The call rang a few times and picked up. “Hi, Tex.”
God, I loved how he always called me Tex now. “Hi. Uh, how was your therapy session?” I’d get right to it. Hopefully, he’d want to talk about it with me. I shifted on the couch.
“It went well. I like the therapist I picked. He was easy to talk to, and we outlined a strategy for dealing with my issues.” He choked a sigh. “Apparently I have a few.”
“What are you starting with?” I held my breath. He hadn’t wanted to rehash his mother’s death, but I didn’t know how he’d get better without that.
“We’re starting with what the therapist thinks is the easiest—my acceptance of myself,” he said. “I have to disassociate my spiral after my mother died with discovering I was bisexual…” He breathed in deeply. “My analytical brain knows that being bisexual is not a choice and something you’re born with, but my traumatized brain still thinks being with men resulted from a destructive trauma response.”
“Yeah?” Tightening the grip on my phone, I held onto every word. There might be some tidbit of information I could use to help him.
“Yeah. My dad used gay slurs so many times, hooking up with guys became a way to lash out at him for not being present for my mom.” His breath caught. “Fuck, he wasn’t present for either of us.”
“Okay, so now you understand you basically just like men. Right?” Had he ever questioned that with me? Hell, the first time we’d been together, did he believe it was to spite his father? My gut tensed.
“Yes, I know that. Now I have to fully accept it.” He huffed a sigh. “My brain needs to be rewired.”
“How much did you talk about your mom?” I worried my lower lip. If the therapist dug into that too soon, he might stop going.
“Not very much. Just enough so he understood why my trauma centered so heavily around it.” He paused. “Tex, it really wore me out. I’m exhausted and need to go to bed.”
“Yeah, okay.” I had to let him go, even though I wanted to hear more. “We can talk more if you need to this weekend, maybe.”
“Except Dante is visiting this weekend.”
“Oh, right.” Dipping my head, I clicked my tongue. “We’ll talk though. I’m here to listen whenever you need me.”
“I know.” He yawned. “Anyway, thanks for calling, and I’ll see you soon. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Colton. Sleep well.” I ended the call and set my phone in my lap, staring at the talking heads, still muted on my television. I hoped he stuck with this. So far, it looked promising.
The restof the week had flown by and both of my tutoring sessions with Colton had ended in his bedroom with us fucking.In multiple positions. I had to get tested so I could lose the damn condoms. I wanted nothing between us. We hadn’t talked any more about his therapy session. He’d wanted to let it process first in his head. For now, things were easy, and I looked forward to the game against West Virginia and seeing Dante, who was arriving in Phoenix any minute.
I drove to the arrivals curb outside baggage claim at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.
Dante stood on the curb, his almost black hair cut to frame his face, his sunglasses hiding his brown eyes. As he waved at me, his black t-shirt lifted, exposing a sliver of taught abs above the waistband of his jeans.
I stopped my truck, hopped out of it, and jogged to him. “Dante, it’s so good to see you, man.”
“Güero, you look amazing.” He wrapped me in a fierce hug and then kissed my cheek. “I’m so excited to hang out with you and your buddies.”
As I freed him, I patted his back. “Well, I don’t know how much you’ll see of my buddies. They won’t be around much.” And they were always fooling around in Grey’s bedroom.
“That’s okay.” He slung his suitcase into the back of my truck and climbed into the passenger side.
After I hopped in, I drove into the slow traffic toward the airport exit. “What have you been up to?”
“Oh, you know, the same old shit. Spending some time at Oilcan Harry’s.” He chuckled and wound his fingers around the grab handle over the window. Slapping my thigh, he said, “What about you?”
It figured he was hanging out at our old favorite gay bar. With a shrug, I said, “Just keeping my head down and trying to pass my classes while getting my stats up for the draft.” After exiting the freeway, I headed down the boulevard that would take us to the Desert Dog House. Glancing at the sun hanging low in the sky, I said, “I thought we could go to a place calledFour-One-Four Pizza for dinner. I should carb-load before the game tomorrow.”
“Yeah, but you can’t drink, right?” He twisted his lips. “One beer can’t hurt, though.”
With a shake of my head, I sighed softly. I knew it. “No, one can’t hurt.” All my teammates would be at the team dinner, so no one who mattered would see me.
“I thought so.” His smile widened to his eyes.
After gettingDante set up in Malik’s room and letting him meet Malik and Grey, I texted Colton to let him know we were leaving for the pizza place. He would meet us there. It made little sense to drive all the way into Scottsdale to pick him up. Plus, the optics would be odd.