Page 2 of Sensation Fantasies 3
“That you’re gay.”
The wind was knocked out of me. No one had ever uttered those words to me. I thought I was good at lying, but apparently, I wasn’t when it came to Leigh Davis.“I’m not—”
She’d smiled warmly and grabbed my hand.“It’s okay if you are.”
“I’m not,”I’d continued to lie.
“When you’re ready, you can tell me. I love you, and I’m not going anywhere. You’ll always be my best friend.”
Two weeks passed before I told her.
“I can’t believe prom is tomorrow night. Before we know it, we’ll be graduating and going to different colleges. It’s going to suck.”She’d stuck a fry into her mouth that was covered with ketchup.
“I’m gay,”I blurted, instantly wanting to take it back.
Leigh had stopped chewing her food and then gave me the warmest smile with the kindest hazel eyes.“I know.”
And since that day nine years ago, nothing had changed with our relationship. Not even when we went to different colleges. I’d told people that I had a girlfriend, and after junior college, Leigh was always there when I needed her, even after she moved to LA, and I was drafted to the Diamondbacks.
I grabbed my cell phone and wallet from the locker in the Giants’ visitor clubhouse. We’d lost, and we had a game the following night, so all I wanted to do was go to the hotel and crash.
“Are you going out with us, Rogers?” our catcher, Rueben Hernandez, asked.
Before I could respond, my phone started to ring in my hand. “I gotta take this. It’s Leigh.”
“Girlfriend keeping tabs on you now?” He laughed.
I swiped the phone to answer it. “Hey, honey,” I greeted.
“The guys around?”
I looked around the room. Everyone was still hanging around the visitor clubhouse. “Yep.”
“Well, I caught your game tonight.”
“Oh yeah?” I asked and started to leave, not bothering to tell Hernandez if I was going out with them or not. I wasn’t. They tended to give me shit, but I hated being the one guy not trying to pick up a woman, so I tried to limit the number of nights I went out with them. I usually blamed it on Leigh, saying she was going to call me or something. It worked most of the time.
“Yeah, and I have to say I’m starting to understand why you love the game.”
“What do you mean?” I exited the doors.
“That Giants shortstop is gorgeous.”
He was, but he was also straight—as far as I knew—married, and had at least four children if I remembered correctly. I wasn’t in the habit of researching every player, but I had looked up a few of the cute ones to see if they were single or not. I would never approach a ballplayer in fear they would tell someone and word would get out before I was ready. My plan was to come out after I retired, and that wouldn’t be for at least seven or eight more years—maybe more. The average age a ballplayer retired was between thirty-three and forty because the game was hard on our bodies.
“Yeah, he is,” I agreed. “But also married with children.”
She tsked. “I’ll wait for him.”
“Is that why you called? To see if I could hook you up?”
“Well, no. I called because I got invited to a sex club in Beverly Hills.”
I blinked. “Okay?”
“And I think you should come with me.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. Leigh knew I was still a virgin. While I wasn’t waiting for marriage or anything like that, I had never been in a position where I felt as though I could pursue another guy.
