channel all the things I was feeling instead of keeping them all bottled up inside me, and it was worth trying to see if I could do that by creating music.
I paid extra for Sunday delivery because I wanted it all set up before the next round started, and a few of the WAGs came over to help Mom and me get everything installed properly. Julianne even brought her kids with her—all teenagers, old enough that we didn’t have to worry too much about radiation—and Elin and Maddie tagged along, too.
Maddie brought a huge stack of books with her. “Romance novels,” she explained, carrying them into my bedroom to put on the nightstand closest to the window. “Mom sent them. She likes to read them when she doesn’t feel well. Sometimes I sneak one of them off to my bedroom to read at night and put back in the morning before she notices. Don’t tell her.”
Dropping Gloves Page 22
