Page 22 of Pitch Prince

Except for Finn, who was stood under the showers at the opposite end of the block to me, swinging his massive thing round a helicopter to laughs from Rhys. And for some reason. I felt…jealous. Something inside me had claimed Rhys was mine, and I hated seeing him naked next to Finn, and Finn being so comfortably naked with him.

I’m an idiot,I thought as I turned away and started washing myself.Can’t even tell the guy you’re gay, let alone that you like the look of him.So I washed in relative silence and walked past Rhys out of the changing room in my towel. Our room was only metres down the hallway and I was dressed before he got back, wrapped in a towel and laughing at something Finn said before he shut the door in his face.

We looked at one another, me in my shirt and jeans and ready for the night ahead and Rhys wrapped in his towel, hair still damp and dripping onto the laminate floor of the hotel room.

“About earlier…” I started, but Rhys shook his head.

“No worries, seriously. Let’s just…not talk about it,” he said, his voice strained. I looked away as he got dressed, and when I looked back up he was dressed for the occasion in a floral patterned shirt and jean shorts that hugged his calves.

“You look…nice,” I said lamely. He smiled tightly at me.Fuck.Had earlier really fucked up our friendship?

“Not so bad yourself,” he said. He looked me up and down appraisingly. “For a straight man.”

“You wound me,” I said. And then he smiled properly and everything felt alright.Not straight though, are you?a little part of my brain chimed in, and I crushed it into a tiny little box mentally.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Yep, I’m…” but then my phone started buzzing in my pocket. “Can you wait a sec for me?”

“Of course,” Rhys said and perched himself on the edge of his bed.

It was a FaceTime call from one of my favourite people. “Hi Olivia, where’s your brother?” I asked as her face popped up on the screen.”

“Mum made him have a bath. We’ve been out at the beachallday and I’m covered in sand. It’s rubbish.”

“I thought you liked the beach?”

“God, Dad. I wanted to go to town with my friends. Mum made me come to the beach.”

I laughed, and then wondered when she’d become so old. I remembered the days when we couldn’t drag her away from us. Now she wanted to spend the days apart. “Did you enjoy though?” I asked.

“It was alright,” she said. But I could see her smile light up the screen. Maybe she wasn’t too cool for us quite yet.

“Dad! Dad!” Logan pushed into view in a burst of activity and noise. “I caught crabs!”

Rhys snorted and I tried to keep a straight face even as I could see him putting one hand over his mouth to stop him from laughing out loud.

“That’s nice mate, where are they now?”

“Mum made me set them all free. I had like four crabs in my bucket all at once! I even cut myself on one of their claws, see!” And he held up his hand in such a way that I had no chance of seeing if there were any cuts as it completely clocked out the camera.

“Well I’m glad you’re so happy about your crabs,” I said, knowing it would cause Rhys to struggle even further. He let out a snort of laughter and lay back on the bed. I could see a line of smooth tanned skin between his jean shorts and his shirt. I focused back on Logan in the middle of his tirade about the crabs.

“Where’s your mum, anyway?” I asked once he’d finished.

“Still cleaning the bath out, it’s like the sea in there now! I’m surprised I didn’t catch crabs in my swimming trunks, Dad!”

Rhys lost it then, banging his spare hand on the mattress as the other constricted his own mouth to stop noises from coming out. I looked at the time quickly.

“Right kids, Dad’s gotta go now. But you be good for your mum and tell her I love you all.”

I hung up, and as soon as I put my phone Rhys took his hand away from his face and sucked in a deep breath like he was breathing for the first time in minutes.

“That was too funny,” he said as he wiped tears from his eyes.

“Well, kids say stupid things,” I said. “Ready?”

“Ready.” Callum got up and we headed out of the door and down the corridor to the hotel bar. It had been booked out especially for us, and Finn pulled Rhys into the small group of Welsh players as soon as we got there. Feeling like a bit of a lemon, I sat down next to him rather than with the other Scottish players.I’m just trying to make sure the teams mix, I told myself.

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