I clenched my jaw. Evan had pulled all his attention from me. But then, they were best friends. I strolled through the doorway and stopped. “See you.”
He peeked up from his phone. “Yeah, see you next week.” Heglanced at the phone and returned his gaze to me. “And have a good game. I’ll, uh, I’ll watch it.” A small grin lifted the edge of his lips. “Probably with Evan.”
“You better.” With my heart fluttering, I left.
We reachedTexas Tech for our away game, and I had settled into my usual beige hotel room with Rick Masters, a second-string offensive lineman. I’d spent the day thinking about Colton. He’d embedded himself into my brain, and there was no way to remove him. The scrolling I’d done of his Instagram feed hadn’t been helpful, but I couldn’t stop myself. Shit, I had to stop thinking about him so I could focus on our strategy session with the coaching staff. I flicked my gaze to Masters, sitting at the headboard of his bed, his legs sprawled, and scrolling on his phone. Maybe a quick call to my parents would help? They’d surely watch tonight’s game.
“Hey, I’m going to call my parents.” I slipped my phone from the pocket of my joggers. Would he stay in the room or leave and give me some privacy?
“Sure, no problem. I want to get a snack, anyway.” He hopped off his bed and jogged to the door. As he grabbed the knob, he turned to me. “Do you want anything?”
“Nah, I’m okay.” I watched him leave and called my mom. The phone rang a few times and picked up.
“Hey, Travis. I’m happy you called. Are you in Texas yet?” Clanking sounded in the background.
Mom must be doing dishes or something. She was always in the kitchen. “I am. Good ol’ Lubbock.” We were on the plains of Texas, with flat land as far as you could see. It was nice to see green grass and trees, though. I strolled to my window and peeked out.
“Your father can’t wait for the game. A few of his buddiesfrom work are visiting, so he can brag about you. You better play well today.” She snickered.
“I always play well, Mom. And you can tell him that.” My breath caught. Wait, if the guys were Dad’s work buddies, some would have ties with agents or NFL teams. Dadwasthe director of football recruitment for the Longhorns. Me heading to ASU instead of playing for them had been a contentious topic, but he’d seen it my way, eventually. I’d wanted to play with my friends, people who were like me. “Who all is coming over?”
“Oh, you know, the usual. A few of the guys who work for him and maybe the head of operations.” She sighed. “I’m making them appetizers and a brisket for the smoker.”
Yep, typical Mom, showing off her cooking skills for Dad’s buddies. “Do you think he’s doing this to help me find an agent?” Maybe I should have called him instead of Mom. I paced across the floor at the foot of the beds.
“Do you think he’s not? You know these guys have connections.” Rushing water filled the background and then stopped. “Don’t you worry, your father will find you the best there is.”
“Yeah, I’m not worried.” I smiled as warmth crawled through my chest. I might have the best parents a gay football player could have. They’d been nothing but supportive of me my entire life. Yes, Dad had been demanding of me with football, but he’d loved Dante like another son. Which… “How’s Will doing? Is he working tonight?”
“Of course. The ER gets busy on the weekends, and he loves it.” She chuckled. “Speaking of your brother, he brought a girl to dinner last week and I don’t know what he was thinking.”
“He brought someone home?” I raised my brows. That was a rare occurrence. The guy couldn’t keep it in his pants. He’d probably hooked up with all the female nurses at the hospital by now. In fact, sometimes I wondered if he picked nursing just to be surrounded by women at work.
“Yes, and she was…I don’t want to be mean, but I don’t think she was very smart.” She sighed. “He met her at a bar.”
“Oh, so I guess he’s worked through all the nurses then?” I freed a soft laugh and strolled toward the window. My brother and I were so different. But he’d buckled down and gotten his nursing degree, so there was that.
“How about you? With a new school year, has anyone caught your eye?”
Colton flashed through my head. Was he spending time with Evan this weekend? “No, not really.” I shouldn’t tell her about him. It wasn’t worth getting Mom’s hopes up.
“Okay, then how are your grades?” She clicked her tongue. “I want to see you graduate, even though I know you’ll enter the draft this year.”
“I’ll graduate.” Shit, now I had to tell her about Colton. “I got a tutor for my business analytics class. There’s a lot of math I hadn’t counted on.” With a deep inhale, I tensed the corner of my mouth and gazed through the window at the late-afternoon sun, setting in a blue, cloudless sky. It would be perfect weather for the game.
“A tutor? Good. I’m glad you’re getting help if the class is hard. You didn’t last year and?—”
“I know, Mom. I’m well aware of the class I almost failed. But I didn’t, did I?” I’d heard about it all summer. Sometimes she was harder on me than Dad. “Anyhow, this guy is smart as hell, and he’s done a great job helping me.” And he was so damned hot. I couldn’t wait to take him for a beer next week.
“Oh? And does he happen to be gay and available?” She freed a soft snort.
“Mom…” I tsked and hung my head. “I don’t know what his sexual orientation is.” Now she’d be stuck on this. I should have known better.
“I thought you could tell?” She asked in a teasing voice.
“Fine, I get a queer vibe from him, but he’s said nothing to make me think he’s queer.” My chest twinged. “And he’s bringing a date to my next home game, a girl.” But then he’d told me he didn’t like her romantically.
“Oh.” She huffed. “Anyway, I need to get started on this dinner,” she said. “Play well tonight and remember, your father is showing you off.”