Page 44 of Play Hard
“Gotta love those medical portals.” He gripped my hips, and I rose up enough to position myself over his already hard dick. “I happen to have a similar report from my most recent test results as well.”
Hmmmmm. We moaned in unison as I eased down onto him, loving the stretch and fullness I felt each time his dick entered me.
That had been the end of that conversation, but not the end of us. Not yet anyway. I sighed. Each day we started with a workout—in his bed on the nights I stayed over, then at the gym or a run—then he headed to the bar to work on new ways to advertise the bar and to map out plans for all the other things the guys wanted to do in town. I either went to the coffee shop to pretend I was only going through emails and not missing the hell out of my job, or I went back to the lake house to wait for vendors, repairmen, electricians, etc. in preparation for the Juneteenth Field Day celebration.
It was a fantastic distraction, and I realized that I liked managing all the many details of an event of this magnitude. Of course, I wasn’t doing it alone, the guys were all hands on deck, but I was the one on leave from my real job. While the school year had ended for Camy, she was facilitating a summer theatre program at the community center, so she was getting ready for that. Portia had left last week for a conference, which had Ethan tense because this was the first time she’d been away now that they knew she was pregnant. And Rylan ran a whole body shop, so her days were booked. Noah and I were handling the detail list together, with Lance taking care of the entertainment and Jeret coordinating with Vera at the restaurant on the food. And now, today was the big day.
Which meant I had zero time to lay here wondering when the happiest days I’ve had in a very long time would suddenly be over.
I was always happier with Noah.That thought had hit me sometime last night as Noah and I sat in the backseat of his truck like horny teenagers. We could’ve gone back to his place as we’d been doing most nights, but I was trying not to get too addicted. If I didn’t spend each night in his arms, I wouldn’t start to believe that we could pick up where we left off. I wouldn’t start to believe that he was the one who would take me off that carousel of disappointments and distress. I wouldn’t put all my faith into this one person, who was, in the end, just a man. When I’d done that before in college—believed that meeting Noah and falling in love with him somehow completed me, completed all the plans I had for my life—I’d walked away with a broken and bleeding heart. Was that mostly my fault? Yes, I could own that, but that didn’t make it any less true. I’d lost at love all those years ago. Lost at love just a couple of months ago. Hell, love shouldn’t live here anymore. It shouldn’t be anywhere in my vicinity because I obviously wasn’t meant to have it, or to give it for that matter.
My ringing phone jolted me from those vicious thoughts. Sitting up, I grabbed the phone and answered as soon as I saw Camy’s name on the screen. “Hey?”
“Hey,” she replied with what sounded like wind in the background. “I’ll be there in ten. Just wanted to give you a heads-up that the guys are all nervous as hell since members of the town council are likely to bring their nosey asses to the festivities just to be on site should something go wrong.”
“Nothing is going to go wrong.” It was a repeat of what I’d said to Noah last night, before he decided that getting my clothes off in the backseat was a much better use of our time.
“I know that, and you know that, but those dumbasses don’t know anything,” Camy replied. “Anyway, the guys are gonna beplaying it cool, but I know they’re worried, so we’ve gotta keep them calm. I just talked to Rylan, and she’s on her way, so we’ll have everyone there to do whatever is needed before we open the gates and after.”
“Right. Pop Pop already left to pick up the trays from the restaurant that Jeret ordered. And I peeled enough potatoes this morning for the shrimp boil to feed an army.” I chuckled. “We’ve got this. It’s going to be great.”
“It is,” Camy added. “It is, and the naysayers will eat shit.”
“I think you mean eat crow.”
“No, I meant what I said. They’ll eat shit since they want to act like assholes all the time.”
“Oh, right, okay.” I laughed. Camy was definitely the life of this bunch—the guys and their women. No matter what was going on she could say or do something to make somebody, or most often everybody, laugh.
I loved her confidence and her spirit. And her heart. She had the biggest heart which she’d opened to me the moment I got here, even before she knew for certain that I was sleeping with one of the guys she considered a brother. Surprisingly, with that close of a relationship between Camy and Noah, Camy hadn’t asked too many intrusive questions about what Noah and I were doing. Probably because she thought she knew every damn thing. Her ‘getting a second chance at love is the surest way of saying something is meant to be’ comment rolled around in my head at least twice a day.
There was no more time to sit here and spiral over the unknown, so when I finished the call with Camy, I stuck the phone in the side pocket of my leggings and brushed down the front of my oversized white jersey. It was from the new branded merchandise that Noah suggested, Lance and Ethan selected, and Rock coordinated the space on the opposite side of the host stand at the front of the bar to showcase. I was in love withthe lightweight cotton material, but it was the Game Changers name in block sports font and the numbers ‘06’ that resembled a basketball or football jersey right beneath it, that made me feel like I was a part of something special. Sure, I was a part of the team at the Agbara Agency, and I was often referred to as a part of my client’s management team, but this connection hit different.
I felt like I was a part of this new family. I don’t know exactly when it happened. I’d been here a little over a month now, so it hadn’t been that long, and yet, it felt like this is where I always belonged. My friendship with Camy, Rylan, and Portia came so quickly, after years of only having one or two people I really considered friends. And the guys, they were nothing like the brothers I was given by blood. As I moved down the stairs, I wished that when my leave of absence was over that I would somehow be able to keep them all. Especially Noah.
By sunset, what the mohawk-wearing, cotton-candy loving Cannon from the paper had dubbed the most outdoor fun Providence had seen in a long time, was winding down. The event officially ended at nine, but you couldn’t tell that was just a half an hour away by how many people were still milling about on the grounds. The acres of lush green grass surrounding my grandfather’s house were peppered with tables for the craft stations, a water dunking station that Rylan had convinced Del to sit at for the last hour—he’d been dunked six times already—huge trunks with every piece of sporting equipment known to man, and other supplies for the many races they’d had: egg and spoon, three-legged race, and sack race. There was another round of tug of war going on, and I chuckled as I looked away. The dirt stains on the front of my jersey may not come out after we—Camy, Rylan, Shandy, and Kiko—lost to Noah, Lance, Jeret, and Ellis, Rylan’s future brother-in-law.
Ellis had given a great speech just before he’d helped secure the victory that left me humiliated and dirty since I’d fallen along with everyone else on my team. He and Prosper Young had posed for hundreds of pictures and gave the local media, plus the reporters who’d come from Richmond to cover the appearance of the two sports’ stars, soundbites. When I spotted them both, not only enjoying some of the festivities but also talking to groups of young people that gathered around them, I smiled. I knew this was exactly what Noah and the guys had in mind when they’d planned this event.
This wasn’t just a celebration of Black history, it was a celebration of community, a moment of bonding and unity spearheaded by Black men to emphasize their importance in families and communities alike. I loved everything it represented and the feeling of pride that swelled in my chest each time I saw Noah and his friends laughing. Noah had introduced me to Gayla and their new attorney, Byran. Again, it was great to see the support the guys had in this town.
While I hadn’t personally witnessed any of the slights or prejudice toward them, I could feel the tension in the air when a man named Brendan walked up interrupting our conversation with a very snide, “Not bad, Jordan. But one positive event doesn’t erase all the history. Crabtree might’ve saved the day for you guys this time, but your get out of jail free cards are running out.”
“Are you threatening my client?” Byran had asked. “I’ll be sure to note that in my files.”
Brendan hadn’t flinched while I felt Noah tensing at my side. I’d laced my fingers through his and squeezed.
“No threats from me,” Brendan replied with a smirk. “I’m about to head on over and get me an Italian sausage.”
It wasn’t until he’d walked away that Noah mumbled, “I should go and stuff that shit down that fucker’s throat.”
“Or, we could head over to the picture booth and make some more memories,” I suggested, with another squeeze of his hand.
When he glanced down at me, I smiled, hoping that action would remove the lines that had formed in his forehead and still the muscle clenching in his jaw.
Half an hour later, with the crazy looking, but still cute, pictures of me and Noah tucked in my pocket right behind my phone, I headed back to the house to find some empty boxes to pack up the remaining carnival prizes. Rylan had convinced Del that a thousand of those little cheap stuffed animals, plastic hand-held games, and other paraphernalia were needed to give out to the children who participated in any of the events. There were at least five hundred left, and Del was never gonna let Rylan hear the end of her miscount. I was chuckling as I stepped up onto the front porch, recalling Camy’s declaration that the leftover prizes could be used at their next cookout and Uno game as consolation prizes for the guys who always lost. I hadn’t played Uno in years and was sort of looking forward to the next cookout.
“So you run off and leave me to come play in the dirt?”
