Page 73 of Perfect Storm
“You’re welcome,” Levi said, keeping his voice light. He didn’t need an Aidan Flynn manual to know if he got too serious, it would freak the guy out.
Aidan nudged him with an elbow but didn’t move it after, like once they’d been touching in another place, he realized how much he liked it. “I guess you being a little smug about being able to suck a dick that good isn’t the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done.” He sounded sleepy and relaxed. Andhappy.
Levi would suck his dick every single day if he never got that painfully uptight edge to his voice. That pained look in his eyes that saidnothing is going right and I can’t do anything about it.
“Not even close, bro.” He paused. “And thanks.”
He considered telling Aidan that he hadn’t even pulled out any tricks yet. That, properly motivated, he could do a hell ofa lot better. But he was still unpacking that Aidan had been essentially overwhelmed by the bare minimum and Levi wasn’t ready to bringthatup yet. At least not until he could wrap his head around that fact better.
Aidan hummed. He hadn’t made any move to get dressed or even to pull his shorts back up. But then he had absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. He probably wanted Levi to look, and Levi was sure as hell looking.
“You ever gonna tell me what had you so freaked out earlier?” Levi asked.
Aidan sighed, clearly resigned. “You don’t want to get on Zane’s bad side.”
Levi was undeniably relaxed. But he still half tensed up. “You know this from prior experience?”
“Not from Zane, though he has an ego, like these dudes always do,” Aidan said. Then frowned. “Back in Michigan, I had an offensive coordinator try to remove me from QB1 just because I wasn’t his favored choice or whatever. The guy he’d personally recruited. I was better than that guy. Could throw circles around him. But that didn’t matter. I only barely held on to my starting spot.” Aidan looked over at him. There was worry and affection in Aidan’s blue eyes. “I don’t want that to be you.”
“You don’t know that it will,” Levi said.
“Istilldon’t want it to be you,” Aidan stressed again.
“And Istilldon’t want you to spend the next twenty-some-odd weeks with your ass on the turf, running for your fucking life,” Levi said. “You think we’re gonna win games like that? Let me piss Zane off now. He’s gonna be glad we made the change by week three when you’re lighting up defenses.”
Aidan made a frustrated noise. “You assume we’re gonna do that.”
That feeling, the one he’d had fifteen minutes ago, when he’d looked at Aidan, who’d just said,I got you, and he’d knownAidan did, no questions, no hesitation,nothing, was back. But even stronger this time.
“You still Aidan Flynn?” Levi asked.
“Yes.” Aidan’s reply was cautious. Confused.
“Then we’re gonna do that,” Levi said.Case closed.
Chapter 11
LeviwaspreparedforAidan to continue acting at practices that Levi moving to left tackle was a bad idea.
But when they lined up for their first play of the day, the day after they’d argued and then hooked up, Aidan only gave him a nod of approval as Levi took his spot to the left of Griff.
Like Levi had expected, it went better than it had been yesterday. He was more prepared, slightly more at ease in the new position. Everything he’d hoped from the additional reps.
On the fourth run-through, Aidan got a full five count before he had to throw, and he hit Trevor on a deep crossing pattern, the guy sprinting the ten remaining yards to the end zone.
“Well,” Aidan said to Levi when they returned to the huddle, “can’t argue with that.”
Levi only grinned. “Told you,” he said.
It wasn’t perfect. There were still kinks to work out, problems to fix. But they were smaller. Less impactful. More the regular kinds of problems that every football team had in the preseason,when they were still trying to find their chemistry and gel on the field.
Levi wasn’t surprised when after two touchdowns on two successful series, Zane subbed Wes in to get him some reps with the first team offense.
Levi watched as Aidan retreated to the sideline, setting down his helmet, pushing his hair back.
He had great hair. Levi wished he’d gotten more of a chance to touch it last night. But he hadn’t wanted to scare Aidan away or freak him out. He’d been trying to be careful, to not puttoo muchon Aidan, even though there was so much he’d wanted.
It had killed him, a little, to pull back, but he’d done it because that was preferable to Aidan deciding they were never going to do it again.
