Out of Bounds (Reedsville Roosters #5) (16 page)

At the squeeze of his knee beneath the diner table, Gary leaned toward Dean. “Mm?”

“You’re probably getting tired of being asked, but how are you feeling?” Dean whispered.

“Like a rabid squirrel in a nut factory.”

Dean chuckled and pushed the remnant of his chocolate pie across the table to Lo.

“You’re tapering off from the meds okay, though, right?” Lo asked.

“Yeah. I keep surprising myself at how my personality reasserts itself.”

“It’s like you’ve been liberated from the Borg collective or something.” Lo grinned.

“
Star Trek
went off the air ages ago. You need to find better contemporary references if you’re gonna be a solid geek, girl.”

She rolled her eyes and flicked a little condensation from her beer bottle at him.

“So…” He drummed his fingers atop the table and looked from one Yeats to the other, and then again. He hadn’t seen them both together in months because of the way their work schedules had shaken out, but most weekends, one or the other—or Clint—was in Philly.

Gary wasn’t exactly
comfortable
with the transition, but he knew the situation could have been worse. He was happy as hell he hadn’t made any new enemies or pissed off a coach yet, but he suspected that having goals helped. At the start of every week, there was someone there to hold him accountable, and he didn’t really want to disappoint anyone. Surprisingly, he found himself included in that “anyone.” That hadn’t always been the case, and wondered if that made the biggest difference.

Dean worked his hand farther up Gary’s thigh.

Gary let out a nervous titter and grabbed Dean’s wrist. “You think we could, uh…go back to my place now?”

“What’s the hurry?”

“You know damn well what the hurry is.”

“You’ll be all right.” He shook Gary’s hand off his wrist and continued his brazen groping of Gary’s inner thigh and what
happened
to be pressed against it.

“There you are!”

At Mike’s approach, Lo stood with her hand extended for him, and Gary was grateful for the tablecloth obscuring his crotch.

“Thanks for meeting us. I know you’re busy this time of year,” Lo told Mike.

“No worries.”

Gary extended a hand to shake, offering the man a tense smile. “Sorry for not standing. I had a…charley horse.”

Dean chuckled and raised his beer to his lips.

“You’ve met my husband, haven’t you?” Lo asked Mike.

“Yep. See him all the time in the field box. I try to pay attention to who’s redeeming those free tickets.” He slid into the seat beside Lo. “Good to have friends show up for games. At least you know you’ll always have one friendly face in the crowd, right?”

“He’s my good luck charm,” Gary said. He broke a breadstick in half and took a bite of the soft middle. “All I have to do is think about the disapproving faces he makes when I make bad decisions, and just like that, my performance improves a hundred and fifty percent.”

“I’ve never seen Dean make a disapproving face,” Lo said.

“Stick around long enough, and you will,” Gary muttered, and Dean found that hot spot on Gary’s inner thigh again.

Gary suppressed a whimper. Dean could be an asshole when he wanted to be, whether Lo wanted to believe that or not, and Gary was anxious that the next time he stood, he’d be walking away from the table with a limp. The limp wouldn’t be from fun aerobic things they’d done the night before, either—Gary’s schedule had put him in a hell of a dry spell—but because Dean would make him come right there at that table with no concern whatsoever for the awkward wet spot Gary would have to go clean up.

“We won’t hold you up for long.” Lo pulled a stack of papers out of her tote and slid them to Mike. “Talked to the lawyer. I circled all the things that we need some room on. You’re gonna have to be a little more flexible with some of those arrival times unless you’re gonna assign a trainer to wake him up and get him to field every day.”

“I appreciate you being upfront about why.”

She shrugged. “He’s not a rock star or a diva, and I don’t want that reputation anywhere near him. If Gary’s late, it’s because he got distracted. There’s only so much nagging we can do for him from North Carolina.”

“Hmm. I think we’ve got one other player who lives in that part of town who actually
is
a little bit of a diva,” Mike said. “Can probably do double duty. I think I know who I could do that run every morning. She’s a hard-ass, but she generally can tell what’s what.”

“Is she cute?” Lo asked flatly. “Is she going to be a…
distraction
?”

Gary batted his eyelashes at her.

Not that he’d say so in front of Mike, but he wouldn’t stray. He was only promiscuous when he was being paid to be, and he wasn’t particularly interested in rehashing that part of his life, and certainly not at the expense of giving up people who actually loved him back. He was reckless, but he wasn’t stupid.

“Cute?
Flora
?” Mike asked. “She’s like a cross between a Sherman tank and Margaret Thatcher. I don’t know if I’d call her cute, nor should
you
.”

“Duly noted,” Lo said.

“Anything else?” Mike asked.

“I know you’re not gonna budge on dollars since what you’re offering is standard for players of his tenure, there are some other things I’d like more than a verbal agreement on. Nothing major—just quality of life stuff. I’m sure you understand.”

Mike clucked his tongue as he read and drummed the end of his gold pen against the tabletop. “I’ll put this in front of the other dudes in suits and see what they say.”

“Great.” Lo held out her hands gain. “Thank you for your time.”

“No. Thank
you
for not setting my pubes on fire as my assistant suggested you would.”

“Whatever would have given her the idea I’d do such a thing?”

Mike shook his head and stood. He picked up the check and his briefcase, and then grunted. “All I’m gonna say is you’ve already got a reputation in this business.”

“If I’d been a man, nobody would have thought twice about me being a little pushy.”

“That’s the thing.” Mike pointed the check at her. “You’re not only pushy, but you get people confused. You get them all tied up in their own words, and it’s like you don’t even have to try.”

“Letting her have her way is usually the smartest course of action,” Dean said.

Mike nodded bleakly. “Yep. I’m learning that lesson. Whatever you’re paying her isn’t enough, Morstad.”

Gary shrugged, and Mike went on his way.

Lo propped her chin atop her fist and blinked at Gary demurely.

Everyone at that table would have known damn well she was anything but demure.

“You should pay me,” she said.

“Well, you know, I’m kind of low on cash at the moment. Apparently my agent diverted my last couple of checks to cover some bills I’d forgotten to take care of.”

“That’s okay.” She picked up her tote bag, pushed back from the table, and then gestured toward the door.

Dean stood, too, and pulled Gary’s chair out. He leaned down and whispered, “Lo has a new camera.”

“Huh?”

“And a tripod in her suitcase.”

“Does she, now?” Gary asked.

“Mm-hmm. Know what else she has?”

“What?”

“A brand new mask for you. Hope you like latex. Comes with a ball gag.”

“Holy shit.” Gary stood and hurried to catch up to Lo.

While waiting for the valet to bring the Yeats’s rental car around, he leaned in to Lo and whispered, “So…you’re gonna put me on the Internet? Is that how you’re gonna earn your fee?”

“I haven’t decided yet. Maybe I’ll just keep the video for future leverage.”

“What am I going to be doing in the video besides wearing a mask?”

“Oh, you know,” Dean said, giving Gary’s ass a little pat. “Post-season review. Play-by-plays so we can correct your sloppy form. We need to get your ass into shape again.”

“Oh, you’re
cold
.”

Lo laughed and pulled Gary into one of those crushing, tight hugs that were always so good at putting him at ease. “You don’t mind, do you, Gary?”

“You kidding me? I tried to put the moves on another guy’s wife, and ended up with the guy
and
his wife. I don’t mind at all. And Lo?”

“Hmm?”

“Where are your rings?”

Lo raised her bare hand to eye-level, screamed loud enough to wake the newly dead, and then ran back into the restaurant.

Dean sighed. “Why’d you have to do that? You saw me pick up the rings from the floor.”

Grinning, Gary rocked back on his heels. “I guess I’m bratty that way.”

I hope you’ve enjoyed this visit to Reedsville!

I had a lot of readers of the Den of Sin series ask when we were going to see Clint, Ken, and Olivia (from
O for Two
) again. I didn’t want to do a sequel for that trio—in my mind, they were happy and stuck with each other—but I realize folks can’t possibly be sure of that unless I tell them. I figured the best way to show what Clint, Ken, and Olivia have been up to was to bring them in to support their friends and family members. I hope their “happily ever after” is a satisfying one!

So, what’ll happen next in Reedsville? Well, I can tell you it’ll be another novel like this one and that it’ll probably be ménage. Beyond that, I haven’t decided. Reader opinions help me a lot, though, so
tweet at me
or
tag me on Facebook
and tell me who you want to see more of! Charles and the mysterious Juana? Cameron and whoever was helping him rattle that headboard? Or maybe someone else who’s fallen off my radar?

In the meantime, catch up on other Reedsville Roosters stories if you haven’t already. You never know when some background character may pop back into the series.

Oh! And please consider leaving an honest review for it wherever you purchased the story to help other readers find it.

Suggested Reedsville Roosters Reading Order:

Winterball
(m/m)

One in Waiting
(m/m/f)

Lucky Break
(m/f)

Designated Hitter
(m/f)

Out of Bounds
– (m/m/f)

Subscribe to my
contemporary romance newsletter
so you don’t miss a single Reedsville release!

Holley Trent is an award-winning author of more than forty works of contemporary, paranormal, and erotic romance. Raised in rural, coastal North Carolina, she currently makes the Colorado Front Range her home.

In addition to her independently published works, she has books available through Crimson Romance and Kensington Publishing. See her full backlist of stories
at her website
.

Want to chat about
Out of Bounds,
the hunks on the Reedsville Roosters team, or other topics? Catch her online on Twitter where she tweets under the handle @
holleytrent
. You can also chat with her on
Facebook
.

See her full backlist of titles
at her website
, and subscribe to her
contemporary romance newsletter
so you don’t miss a single Reedsville release.

OUT OF BOUNDS

Copyright © 2016 by Holley Trent

All rights reserved. Except for use in review, no part of this work may be reproduced in any format without permission of the author.

OUT OF BOUNDS
is a work of fiction. Names, places, entities, and scenarios in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Cover art credits:

Model stock: © ysbrandcosijn – Adobe Stock

Background: © Juhku – Adobe Stock

Rooster stock: ©inga via Dollar Photo Club

Copy edits by
Jen Duffey