The Quarterback (The Team, #2)

by Tal Bauer

It was the betrayal that hit him hardest: the betrayal of who he’d thought Cynthia was as a person. He’d thought there was no way she could ever choose anything or anyone over her son. That she could never look at Justin and think he wasn’t wonderful, the best parts of the two of them combined. He was a handful, to be sure, but a good person, the kind of man Nick had lain awake at night and prayed his son would turn out to be.

Hate didn’t need truth to spread like wildfire.

“I don’t think I can accept fashion criticism from a guy who wears basketball shorts and torn shirts. Do you dress like that to go to class?” “Of course not. I put a hat on.”

As if on cue, both of their phones blew up with text messages, photos from Justin and Wes out at the ranch. Justin astride a horse, Wes in silhouette in the sun on his own horse. Cattle spread across a pasture that stretched from horizon to horizon, scrub grass and West Texas lowlands. Dust rose in puffy clouds behind the cattle and their horses, and the picture looked hot enough that Colton’s neck started to sweat. There was a close-up of Justin, smiling for the camera with dirt smeared across one cheek, his blond hair tumbled over half of his face beneath the rim of his cowboy hat. Wes standing on the lower rung of a split rail fence, peering at the herd. And then a truly stunning sunset, burnished gold and fallen-star blue in watery layers above the minimal scrub brush of the Trans-Pecos.

How to be a man who took time to care for one of his son’s friends, someone who hadn’t known how much of a jigsaw puzzle full of holes he was until Nick arrived to trace all his missing pieces.

True, but Wes was a different man now that Justin was in his life. He could be an animal on the field and then cradle Justin’s face in his hands and leave the gentlest kiss on each of Justin’s eyelids, whispering twangy French to him as Justin smiled. I don’t want to be apart from you. Isn’t that what he’d said?

My heart stopped, and I couldn’t breathe, and all I could think about was how I never wanted to let this woman go. I wanted to be her mister for the rest of my days.

“I think that’s kind of obvious, isn’t it? Unless I really suck at things. More than I thought I did.”

He’d been so Goddamn happy with Colton he needed to invent a new word for it. Happy wasn’t big enough. Being with Colton wasn’t just a moment of joy or a feeling of contentment. It was a white-hot, ignite-the-stars, watch-Colton-sleep-to-hold-on-to-every-moment feeling. Happiness, and so much more. The way Wes looked at Justin and Justin looked at Wes, and more.

“I love you,” Nick breathed. “Colton, I love you.” His hands were shaking, and he held on to Colton like he thought Colton was going to vanish. His eyes were wide, panicked, all of him vibrating with a fear Colton had never seen in him before. “I fell in love with you so hard it scared me. I didn’t think there was any way you could love me back, not with everything you have in your life. So I tried not to let myself dream of things that would never happen.” His voice broke. “But I can’t stop. I can’t stop loving you. It’s probably impossible, but I have to tell you. I can’t go another day like this. I can’t not tell you that I love you. God, Colton, I love you, and I never want you to leave. I want to be with you, however we can. Whatever that looks like. I’ll do anything.”