by Erin Hayes
She peered at it, nodded, and then checked off a few boxes on the front of the folder before tucking it in her desk. “Hard part’s over, sugar.” I must have grimaced when I gave it to her. “Just sign these.”
I grabbed a pen and was initialing all the highlighted places on the lease where she had indicated that I needed to sign. Ashley would have to do this in a bit. But at least it seemed to be going quickly and smoothly.
The entire time, the woman chatted with me. “My name is Della, and if there is anything you need while you’re living here, you can always call this office and we’ll get it fixed.” She went through all of the maintenance procedures, told me that I had to pick up Winston’s packages when he went outside or else, I’d face a fine if I was caught.
“And here are some doggy treats for your puppy,” Della exclaimed as the door opened, and Ashley came in with Winston. Della held out a jar of little dog bones, her gaze focused on Winston at first. And then she and I both looked up at the same time to see Andre, Clancy, and Rodney come in as well.
“Surprise,” Andre warmly said, as I squealed and ran up to hug him. Well, I hugged him around the neck and wrapped my legs around him, like I was never going to let him go.
“What are you doing here?” I exclaimed. “I wasn’t supposed to see you until tomorrow.”
He laughed and hugged me back.
“You really think we’d let you two move in without help?” Clancy asked behind me. I turned to looked at him, and he gave me a lopsided smile. “After all, what good are we, if we don’t help you move in?”
“You don’t have to do that,” I told him, feeling my cheeks color. I stepped away from Andre, feeling self-conscious. Sure, Andre and I were together, but I hadn’t seen the three of them for about a week and a half now.
All those feels were coming back.
“Hell yes, they do,” Ashley said. “There’s no way in hell I’m carrying my shit up three flights of stairs.”
“Three flights?” Rodney groaned. “No one said anything about three flights of stairs.” He exhaled a plume of smoke, and I noticed for the first time that he was smoking. I was pretty sure that you weren’t allowed to smoke at this apartment complex.
But Della didn’t say anything. In fact, when I glanced back at her, she was just staring open-mouthed at the three big guys who made this office feel a lot smaller. She looked starstruck.
My guys had that effect on everyone.
The guys, I mentally corrected myself. Only Andre is entirely mine.
But damn, they were all hot.
It was good to be back in Birmingham.
Chapter 3
“Where do you want this?” Rodney asked. He stood in the doorway of our apartment, carrying a box that looked like it weighed as much as I did. Even after I had gained a bit of weight from my breakup from my ex.
“Just set it down somewhere,” I said as I dug into another box in the kitchen to start putting away the dishes. The guys were bringing in the boxes from the truck while Ashley and I put our things away. I noticed that their shirts had come off at some point, so I was trying not to ogle as I put all my attention into not paying attention to their chests.
I heard Rodney’s snicker before I looked up to see him set the box down right in the middle of the entrance and walk away.
That was Rodney for you.
Andre came in, carrying a box himself. He nearly tripped over the box Rodney had left, righting himself up against the wall. “What the fuck, Rodney!” he shouted out the door.
“I told him to set it down wherever,” I explained to Andre apologetically. Although I didn’t know why I was defending Rodney. I did feel thankful for having him and Clancy here. I wasn’t dating them, so there really was no reason why they were helping me. I guess other than me being their boss.
Well, that thought just took the edge off my warm fuzzies.
“He’s being a dick,” Andre muttered as he came over to me. “This one says living room.”
“Just in the corner there.” I pointed. “And I’ll tell Rodney to move that other box.”
“I’ve got it.” Clancy strode into the apartment, carrying a dining table chair under one arm. He bent over and picked the box up, reminding me that he was as strong as he was big. “Wouldn’t want someone tripping over it.”
Andre smirked. “Too late.”
Ashley appeared in the doorway of the room that was meant to be hers. And she was holding...
“Oh shit,” I muttered in absolute horror.
“Madison, somehow, your Pleasure Master 3000 ended up in my things.” She held up my too-familiar battery-operated boyfriend that I had gotten well-acquainted with after Jacob and I broke up.
Both Andre and Clancy looked as mortified as I felt, not speaking or moving after Ashley’s proclamation. Even Winston lifted his head from his dog bed in the corner. “Ashley!” I hissed. I stormed over to her, plucked the vibrator out of her hand, and ushered both of us into her room and shut the door.
She snickered, thoroughly enjoying this hell she was putting me through. “Very high-end equipment you have here. How did that end up in my stuff?”
I shook my head, but I couldn’t stop laughing. “You’re so gross for grabbing someone else’s toys.”
“Well, I hope you cleaned it. Wait, you cleaned it, right?”
I combed my hand through my hair. “Oh my God.”
“Relax.” Ashley rolled her eyes. “Andre knows your kinks by now. And now Clancy knows that orgasms are super important to you. I just wish Rodney had been there to see it.”
I waggled my finger at her as I turned back to the door. “Your next boyfriend, I’m going to embarrass the shit out of you.”
“Speaking of, you still haven’t set me up with one of your football players.”
I looked back to her in horror. “I’m not their pimp, Ashley.”
She scoffed. “You should be.”
I rolled my eyes as I turned the doorknob. “Anyway, you’ll meet them all when you start your new trainer job next week.”
“Are you sure you want to go back out there with the Pleasure Master 3000?” she asked behind my back.
I didn’t realize that I still had it in my hand. “Shit.” I looked around, trying to figure out what to do with it, before I stuck it in the back of my jeans and covered it with my shirt. No way in hell was I keeping it in Ashley’s room, even if it meant I had to stick it down my pants.
I left her in there while she roared with laughter.
Back out in the living room, Clancy had made himself disappear, probably out to the U-Haul with Rodney. I didn’t blame him. Andre was standing in the middle of the room, grinning at me like a jackal.
“What?” I snapped to him, although I couldn’t help laughing, too.
He shrugged. “I didn’t realize you liked ribbing.”
“Oh my God,” I muttered again.
“Hey.” Andre suddenly wrapped his arms around me, and he looked down into my eyes. “I’m glad you’re back.” He kissed me, and I sighed into him. His hands found the vibrator in my jeans. “And I’d love to try that out with you later.”
I raised my eyebrow at him, and he pecked another kiss on me just as Rodney came into the apartment. I jumped as he slammed the door behind him, and Andre let out an annoyed groan.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Rodney grumbled. “But some of us are still doing the heavy lifting.”
“Sorry,” I said, wiping my lips self-consciously while Andre frowned. “I’ll get back to it.”
I stepped away from Andre and went back to the box that I was putting away. Andre winked at me as he went back outside. Rodney stayed around for another long moment.
I looked up at him and met his eyes. He shook his head before turning away and heading out, leaving me alone to my thoughts. Damn, having feelings for three guys was going to give me a heart attack.
“Get your act together, Madison,” I muttered, shaking my head.
We worked in tande
m for the next couple of hours, unloading the truck and unpacking the boxes. With five people working, it went much faster than it had back in San Francisco when Ashley and I packed up our apartment and truck by ourselves.
Once again, a reminder that all this would have been so much easier had we hired a moving company. Sometimes, being stubborn sucked.
As the sun began to set, I picked up my cell phone and searched Yelp for the best pizza places in town. The least I could do would be to give the guys dinner for helping us out.
“What kind of pizza do you want?” I called out. Rodney and Clancy were busy putting together the entertainment system while Andre was putting away my books on the shelves. Ashley was in the bathroom, setting it up, but the door was open, so I knew she could hear me.
“Pineapple and Canadian bacon!” she yelled out.
Rodney snickered. “Pineapple doesn’t belong on a pizza. Meat Lover’s for me.”
Admittedly, my own stomach churned at the thought of Ashley’s request, but I had lived with her long enough to learn how she ate.
Clancy and Andre nodded in unison. “Meat Lover’s.”
“So that’s two pizzas?” I asked with my thumb hovering over the call button for the restaurant. “One for Ashley and me and one for the guys?”
Andre burst out laughing. “More like one for you and Ashley, and a Meat Lover’s for each of us.”
I stared at him, remembering his biceps and his abs that I had gotten well acquainted with. That wasn’t the body of someone who ate his own Meat Lover’s pizza. After struggling with my weight my whole life, I knew that pizza was a treat, not the norm. And never would I eat a whole pizza. “You’re kidding.”
He grinned. “We’re professional football players, Madison. We have to eat 8,000 calories a day.”
“9,000 for me,” Clancy said, raising his hand. “That’s what I get for being a linebacker.”
I frowned, waiting for them to say it was a joke, but they all looked serious. I sucked in a deep breath. “All right.”
I dialed and called the pizza place. I ordered, gave them my new address, and hung up. “Thirty minutes.”
“Well,” Ashley announced as she appeared, holding two bottles of wine and a corkscrew, “I think that gives us enough time to crack open a bottle and take a break.”
“Pizza was supposed to be the break,” I protested.
She gave me an unimpressed look as she walked by me to the cupboard. “There’s always time for wine.” I had just put away the wine glasses, but somehow, she found them immediately. “Especially after the day we all had. Unpacking can wait another day.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Rodney added.
Ashley pointed to him with the corkscrew. “See?” She bent over the bottle of wine and started screwing it in.
“But tomorrow, I actually have to work,” I complained. “I have that team meeting.”
She glanced up at me with a look of mock horror. “Oh, right. Well...” She shrugged and went back to uncorking the bottle.
Seriously, Ashley was going to be the death of me.
She handed me a glass of wine, though, and I didn’t care after I started sipping it. It had been a long, long move, and the opportunity to just relax felt amazing.
We gathered around a box, chatting about everything, and even Rodney was being pretty amicable. The guys may have required a shit-ton of calories every day, but even getting a few glasses of wine in them made them friendlier and more sociable.
Clancy, I found, was a cheap drunk despite his size, and talked our ears off, even after the pizza arrived. He kept talking around his mouthfuls of pizza and looked surprised when bits of sausage fell in his lap, and Winston ate the pieces.
“Your dog likes my crotch, Madison,” he slurred to me.
I was kind of jealous that Winston could get so close to it.
“He just likes the meat in your crotch,” Rodney muttered. He was none too happy that Winston kept climbing over his lap to get to Clancy. For his part, Clancy just looked confused, and I chuckled lightly as I brought up another slice of pizza to my mouth.
Either this pizza place was really good, or pineapple and Canadian bacon was growing on me.
“So tell me how the team’s been doing in practice.” I hadn’t actually intended to bring up the team’s performance today, but with all three of them here, I might as well find out. Besides, it might give me some insight into how I should approach my meeting with the rest of the team tomorrow.
“Well, it’s been interesting without a head coach,” Rodney said mildly as he took a long swig of his wine.
“Better without Coach Mack,” Andre pressed, giving him a glare. “It’s forced us to work together.”
Rodney smirked. “Without leadership, though.” I knew he was trying to push Andre’s buttons. As team captain, Andre was considered the leader of the team, although Rodney wanted the role for himself.
The thing of it was, though, I trusted Andre’s leadership instincts over Rodney’s. And it wasn’t just because I was sleeping with him. Andre had a gentler hand with his teammates than Rodney, and that was something that I strove for when I headed up my own tech company.
“I need to find you guys another coach,” I said, although I had no idea how.
“Well, it’s going to be impossible to find a new head coach this close to the regular season,” Ashley said. “Especially at the salaries you’d probably offer him.”
I frowned at her, wondering what she meant. “Well, we’d just give him Mack’s salary.”
“That’s the problem,” Andre said. “Mack was only being paid 1.5 million dollars.”
I stared at him. That prick Mack was paid 1.5 million dollars for basically being a misogynistic asshole? Holy shit, I’d been in the wrong industry my whole life. “So?”
“So,” Rodney said, “a good head coach would probably cost you around seven million, especially this close to the start of the season, and especially to lure them over to the league’s losingest team. And I doubt that laundry pod sponsor has enough money to shell out for that.” He clinked his glass against mine. “Sorry, sweetheart, but you may be shit out of luck.”
I gritted my teeth. “Don’t call me sweetheart.”
His expression fell, as if taken aback by my intense dislike of the word.
“Don’t worry, Madison.” Clancy patted my hand. His eyes were starry, and he gave me a lopsided grin. “You’ll figure out something. You always do.”
He’d only known me for a few months, and already he was so sure of me. I smiled at him, and I nearly swooned. I might have, in fact, if not for the fact that he immediately dropped a whole piece of pizza in his lap that Winston promptly lapped up. Clancy looked down again in confusion as Andre chuckled.
“And with that,” Rodney said with a sigh, “I think Clancy’s about to turn into a pumpkin.” He clapped the big man on the back. “Come on, Cinderella, time to get you home.”
Clancy looked up, yawned, and nodded tiredly. “Okay.”
Rodney helped him to his feet while Ashley poured the rest of the bottle of wine into her glass, claiming it all for herself. Something told me that she was going to open up another bottle in her room and pass out, fast asleep.
We were all tired after today.
“You coming, Andre?” Rodney asked over his shoulder.
Andre waved them away. “Nah, I’m driving Madison and Ashley to the stadium tomorrow since they don’t have a car. Besides,” he winked at me, “there are a few things I need to...master...tonight.”
The pun was so awful and so obvious that I giggled. Rodney groaned as he helped Clancy out the door and into the night. Ashley gathered all the plates off the coffee table we had used and unceremoniously dumped them into the sink.
“Good night, you two,” she muttered as she took another drink. “I have a date with my own Pleasure Master.”
“Eww,” I said, and she flipped me off as she took her wine glass into her bedroom with her.
Andre turned to me and kissed me, long and hard. “So,” he said, “which surface of this apartment do you want to christen first?”
I took out my vibrator which I had miraculously kept concealed the entire time we were eating. “Dealer’s choice.”
He chose wisely. Several times.
Chapter 4
I paced back and forth in front of the windows overlooking the stadium from the owner’s box. All around the suite, televisions played the game going on below us, but with lots of close-ups and commentary. I’d had the staff turn down all but one channel—the local one. I wanted to see how we were perceived in local media.
So far, I’d heard the words “unlikely comeback,” “still without a coach,” “bizarre choices,” and “don’t know what the new owner is thinking.”
Those last two were the final straw for me.
“Can someone please turn down the volume?” I asked, rubbing the heels of my hands against my forehead.
“It’ll be okay,” Jimmy Clayton, the owner of Alabama Proud Laundry Detergent and our first real team sponsor, patted me awkwardly on the back. He was a super sweet old man, and it was still all I could do not to snap at him.
“Your boys are really doing okay,” he told me soothingly. Then again, his soft Alabama accent could make even the worst news seem soothing.
“I need a drink,” I muttered. I glanced around for one of the waiters. Last time I’d been up here for a game, Ashley had arranged for them to bring us our team’s signature drink, the Yellowhammer, a delectable mix of pineapple and rum.
Now, though, Ashley was somewhere else in the stadium—somewhere closer to the team since I’d given her a job as a trainer. Her degree in kinesiology, combined with her experience as a yoga instructor and general athletic type, made her perfect for the position, as far as I was concerned.
But it left me without my partner in crime. I was discovering exactly how nervous that made me during games.
“We can get you a drink,” Jimmy said, “but we’re only just now getting to halftime. The boys still have plenty of time to turn it around.”
I glanced at the scoreboard: 23 to 7. I wasn’t feeling all that great about our chances right now.
