Double The Ache Read online

  “Yes, she belongs to me.” Both Dean and Wes take a step towards us. The whole team is looking at me. They stop moving when my dad continues. “This is my daughter, Dr. Amelia Green.” Dean’s and Wes’s expressions change, and I don’t understand it. “She’s the team’s new physical therapist.”

  Chapter Two

  Amelia

  “Dad, this place is too much.” I glance around the fully decorated condo, my excitement simmering with the idea of this space being mine to do with as I please.

  The place is amazing. More than I could have hoped for, and I’ve only made it to the living room. There is a huge fireplace and a big soft gray sectional sofa that looks fluffy and comfortable. Big pillows line most of it and it looks so cozy. There is light everywhere, shining in from the floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over Vegas.

  I turn to look at my dad. His hair is a little grayer than the last time I saw him. He’s in a suit like always, but today he’s a little less tense than normal. He looks relaxed. He’s handsome, and I always wondered why he never remarried. Maybe my mother ruined the idea for him. He never brought any women around either.

  “This place is perfect.” He puts his hands in his pockets. “Most of the team lives here during the season. The security is top notch.” He nods towards a phone. “You can order food whenever you want and they have a gym and a spa downstairs. Everything you need with only a call.”

  “It’s safe,” he pushes. “You could come stay with me if you’d prefer. I’d love to have you at home, but I thought you might want your own place.”

  “It’s perfect.” I love my dad and I’m so happy to be here, but I do want my own space. It’s time to start to spread my wings a little.

  “I know you like you cook.” He nods to the left and I rush over to the kitchen. I don’t only love to cook, but I love to eat.

  “Dad!” I shout, and my excitement bubbles over. I hardly got to use the kitchen at home. My mother hated messes, even though I cleaned up after myself. She also hated having any calorie-heavy food in the house. I only ever got to cook when she went away for weekends or I knew she’d be gone for the night. Sometimes I could sneak down to my dad’s place to cook. He always let me do what I wanted in the kitchen.

  I run my hand along the white granite countertop and look at all the stainless steel appliances.

  “You haven't seen anything yet,” he says as he walks over to a pantry.

  He pulls the doors open and reveals a small room lined with shelves. I step in and see the place is packed with food. It’s so perfectly done, with labels and containers, I almost don’t want to touch anything.

  “Did a designer organize this food?” I joke, but the look my dad’s face makes me think I hit the nail on the head. “I’ll never be able to eat all this.”

  “You’ll just have to invite your old man over for a lot of dinners.” He wraps an arm around me, pulling me in close, and kisses the top of my head.

  “I like that idea,” I agree. “You hungry now?”

  “I wish I could stay for dinner, but I have a meeting.” I can hear the apology in his tone.

  “I live here now. We’ll have lots of dinners. Besides, I need to unpack my stuff and settle in,” I try to reassure him. We walk out of the pantry and I go to the fridge that is stocked to the brim. I stifle a laugh and grab two bottles of water. I slide one across the counter to him and he grabs it.

  “The boxes you sent are in the master bedroom. If you don’t feel like unpacking, then I can send someone to do it tomorrow.”

  “Dad, I can unpack myself.” I shake my head in fond exasperation.

  “I know you can.” He takes a sip from his water. “Like I said, most of the team lives in the building.” His eyes dart over towards the front door. “I’m starting to regret the unit I picked for you.”

  I raise my eyebrows, unsure what he means by that.

  “There are only two units on this floor,” he adds.

  “Okay.”

  “I thought my choice was good, but now after the incident on the plane…” He shakes his head.

  “Does one of the other players live in the other one?”

  “Yeah. Two.” He sighs. “Thought it would be a good fit for you. I thought…” He trails off.

  My heart pounds. I already know who he’s talking about. If two players are living together, it has to be them.

  “Dad, if you’re talking about Dean and Wes I’m sure it’s fine. Aren’t they, you know…?”

  He shrugs, not answering, then he glances at his watch. “I gotta go.” He walks over and gives me a hug and a peck on the forehead. “Rest up. Work starts the day after tomorrow.”

  “Can’t wait.” I walk him to the door and let him out. I look across the hall at the other door and wonder if they’re inside. Shaking my head, I close my door and lock it. When we exited the plane I heard some of the players talking about going out tonight. Something about a hosting event. I’ve heard of celebrities doing that before at popular clubs. I wonder if Dean and Wes are going. I also wonder if the rumor about them being gay is true.

  The offhand comments they made to me makes me think they aren’t. Maybe they’re just discreet with their women or something. I explore my condo a little more and almost die when I see the master bathroom. I’ll be taking a swim in that tub later for sure.

  I look at all the boxes stacked up and open a couple to make sure everything is here. I pull out the things I know I’ll need for the next few days. After making my way back into the living room I fish my laptop out of my bag before flipping the switch to start up the fireplace. I fall onto the sofa, sinking into it, and grab a comfy blanket.

  I go through a few emails before my interest is piqued. I have messages from the dating site I signed up for the other day. I set up a profile before I left for New York. I might have had too many glasses of wine when I did it, but I just wanted to try dating.

  My mind goes straight to thoughts of Wes and Dean, but I push them away. Even if they do play for my team, they have heartbreak written all over them. Plus, I could never pick between them.

  I start clicking through the messages and delete all but one. It’s clear the others were looking for sex and I’m not into one-night stands. At least I don’t think I am. I’m not sure what I’m into, if I’m honest with myself. I do know I don’t want to die a virgin, but I think I need some kind of connection to get naked with another person.

  A guy named Mason messaged me and I look up his profile. He’s cute. Some of his pictures seem a little showy—one shows him standing next to a sports cars, another at a fancy party. He looks like the kind of man my mother would try to set me up with. He’s clean cut with short brown hair and light blue eyes. He looks like a boy-next-door type of guy. It says he’s a doctor who loves baseball, never been married and doesn’t have any kids.

  Out of everyone who has sent me a message he’s the only one I would consider a date with, so I message him back, letting him know I’d love to meet up for drinks some time.

  When I hear giggling I set my laptop down and go over to the front door. I look out the peephole and see two girls standing outside Wes and Dean’s door. A moment later the door opens and Dean comes out, hugging both the girls before opening the door wider and letting them in. My heart drops when the door shuts behind them.

  I close my eyes, hating the jealousy wrapping around me. As if I have a claim to them. How can I be upset? I was just setting up a date, so it’s not like I’m innocent.

  I jump when suddenly someone comes and stands in front of my door. I can make out Nelson’s face as he knocks, and I open the door.

  He’s changed out of the suit he had on. The team is required to wear suits coming and going from games. Now he’s in dark blue jeans and a tight white polo.

  “Hey, gorgeous. Some of us are going out tonight. Want to come? You can hang out and meet some of the team?” He leans up against the doorframe looking casual and relaxed.

  I glance over to W
es and Dean’s door and debate for a moment.

  “Yeah, I think I do. Give me ten minutes to get ready.” I open the door a little more, inviting him in. He steps inside and shuts it behind him.

  “I’ll wait. The place isn’t far from here.”

  I go to my bedroom and rush to find something to wear. I go with a dress and a pair of chunky heels, then I fluff my hair a little and put on some mascara and lipstick. When I get back to the living room Nelson is standing where I left him. He turns when he hears my heels clicking on the wooden floor.

  He lets out a whistle, and I laugh. It’s playful and I don’t feel like he’s hitting on me. He offers me his arm in a friendly gesture, so I take it and grab my purse with my other hand.

  “I’ve never been to a club before,” I admit.

  “Then you’re in for the time of your life.”

  Good. I need to get my mind off the men who are living next door to me and the women they have in their home. It’s not going to do me any good to dwell on what they’re doing inside.

  Chapter Three

  Wes

  I hate the off season. There’s too much downtime. I’m a beast and I need to be trained. I’ve spent my whole life working hard so that I can be the best when the time comes for me to step on the field. The off season makes players lazy.

  Thank god I’ve got Dean to push me, because I do the same back to him. I’m normally pretty quiet and just grunt when I need to, but I’m extra moody when I’m not burning off all the pent-up energy.

  My thoughts drift back to the patch of bare skin on her shoulder that I stared at for six long hours. I turn the shower to cold and hope that the chill takes away my need for that little blonde piece of ass.

  Amelia.

  Fuck, that name makes a knot in my stomach and I don’t know how I’m going to control it. I grab the shampoo and try to wash away the thoughts from the flight. I could feel the energy pouring off of Dean in waves and it made me jittery. His need triggered my own and there we sat inches away from what we wanted.

  I hear the whispers. There’s always been talk when it comes to the two of us. From the moment we met we’ve been inseparable. After my parents died I was put in a group home. The people who ran the home were nice enough, but it was just a job for them. Dean’s parents raised me as their son, so when I tell people he’s my brother I mean it. I even call his parents Mom and Dad. I had a bed in his room that I slept in more than I did the home. We went to the same college, shared the same dorm room, and even lived off-campus together. People thought we were freaks because we always shared a room, but we never liked being alone. I’ve never touched Dean in a way that wasn’t brotherly, and I’m not sexually attracted to him. But he is my soulmate in every sense of the word, and I don’t like being apart from him. It’s the reason we entered the draft together and were a package deal. I don’t give a fuck what people think about us.

  When we were in high school we went camping alone for a weekend. We were out on the lake fishing when Dean asked me if I thought about having sex.

  “That’s all I think about.”

  “No. I know that. But that’s not what I mean. I’m not saying it right,” he says.

  “What do you mean then? Explain it to me.” I cast my reel and Dean is quiet for so long I’m about to get worried. I feel a stirring in my gut and I know what’s coming.

  “Do you ever think about having sex. With the same girl, at the same time.”

  I look over at him and he looks at me. For a beat there’s an understanding between us, and I nod.

  “Does that make us freaks?” he asks, and I can hear the fear in his voice.

  “Does it matter?” I grunt and toss my line again.

  Silence passes again and I hear him let out a breath. “I guess not. It’s just…I think about fucking a girl and then I think about you. I don’t want to fuck you, but I love you.” He shrugs and I can tell this was a big confession for him.

  “I love you, too,” is all I say. We’re a family.

  We had a couple of conversations like that throughout our lives, and in college we tried it out. We were star football players and had girls beating down our doors, but there was never the right one. They were always more hung up on one of us more than the other, or they didn’t want to do it full time. It was a fantasy for them, a one-off. We were a circus act and they just wanted their turn at the freak show. After a couple of times we hated the way we felt and decided not to do it anymore. Not until we found someone who wanted us both and was in this for the long haul. Trying to divide us hurt our relationship, and we learned that we weren’t willing to settle.

  I get out of the shower and towel off as I go to the sink and grab my razor. I look down to see the blade is dull so I go to the other side of the sink and grab Dean’s. We share a bathroom and bedroom just like we did in college. Our mom says we must have been conjoined twins in a past life and we don’t disagree. If we’re not in the same room, we usually go find the other one so we can hang out. Some people might find this weird, but we usually just keep our private life private.

  There’s a knock at the door and I walk through the bedroom into the living room to see Dean answer the door. Cassie and Emma come in and I nod in greeting before going back into the bathroom. Cassie is Dean’s older sister and Emma is his younger sister. They’re my sisters, too, to all intents, and they’re in town for the weekend.

  They know about our living situation, having grown up with the two of us always together. I guess looking back on it, it could have seemed weird to outsiders, but in our family it’s just the way it was. I got real lucky Dean’s family welcomed me and never made me feel different.

  Cassie comes in the bathroom and opens the cabinets under the sink. “Do you guys have any tampons?”

  “No,” I say, as I rinse off my face and go to the bedroom closet. Emma comes into the bedroom with Dean behind her.

  “You guys still haven’t had a chick in this place. Whatever, I’ll just get some on the way out tonight,” I hear Cassie say from the bathroom.

  “No chicks. But I think we’ve found the one,” Dean says, falling onto the bed and lying across. It.

  “What!?” our sisters squeal at the same time.

  I close the closet door and get dressed, but I hear Dean mumbling to them. He’s telling them about Amelia and our flight home.

  Amelia.

  I rub my eyes and take a deep breath. We didn’t talk about it when we got back. I knew what Dean was thinking the whole time without having to say a word. He’s always thinking and planning. She’s the one. We’ve been waiting for years thinking we might know when the time came. Turns out we were right.

  I put on a pair of jeans and a polo before I exit the closet. Dean is lying on the custom bed we had made when we bought the place. We share it, but it’s big enough that I could roll over three times and still not touch him.

  Cassie and Emma are sitting at the end of it hanging on every word he says.

  “Didn’t I buy that shirt for Dean?” Emma asks as she shakes her head.

  “It looks better on me,” I say as the material stretches tight across my chest.

  “So you’ve found her,” Cassie says, smiling from ear to ear. “I can’t wait to meet her.”

  “We haven’t even met her,” Dean says, and I shove my hands in my pockets. “It’s complicated, but she’s it.”

  “Wes?” Emma asks, waiting for my confirmation.

  I nod and she does a little excited clap of joy as she bounces on the end of the bed.

  “We should celebrate. You guys have anything to eat?” Cassie says as she gets up and walks towards the kitchen.

  We have a nutritionist who stocks our fridge twice a week, so she knows good and well we’ve got food in there. Cassie is like us when it comes to food and she’s not going more than an hour without a snack.

  We all go into the kitchen and I grab a drink of water while Dean and Emma make food. After about an hour or so Cassie tells us she
and Emma are going to a club, something they often do when they come to Vegas to see us.

  “I’m out,” I say, and all three of them roll their eyes.

  “We know,” Emma says, and she and Dean laugh.

  Dean’s phone chimes and he reaches into his pocket to grab it. I take a sip of my water, but I feel the energy in the room change. I glance back at him and watch as his face turns white.

  “What is it?” I ask, and I’m beside him instantly.

  He doesn’t speak, he just turns his phone towards me. There on the screen is a picture of Nelson and Amelia together in a Vegas club, the two of them laughing and holding drinks. There’s another chime and it’s a text from Nelson.

  Nelson: Y’all are missing out

  Dean grips the phone so tight I think the screen might shatter. Usually I’m the one with the anger management issues, but not today. I take the phone out of his hand and text him back.

  Dean: Where you at?

  Nelson: The Strip…come and find us!

  I growl as I hand the phone back to Dean, but before he can take it Cassie snatches it out of his hand.

  “Looks like Nelson has something you want,” she says, showing it to Emma. “They’re at Viper.”

  “How do you know?” I ask, and she rolls her eyes.

  “Are we going or not?” Cassie says, looking between me and Dean.

  We don’t even have to speak to know the answer to that question. We’re already in motion by the time she’s finished asking it.

  Chapter Four

  Dean

  When we get to Viper we walk right up to the front of the line and the bouncer opens the velvet rope. I nod to him and slip him some cash, and Wes, Cassie, Emma and I make our way through the crowd. I’m leading the group and head all the way to the back for the VIP lounge. If Nelson is in here, that’s where he’ll be.