Page 59 of Stetson

Unable to find the energy to care about where we were, I melted into him. I held him close, spearing my tongue through his lips. All too soon, he pulled away and reached into his pocket. Confused, I whimpered and leaned in again. Levi stopped me with a hand on my chest, pulling his phone out. I watched as he scrolled, then put the phone on speaker. The ringing seemed to echo through the empty stadium and finally, Barrett answered. “Is he there?”

Levi smiled, eyes on me. “Yeah, Bear. He’s here.”

Silence, and my heart thudded in my chest. What the hell was going on?

“Killer game, Rookie. I’ll see you on the field.”

30

LEVI

October

I thoughtthat the energy in our house would match that of the field during the World Series.

Turns out, I was wrong.

Stetson and Barrett were closer than ever. They launched into pre-game prep, pushing each other to be the best versions of themselves. Both of them were up before the sun to spend hours in the gym. Shocking the hell out of me, Barrett took Stetson under his wing in the kitchen, teaching him to cook and how to use his smartwatch app to track his macros, whatever those were.Iwasn’t even allowed in the kitchen when he was cooking.

You ruin one white sweater…

The night before the first game, I stood in the entryway watching them make dinner. It was the closest to the stove Barrett would let me get, but I didn’t mind. It provided the perfect view. Every now and then, one would hip check the other, or reach over to steal a kiss. Even facing down the biggest moment in their careers, they couldn’t keep their hands off each other.

Lucky for us, their respective teams making it through to the final round worked in our favor. The press shifted gears and instead of focusing on Barrett being a no-good cheater or Stetson a homewrecker, they were instead calling the two of them inspirational. Our love story had been labeled a modern-day Montagues versus Capulets—with some tweaks of course.

Barrett’s press conference had been all the sports community could talk about. Major League Baseball, along with most professional sports, had been open and accepting of queer players for years. Every league had their own version of a zero-tolerance policy for any sort of harassment or discrimination. But this was different.

Fortunately, the league supported us at every turn. I had a few concerned clients come to me with questions but for the most part, things couldn’t be better.

If someone had told me six months ago that this would be my life, I would have laughed in their face. I loved Barrett with every fiber of my being, but even after so many years together, we couldn’t shake the fact that something was missing—either of us. Watching him fall in love with Stetson along with me made all the pieces fit together. It felt as if we’d been walking along in a daze, and Stetson put everything into focus. He slotted into our lives like a needle in a groove.

“Daddy?”

“Hm?”

I snapped back to reality to see both my men staring at me.

“Where’d you go?” Barrett asked me.

Before I answered, I stepped into the kitchen, ignoring Barrett’s warning glare. His lasagna would survive. I walked around the island, moving in close behind them. I put an arm around each of their waists, nuzzling into Stetson’s hair. He was small enough to fit perfectly under my chin, and I loved it. “Just thinking about how lucky I am to have both of you.”

I kissed Stetson’s temple, and Barrett leaned in to stamp his lips to my cheek. “What brought that on?” The question was followed by a dish being thrust in my direction, a silent instruction to carry it to the table.

“Things could have gone in a whole other direction when I met a certain someone.” I succeeded in my mission of getting the food onto the table without dropping it, then pulled out their chairs for them. As Stetson dropped into his seat, I ruffled his hair. “But the two of you fell for each other even faster than I could imagine, and I couldn’t be happier.”

“Howdidit go when you first brought me home?”

Barrett answered for me. “It didn’t. You were passed out drunk in the guest room.”

“Bear…”

“What? It’s true!”

“All right,” Stetson interjected. “Like the two of you never had any wild nights out.” Then he looked to me, eyes sparkling with mischief. “Or can you not remember that far back?”

Barrett choked, and I narrowed my eyes. Stetson gulped. “Uh oh?”

“Yeah, ‘uh oh’ is right.” Filing that little remark away for later, I turned to the other man at the table. “Don’t think you’re off the hook either. Do I need to tell him the D’usse story?”

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