Hail Mary: An Enemies-to-Lovers Roommate Sports Romance(18)

More and more sound found me as I made my way toward the living room. Rap music, dishes and silverware tinkering, soft sizzling, and then a chorus of laughter. I saw a glimpse of Kyle through the kitchen window, a goofy grin on his face and his hair mussed as he flipped a pancake.

He was shirtless, too.

I didn’t let myself take in his tall, lean build, or the muscles that lined it as I slowly made my way into the kitchen, pausing at the frame just like Leo had last night. And there all three of them were — Kyle making pancakes, Braden pulling plates from the cabinet, and Leo pouring coffee.

Every single one of them without a goddamn shirt.

It was really hard to remind myself in that moment that I hated football players with all those muscles gleaming back at me, the top edge of their boxers peeking out over the band of their shorts. Kyle wore tall tube socks, Braden was barefoot from practice, and Leo had on a pair of house slippers that should have made me laugh but somehow just made him look cozy in the way that had me itching to know what it would feel like to have him curled around me on the couch with the snow coming down outside.

I mentally slapped myself, and just in time for Leo to pop his head up and find me in the doorway. He had a sleepy sort of smile on at first, his hair curling around his ears, but when his eyes trailed the length of me in my leggings and sports bra, something heated his gaze.

“Well, good morning, roomie.”

I folded my arms over my middle, wishing I’d stopped to put a shirt on. “Hi.”

“You made it up just in time for my famous pancakes,” Kyle said.

“She’s been up for hours, dumb-dumb,” Braden interjected. “We just finished yoga out back.”

“You going to do Pilates next?” Kyle teased him.

Braden made a face before socking him on the arm as he passed. “Maybe. Both are great for mobility. Great for picking up girls, too, in case you didn’t notice that I’m vastly outnumbered when I go to a class.”

“We don’t notice because, unlike you, we don’t need to encroach on a women’s fitness class to get laid,” Leo shot back.

Kyle burst into a fit of laughter while Braden made a ha-ha face before grabbing a piece of bacon and hurling it at Leo. Leo opened his mouth and snagged it out of the air, chomping on it with a grin.

“You couldn’t handle the mental side of yoga, anyway,” I chimed in, sliding just a bit farther into the kitchen and leaning my hip against the counter.

Leo’s eyes landed on me, pinning me to where I stood. It was then that I noticed a few chain necklaces around his neck — a cross, a plain gold chain, and was that a saint?

I almost snorted at that.

“Oh yeah?” he challenged. “And why’s that?”

“Because you’d have to drop your ego, and we all know you cling to yours like a life raft in the middle of the ocean.”

A laugh fizzled out of Braden and Kyle both.

“I’m as humble as a priest,” Leo said, pressing a hand to his chest.

“And as full of shit as a porta-potty.”

Kyle and Braden let out mixed sounds of laughter and jest as Leo stared at me, an amused smile curling on his lips. I blinked and looked away, hoping he could see I was bored by our interaction.

At least, that’s what I wanted him to think.

The truth might have rested more in the fact that if I stared at him any longer, I’d start tracing those flecks of gold in his eyes, start remembering how that voice used to sound on the other end of the phone every night.

“Ladies first,” Kyle said, plating a couple pancakes for me. “This one I made especially for you. Welcome to The Pit, roomie.”

When he handed me the plate, I looked down to find a smiley face made out of chocolate chips staring back at me from the top pancake.

And the first genuine smile in days found my lips.

I arched a brow when I looked back up at him. “I thought you were a douchebag.”

Something softened his face then, like that actually hurt to hear, but he quickly laughed it off with a shrug. “I am. But I’m trying to make up for being an asshole yesterday. There’s a difference between the two, you know.”

“Yeah. Kyle’s a douche,” Braden said, piling a stack of pancakes on his plate. “But Leo’s an asshole.”

“And Braden’s a pussy,” Leo quipped.

I instantly flung my arm out, swatting his chest with the back of my hand and a loud thwap. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Braden snickered while Leo stared at me open-mouthed, rubbing the spot I’d just hit. “I was just—”

“You were just using female anatomy as an insult because in your Neanderthal brain, pussy is less than dick — weaker, not as important.”

“On the contrary,” Leo said, his lips curling as he stepped a little closer. “I think pussy is the most powerful thing in the world.”

“So you were complimenting him?” I challenged.

Braden shook his head, slipping in between where I was glaring at Leo, and he was smiling like the Cheshire cat.

“Alright, alright,” Braden said, holding a hand up to me and his plate of pancakes against Leo’s chest. “Break it up. We don’t need a fight this early in the morning. Besides, like I said, Leo’s an ass,” he said to me with a shrug. “We don’t take anything he says too seriously.”