Hail Mary: An Enemies-to-Lovers Roommate Sports Romance(26)

I had my hand on the door handle when I paused, glancing down at my bare legs. I was in a pair of boy shorts that hiked themselves up my ass without me trying — mostly because my ass was so big, it ate every piece of underwear I wore, regardless of size. You couldn’t even see my panties, really, under the oversized Cold War Kids t-shirt I wore.

I glanced over my shoulder at the dresser, debating sweatpants.

And then, I remembered what Julep said last night.

If I were at our house across the street, I wouldn’t think twice about walking out like this. And the guys all insisted on how they wanted me to feel at home, to not walk on eggshells.

With a shrug, I opened the door and headed downstairs with a fuck it attitude. It was too hot for sweatpants, anyway.

I skipped down the stairs, humming happily to myself as I rounded the bottom of them. I smiled at the sight of the guys all piled on the couch, Braden and Kyle playing a game of Madden while Leo ate a gigantic bowl of cereal and watched.

They were all focused on the screen as I sang, “Good morning.”

I leaned a hip against the back of the recliner chair, folding my arms and watching as they lined up for the next play.

“Morning,” Braden said without taking his eyes off the game.

“Coffee’s still hot,” Kyle added, but he did take his eyes off the screen.

And then, the controller went limp in his hands.

Braden celebrated a victorious play with Kyle distracted, but then he followed his roommate’s gaze, and I flushed when their eyes landed on my legs. Braden’s eyebrows shot up. Kyle crooked an appreciative smile.

Leo, on the other hand, looked like he was two seconds away from committing homicide.

His jaw was set, brows a hard line over his warm eyes as he took in the sight of me. He didn’t stare too long before his glare was on his roommates, and he smacked the back of Kyle’s head.

“Ow!” Kyle yelped, making a fist and laying it into Leo’s bicep in retaliation. “Fucker.”

“Pay attention to the game,” he said.

Kyle made a face. “You’re not even playing.”

“Neither are you.”

Braden looked to Leo, who was glaring at me again, before he gave me a curious smile over his shoulder. Then, the next play started, and I continued on to the kitchen, pretending like nothing was out of the ordinary.

I reached into the cabinet above the coffee pot, pulling out an NBU mug and filling it to the top.

“Goddamn, I didn’t realize she had so many tattoos,” Kyle said from the living room, low enough he probably thought I couldn’t hear him over the TV.

“Did you see that one on her inner thigh?” Braden whispered back. “That shit had to hurt.”

“That girl is nasty,” Kyle said, but he said it in a way that made me feel strangely… honored? Like nasty was a good thing.

Was it?

I didn’t have time to contemplate more before the clattering of dishes in the sink made me jump. I whipped around, finding Leo angrily rinsing his cereal bowl and spoon before all but throwing them in the dishwasher and slamming it shut.

“Jesus,” I said, a hand to my chest as I caught my breath. “Scared me.”

I smiled with that, wrapping my hands around my fresh mug of coffee. I typically liked a sweet creamer in mine, but I didn’t have the spare cash for such luxuries at the moment. My heart squeezed with the memory of having coffee with my dad in the mornings when I visited home, how he always had the best creamer even though he drank his black.

He did it for me.

“What did the dishwasher do to make you so mad?” I teased as I leaned against the counter.

A muscle in Leo’s jaw popped as he turned to face me, and this time, he let his eyes wash all the way over me, from where I knew my nipple piercings were visible under my t-shirt to where the hem of it dropped off and left my legs in full view.

“Did you forget pants this morning?”

I hiked up my shirt, which had his eyes flaring as he took in my black boy shorts. “I have pants on.”

“Those are not pants,” he argued.

An unattractive snort left me as I dropped my shirt back down. “Wow. You really are going for that daddy title, aren’t you?”

“I’m pretty sure Kyle has a boner right now.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Look, I’m not here to tell you how to dress, I just—”

“Really? Because that’s exactly what this feels like. And you three,” I said, pointing at him first and then toward the living room. “Are naked from the waist up every single day, so you have zero room to talk.”

A smirk painted itself slowly on Leo’s lips, and he folded his arm over his bare chest — which was proving my point so well I couldn’t contain the pleased purse of my lips.

“Ah,” he said. “So that’s what this is. Giving us a dose of our own medicine.”

“We’re roommates,” I said. “And we’re all adults. I think we can handle seeing skin, if it makes the other more comfortable. Don’t you agree?”

His jaw ticked again, like he didn’t feel safe to answer that question.

“You’re different this morning,” he stated instead.

“Why, because I’m pantless?”