SWNOVELS Hail Mary: Chapter 31
I had never been so thankful for a day off in my life.
Between the emotional rollercoaster of yesterday, staying up all night drinking with the girls, and then Leo ravishing me this morning — I was exhausted. I’d barely made it through the shower before I’d collapsed naked and still damp in Leo’s bed and slept until almost noon.
I texted the girls an update, which they responded to with a thousand emojis that varied from eggplants and water splashes to heart eyes and wedding bells. It made me smile, and that smile was latched in place permanently when I got a text from Leo after practice.
Leo: Only had to run ten laps. Proceeded to have the best practice of my life afterward.
Me: Hmm… sounds like I should be part of your training program.
Leo: Deep in you, and then deep in the end zone? I like the sound of that.
I spent the rest of the day cleaning up the house, which was an absolute pigsty. I swept and mopped and changed Palico’s litterbox and, because I felt generous, I grabbed the guys’ laundry when I went down to do my own. Other than that, I relaxed and rested, watching movies and doodling tattoo outlines on my iPad from the couch while Palico purred in a little ball next to me.
I was just folding up the last load of laundry when the guys barreled through the door like a pack of wild animals.
“Mary!” Braden called, slinging his bag onto the bay window bench I’d just cleaned. He wrapped me up in a hug and spun me around before I could yell at him. “We’ve missed you.”
“One of us more than the rest,” Kyle added with a smirk, tossing his bag on top of Braden’s. He paused at the sight of clothes piled on the couch. “Wait — did you do our laundry?”
“Some of it,” I said when Braden put me on the ground again. I pointed at the bay window. “And I just cleaned, so take your bags upstairs, you animals.”
Blake had been about to add his to the pile, but he paused, letting it swing mid-air before he pointed at the stairs. “I was just taking mine up.”
“Uh-huh,” I said with a smile. I turned back toward Braden just in time to see him mouthing mommy to Kyle as he pointed at me.
I rolled up a pair of his briefs and pegged him in the face with them.
“Wait, are you off tonight?” Kyle asked, checking the time on his Apple watch. It was just past eight. I didn’t know their full schedules, but I did know that they tried to line up their afternoon and evening classes as much as they could so they could all ride together.
“I am.”
“Madden tournament?!” Braden asked, waggling his brows.
“You guys really want an ass-whooping that badly, huh?” I teased as I folded the last of my shirts. But the jokes and challenges the guys replied with were blurry in the background, because Leo swung through the door.
My entire body buzzed to life at his nearness, at the sight of him all roughed up and tired from a long day. He dragged himself inside, wearing his full NBU Football sweatsuit, and I didn’t hide the way I ogled how those pants highlighted a very specific part of him. I let my eyes trail the length of him slowly, taking in his messy hair and freshly tan skin and honey eyes that were glinting with amusement as he took in the sight of me, too.
He was biting one of his chains absentmindedly, like it was just a normal habit and not an instant reminder for me of the other things he could do with that mouth.
As if he sensed that seeing that chain in his mouth did something to me, he grinned, his tongue catching the silver before he let it fall to his chest again.
He looked so cozy, like he was made to hold me on the couch in that moment. I wanted nothing more than to have him wrapped around me, to have his scent invading my brain and making my mind fuzzy.
But we hadn’t talked about how we’d handle this with the roommates.
I hesitated, staring at him while he hovered at the door. But he just kicked it shut behind him before dropping his bag to the ground and crossing the room to me in smooth, unbothered strides. He crooked that smile I used to hate to love so much, and then he scooped me up, pulling me into him in a warm, all-encompassing hug that made me tingle from head to toe.
A heavy sigh left him once I was in his arms, like he’d been waiting all day for this moment, and he held me tight for a breath before he pulled back and kissed me — not on the forehead or the cheek or a quick peck to the lips, but a possessive, demanding kiss that I had no choice but to open up to. His tongue against my own sent a different kind of vibration humming through me, but he broke away before either of us lost control.
“How’s my girl?” he asked sleepily.
I smiled, heart skipping a beat. “Better now.”
Leo’s eyes searched mine, and I loved how happy he looked, how happy I felt in that moment. I wanted to bottle it all up, to stash it away somewhere where I could take a shot whenever I wanted to.
“Did I hear we’re playing Madden?” he asked after a beat.
“Apparently the guys want an ass-kicking. Who am I to deny?”
“I hope you’re not looping me in with the guys, because it’ll be me kicking your ass — not the other way around.”
“He talks a big talk, but can he back it up?” I teased, tilting my head and tapping my chin with one finger.
There was a devilish challenge in Leo’s eyes that told me I’d pay for that comment later.
I couldn’t wait.
“Are you going to tell her your big news or just make us watch you two make out all night?” Kyle said.
I arched a brow at Leo. “Big news?”
He grinned, but his cheeks tinged pink. Was Leo Hernandez… blushing?
“You’re looking at NBU’s new Captain.”
My jaw slackened. “Wait… really?!”
I didn’t even think before I leapt at him, and he caught me just in time for another long, deep kiss. When I pulled back, I slapped him on the arm.
“How long have you known? Why didn’t you text me and tell me?”
“Because I wanted to see this face in person,” he said, tapping my nose.
I shook my head, still smiling. “Wow. Congratulations, Leo. I’m… I’m so happy for you.”
He somehow stood even taller, and then he pulled me in for a hug, holding me tight.
“You can show me just how happy you are later,” he said low under the shell of my ear.
I shivered.
With a squeeze of my hip, he skipped upstairs to drop off his stuff and shower. Blake passed him on the way down, and when I moved all our clean clothes to the dining table so we could have the couch, I turned to find the three of them smirking at me with their arms folded over their chests.
I sighed, waving my hand over the space between us. “Alright. Go ahead. Get all your jokes out now.”
“Who, us? We would never,” Blake said, taking a seat on the couch and firing up the Xbox. Palico hopped up on the arm of it, and he pulled her into his lap without a second thought.
“No, no, we’re happy for you,” Braden added, sitting in the armchair.
Kyle was suspiciously quiet when he flopped down in the beanbag, and I took a seat in the middle of the couch next to Blake, saving a spot for Leo. Kyle handed me a controller while Braden set up the first game, and I actually thought I got away without their smart-ass remarks about me and Leo.
But then, Kyle stretched, casually turning to his roommates. “Hey, did y’all hear some sort of… thumping sound this morning?”
“Yeah, come to think of it, it’s been a couple mornings now,” Braden said, tapping his chin. “Sounded kind of like a thump, thump, thump against the wall.”
My cheeks flamed, but I ignored them, fighting back my smile as I picked my team for the game.
“Maybe it’s a plumbing issue,” Blake added, and I tongued my cheek, shaking my head and still ignoring.
“I don’t know,” Kyle said. “Might be a ghost. I could have sworn I heard some moans and screams.”
“Must be haunting Leo, then, because I definitely heard it screaming his name,” Blake added.
I finally succumbed to my laugh, bopping Kyle on the head before I threw a pillow at Blake and elbowed Braden in the ribs since he was closest. They all laughed, too, just as Leo joined us and plopped down next to us.
“What’d I miss?” he asked.
“Oh, nothing,” Blake said. “Just debating whether The Pit is haunted or not.”
I rolled my eyes, but my heart was light as a bird, the wings of it fluttering in my chest and making it impossible not to smile.
I’d never felt more at home.