X's and O's (A SECOND CHANCE SPORTS ROMANCE)

by Nikki Wild

  “You’ve changed so much since I first met you,” he said, his voice quiet and pensive.

  “Really? How so?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. You’re more in control now, more of an open person.”

  I laughed.

  “I’m not sure about all that. Or, maybe it’s just part of growing up,” I said, looking at him. “You’ve changed, too.”

  “I’ve changed? How?”

  “I don’t know how to explain it. You’re more mature. You’ve definitely filled out, physically,” I said, with a wink.

  He laughed and I couldn’t help but stare at him as his face lit up.

  “You’re much more handsome now, actually,” I said.

  “Thank you,” he said. “Although the fact that you won’t let me see those pictures makes me think you feel otherwise. Are you ever going to show them to me?”

  “No,” I said, giggling. “Stop asking, or I’ll make you wait even longer.”

  “You’re such a tease!”

  “Sometimes,” I quipped.

  “Looks like we’re the only ones here today,” he said, as we walked alone down the trail..

  “Perfect. We don’t want your legions of fans bothering us.”

  “Are you making fun of my adoring fans?” he asked, flashing me a grin.

  “Well, I’m becoming your number-one fan. Does that count for something?”

  “I guess,” he said, stopping and putting his arms around my waist.

  “Hands off, mister. We’ve got work to do.”

  “I thought we were playing hookie today.”

  “We will, but I have to get some photos first.”

  “Sure, if you say so. I don’t know why we can’t do both…”

  As we walked into the woods, images of his cock flashed through my mind, turning me on even more.

  “You’re smiling a lot today,” he noted.

  “Just happy, I guess.”

  A few hundred feet into the trees, I stopped in a clearing. The sun beat down, lighting up the trees wonderfully.

  How do I capture the beauty of nature and him at the same time?

  “Stand over there a minute, would you?”

  “Here?” he asked, leaning against a tree. “Casual?”

  I laughed at his silliness. He had no idea what was coming.

  “Great,” I said, lifting my camera on the strap around my neck. “Perfect.”

  He flexed his arms, looking deliciously sexy surrounded by the beauty of the forest.

  “Why don’t you take the shirt off,” I said, still hiding behind the camera lens.

  “Out here? Are you sure?”

  “Now you’re afraid of being naked?”

  “Hey, we were at my house in my backyard. This is different.”

  “Scaredy-cat, scaredy-cat,” I teased.

  I watched attentively as he lifted the shirt off, tossing it into the clearing where I stood.

  “There we go,” I said. “Take a step back into the trees. I want to get some contrast shots.”

  He took a step further into the woods, well off the beaten path. I snapped another few photos.

  “You know what? You should take off your pants.”

  “What?” he hissed. “Are you nuts?”

  “No one’s around,” I said. “The photos are going to be so fucking hot. Come on.”

  “Okay, but just for you,” he said.

  “Of course,” I said, still snapping.

  He undid his pants quickly, letting them slip to the ground.

  “How’s that?”

  “Better,” I said, stepping forward.

  He glanced around. I lowered the camera to the bulge in his underwear and zoomed in.

  “Hey, what kind of photos are you taking?” he asked with a chuckle.

  “Take a few more steps back behind that tree, and I’ll show you.”

  I stared into his eyes, amazed at what he made me want to do.

  “Alright,” he said cockily then waddled over to a huge poplar tree.

  The sight of him with his pants down and shoes still on was almost comical, but the sight of his huge cock pushed me in the other direction of the emotional spectrum.

  “Like this?” he asked as he stood next to the tree, flexing his arms.

  As if those were what I was interested in. Silly man.

  “Stunning.”

  I made love to his body with the camera lens, snapping close-up shots of each curve, each muscle, each ripple of his gorgeous frame. They would make a wonderful collage, a gift for our first anniversary.

  He switched poses, still moving for me, but I couldn’t take it anymore. We were alone. He was naked. There was nothing else I could do but give in.

  I gingerly set the camera down on the forest floor while maintaining eye contact with him. His eyes widened, almost imperceptibly.

  After taking off my top, exposing my breasts, I stepped toward him. He reached for me, but I pushed his hand away before getting on my knees in front of him.

  His eyes locked with mine as I pulled his boxer-briefs down without looking. I wrapped my fingers around his masterpiece of a cock while still staring into his eyes.

  Those fucking hazel eyes.

  They mesmerized me.

  Holding his cock up with one hand, I slid my lips over his velvety skin.

  “Haley…, ” he moaned, as I twirled my tongue around his shaft, his hardness pulsing against my tongue.

  “Fuck,” he grunted.

  I looked up at his face as he stared down at me.

  His cock hardened in my mouth as he sunk his fingers in my hair. I leaned into him, the breeze brushing against my exposed skin.

  “Haley…” he growled, as I worked my head up and down, his cock swelling.

  I moved my head back, breathing heavily as I stroked and tugged at his massive cock. A

  As I sucked and stroked him, he thrust his hips forward.

  “Haley,” he said urgently. “I’m going to come.”

  I kept on sucking and tugging, loving the taste of him in my mouth.

  He tapped my shoulder, but I moved faster, urging him on.

  “Fuck,” he hissed, trying to stay quiet as he exploded.

  The taste turned me on so damn much. I glanced up at his face as I swallowed the rest of it down, his cock still in my mouth. He smiled, his eyes alive and ablaze with fire.

  “Come here,” he said, bending down and helping me up.

  A look of hunger in his eyes, he kissed me on the mouth.

  “I want to fuck you so bad,” he said. “Let’s do it here.”

  “Okay,” I said, giggling. “Are you ready already? Do you need to wait?”

  Before he answered, I heard two women arguing with each other on the nearby trail.

  My eyes widened in surprise as I placed a finger over my lips. He nodded, then bent to pull up his underwear and jeans.

  “It’s been twenty years, Martha. You need to let it go,” one of the women said.

  I stepped forward and saw two white-haired ladies slowly walking down the path, their strides assisted by canes. A few seconds later, a group of elderly men appeared.

  “Shit,” I muttered, turning to Toby.

  He had his clothes on and my camera in his hands.

  “I’ll take that,” I said, grabbing it.

  “Is it Senior Day at the park or something?”

  “Must be,” I said. “They haven’t seen anything. We’ll just wait a few minutes then make a run for the car.”

  “You’ve got a plan for everything, don’t you?”

  He placed his palm on my cheek and stared into my eyes.

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing. We make a hell of a team.”

  Instead of answering with words, he kissed me again.

  We spent the rest of the afternoon walking the trails, stealing away to kiss in the trees, but we spotted way too many other hikers to continue our romp in the woods.

  “We’ll have to come back when it’s l
ess crowded,” he growled, his hand on my ass as we walked up the trail. “I’m not finished with you yet.”

  “I think that’s a good thing,” I replied.

  “Sure feels like a good thing to me,” he said, squeezing my ass.

  I laughed and wrapped an arm around him.

  I still loved him, after all these years.

  If I’d been unsure about it till now, I was certain now.

  Fifteen

  Toby

  Everything was going great in my life until Coach Harris pulled me aside after practice a few days later. As he stared at me, glancing down at his tablet occasionally, I wondered what it might be.

  “Toby, you’ve been with us going on two years now.”

  Damn straight. This is it. My contract renewal.

  “You’ve had some good games during that time,” he continued. “But lately, you’ve been slow at practice and not paying attention during games.”

  “I’ve been busy,” I said, trying to hide my grin.

  “I bet you fucking have. It’s that damn photographer, isn’t it?”

  “Her name is Haley. And I’m allowed to have a personal life, aren’t I?”

  “Well, yeah, son, but you came to me a broke man after your first wife ran you through the wringer. You want to go through that again? I’m speaking to you as a friend now, not a coach.”

  “Haley’s not anything like Jessica.”

  “That may well be, but you can’t see what’s in front of you because you’re blinded by love.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far, Coach.”

  “So, you’re telling me you’re about to cut your professional football career short for a woman you don’t even love?”

  “What do you mean?”

  He had my attention at the mention of my career ending.

  “Your contract is coming up for renewal. I’m not sure I can approve you if your mind isn’t on the game and taking us all the way to the Superbowl.”

  This is not happening. My life flashed before my eyes.

  “Come on, Coach. I’m not doing that bad.”

  “Don’t come on me,” he said.

  I snickered despite my best efforts.

  “Your whole generation is fucked,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve not made my decision yet, but let this be a heads-up. I’ve got my eyes on you.”

  “Got it, Coach.”

  “Now get out of here.”

  As he directed his attention to his tablet, I jogged over to the locker room entrance. Most of the other players had showered and left. I saw Jason standing by his locker, tossing the ball in his hand.

  “What’s up?” I asked as I walked by him.

  “Coach talk to you?”

  “Yeah. What about it?”

  “I’m the leader of this team, and I need to talk with you too.”

  “No time,” I said. “I’m going to shower before heading to see my parents.”

  He pointed a finger at me.

  “We need to talk soon.”

  I nodded.

  “We will. Later, bro.”

  After he walked out, I stripped and got into the shower. The water rained down on me as I thought about what Coach had said a few minutes earlier.

  I’ve got to get my act together. Taking a break with Haley will be good for both of us.

  She’s amazing, but we need some time apart, at least until the season is over.

  By the time I dressed and headed to my car, I had a plan worked out in my mind. She probably would have liked to know, but I had more important things to worry about.

  Business at Chez Louie still hadn’t bounced back. Even worse, some online trolls were leaving negative reviews on Yelp and other review websites, driving my father crazy.

  Haley called on my way to the restaurant.

  I let it go to voicemail, putting my plan into action.

  No time like the present, I thought, even though I knew it would be hard to do without her. She’d become my main focus, and I couldn’t let that happen.

  I knew she was calling today because she wanted to reschedule a time for me to have dinner with her and Billy again, but something was still holding me back.

  I didn’t know what it was, but I couldn’t let it get in the way of my career. I’d worked so fucking hard. I’d come so far.

  As much as I hated it, I knew taking a small break would do me the most good. At least until I could prove to Coach that my head was in the game. Once I'd done that, I’d make it all up to Haley and we could figure out where this was all going.

  Nothing wrong with a little breathing room.

  When I pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, I saw no other cars, not a single one. I locked the car up before going inside. My mother greeted me with a worried frown.

  “I’m here,” I said. “I’ll talk to him.”

  “Those people on the internet are animals!”

  “You don’t know the half of it, Ma. It’ll be okay.”

  “Can you get him away from the computer? Please? I’m afraid he’s going to get his blood pressure up and have a stroke or something terrible.”

  “Don’t worry, Ma. I’ll handle it.”

  “You’re such a good son,” she said. “How is everything going with Haley? You haven’t brought her back.”

  “She’s fine. I’ll talk to you about her later, okay? I need to take care of Pops.”

  “You don’t need to make it sound like you’re going to whack him.”

  I grinned, shaking my head.

  “Ma, you’re something else. You’ve been watching your mob shows again, haven’t you?”

  “All I have is time! He won’t talk with me anymore because he’s always online responding to those terrible people with the crazy names.”

  “They’re just trying to get a rise out of him. It’s called trolling.”

  “I don’t care what you call it, you have to help him.”

  “You don’t think I’m trying?”

  I sighed as I walked to the office in the very back of the restaurant.

  My father sat in the office, madly banging keys on the keyboard as he muttered to himself.

  “Problems?” I asked.

  “I’m going to kill the internet!” he declared without turning around.

  “You can’t kill the internet, Pops. It was built to withstand a nuclear war.”

  “Well, I’m going to sue that Bill Zuckerberg guy!”

  “Do you mean Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg? You know what, never mind. I told you to ignore the trolls online. If you feed them, they’ll just keep coming back. The only thing they want is a reaction from you.”

  “I’m going to show them,” he said, his typing slowing. “There! Hah.”

  He spun around, a look of satisfaction on his sweat soaked face.

  “Hey, Pops. You okay?”

  “What do you mean? I’m fine.”

  “You’re sweating bad and yelling at me. Take it down a notch.”

  “Don’t talk to me that way,” he said, standing and bumping his chest against mine. “I raised you, and I can still take you down.”

  “I’m sure you can, but I’m here to talk. We need to get this worked out. I can’t just keep throwing money at this restaurant if you’re not even going to try.”

  “You don’t think I’m trying?” he yelled.

  “Hey, easy. We’re just talking. Take a deep breath.”

  He stared at me, his nostrils flaring.

  “Are you happy? You sound like your damn mother.”

  “Hey, don’t put her down in front of me, okay? I’d rather you didn’t do it at all.”

  “They make me so mad with their lies about Chez Louie.”

  “I know, Pops. That’s what they’re trying to do, make you mad. And you’re falling for it.”

  “I’m not falling for anything. Wait until they read my last reply. A zinger!”

  He thrust his finger upward in the air. I smiled, loving his ferocity. If only he would direc
t it better.

  “Are you and Ma doing okay?” I asked.

  “Why? What did she tell you?”

  “Well, you’re scaring her. You need to calm down and take online advertising seriously. It’s the only thing that really works these days.”

  “I have a coupon sheet,” he said, nodding to a stack of cardboard boxes outside of the office. “We have thousands of them, but no one takes them.”

  “How do they know you have them here in the first place?” I asked, trying to understand his logic.

  “’I’m not sure, but I wasted so much money on those fliers, I don’t want to send any more to The Facebook.”

  “Facebook, Pops. It’s just Facebook.”

  “Whatever!”

  I patted him on the shoulder.

  “We need to switch you to drinking decaf or something.”

  “Are you done putting me down?” he asked.

  “I’m not putting you down. You have time to talk about hiring someone to help you with the internet?”

  “No.”

  “No? Come on, Pops.”

  “I don’t want a snot-nosed kid in here telling me how to run my business. I’m the best damn chef in ten or twenty blocks.”

  “You are the best, but people need to know about you. And everyone is on their phones these days.”

  “Now you’re talking over my head. I need to see if they’ve replied.”

  He turned to the computer.

  “Hold on. Come out front and have something to eat with me? Have you eaten yet?”

  “No,” he admitted, patting his stomach. “I could eat.”

  “Let’s have dinner and talk.”

  “Fine, son. For you, I will pry myself away from defending my livelihood and eat dinner.”

  My phone rang as he walked past me. I turned it off, wanting to spend some quality time with my parents before heading home and getting ready to show Coach Harris I meant business at practice the next day.

  That meant a full night of sleep and no sex with Haley. She would be fine without me for a single fucking day, I told myself as I followed my father to the front of the restaurant. A nice dinner with family would get me back in the right mindset.

  My cock swelled in my jeans as her face flashed in my mind, reminding me that it might not be so easy after all.