OffsideChanceFormat2 (5 page)

Jude
settled in the chair across from Will and served his plate. “You had insurance
right?”

Relieved
that the conversation moved to something less…less what? They weren’t really
discussing anything. Just two guys wearing nothing but pants sweating in a
kitchen yapping at each other was all they were doing. Will sat in the chair
he’d claimed as his and laid one of Levi’s fancy linen napkins in his lap, to
hide that he needed to adjust again. His dick wanted out to play. Damn. “Of course
I had insurance. What am I, stupid?”

“And
are they working with you?” He’d forgotten Jude was a lawyer and these were
perfectly reasonable questions coming from a lawyer. This felt too much like
small talk over dinner before heading back to a hotel for dessert.

“Yeah,
they paid enough to rebuild. I didn’t have much inside just some basic
furnishings and clothes. I wasn’t home much and never got around to making it
more than a place to crash.”

He
filled his plate with the steaming cheesy noodles and grabbed a couple slices
of bread hoping food would fix what ailed him.

“Unlike
Levi.” Jude looked around the almost painfully gorgeous kitchen. Matching
cookware. Matching dishes. Matching towels. Art on the walls from the same
French Quarter artist. He’d been with him the day Levi found the canvases.
Impressionist renderings of New Orleans everywhere Will looked. Reds and
yellows were the main colors.

“Every
room in this house has a theme. That should have been my first clue.” Will
stabbed a forkful of food and tried to absorb himself in the flavors hoping his
roommate would take the hint and eat in silence.

“I
bought the place while he was still playing up in Minnesota, he had some sixth
sense that he was going to end up here I guess. I picked up the sectional on
the second floor and the bed in the front bedroom. I didn’t need much to get me
through the last year of law school and my clerkship. There were three bedrooms
and the one bathroom way up on the top floor. When I moved out he’d just moved
in and we ripped down the wall between the two back bedrooms.

This
place was pretty much just bare bones and leaky plumbing when I left. I haven’t
been back since.” Jude shifted, pulling one leg up onto the seat. He rested one
long arm over his knee and leaned back in the seat. Not eating, just sipping
his water. “So what do you do next, as far as your house is concerned?”

Will
caught himself watching the almost graceful movement of the man’s hands.
“I…ah,” he cleared his throat of the hastily swallowed bite of food. “Excuse
me…Clean up, I guess. I need to find someone to remove the debris and the
remains of my car. And I guess clear it down to the foundation.”

“Sounds
like a solid plan. I used to know a couple of really reliable companies, but
that was before the storm. I’ll look and see if they’re still in business. Mind
you I said reliable, not cheap. They do the job quickly and honestly. But it’s
going to cost.” Jude watched him with those whiskey colored eyes that were so
much like his brothers while he picked at his food. Up close like this, Will
noticed the differences in the two brothers. Levi was a bit more square in the
jaw while Jude more angular. His nose just a little sharper. His lips thinner.
Not pouty like Levi’s. His face still had that same heart shape that Levi’s
had, just not the
same
. Jude’s wrists
were thinner, his fingers longer. “How’s the mac?”

“Good.”
He speared another fork-f and waved it toward Jude. “Why aren’t you eating?

You’re
like Levi with the eat-like-a-bird thing. And then mostly junk food.”

It
was as if Jude had forgotten there was food on his plate. The face he made, and
the quick scoop of mac and cheese onto his fork. “Just letting it cool down,”
he said, but somehow Will wasn’t buying it. Didn’t matter. The Brody brothers
were both a bit strange, and he didn’t have the time or the want to figure
either of them out. “What about rebuilding? Is there enough structure left or
will it be a complete redo from the ground up?” Like a dog with a bone, Jude
chewed his food and went right back to the third degree.

“Uh,
the outer walls are there, but unstable. So complete redo. I just don’t know if
I want to rebuild. I might not be here long enough for it to matter.” He
drained the last of his first beer and started on the second, trying not to
focus on Jude’s mouth as he placed another bite inside.

Reaching
down, Will gripped his dick and willed it to settle down. Fuck, it was as if
the thing had a mind of its own all of a sudden. “My contract is up; I don’t
know if I’ll be offered an extension, or if I’ll go free agent.”

“Ah.”
Jude ate small bites but he never averted his gaze. “We could list it as a lot
and a buyer could build whatever they want on the property. Or if you have new
construction you could make a nice profit? Let me ask you this, are you
mortgaged or did you buy outright like

Levi
did here?”

What
was this “we” thing? “Uh, it’s not a mansion or anything. It’s not in a ritzy
part of the city. I bought an old house in foreclosure for cash. I already got
back more from the insurance company than I paid for it.”

Jude
nodded and seemed to be thinking; his eyes were a bit unfocused now that Will
looked close enough. “If the neighborhood is gentrifying you could make even
more than that by rebuilding. Even if you don’t stay, the realty agency I
worked for could handle the sale. Depends on what you want. And if you stay,
what are you going to do for the next couple of years?”

“If
you want me out now that the season is over, Jude, just say so,” Will couldn’t
think of any other reason for the man to be all up in his business like this.
“I could probably get Bocephus to let me crash in his guest room for a couple
of months until the contract decisions are final.”

Jude’s
eyes cleared and he tilted his head, he looked like a puppy who was trying to
figure out where the tennis ball just went. Huge liquid whiskey eyes swept over
Will making him shiver. His dick pressed hard against his jeans. The longer
Jude looked at him like that the harder he became. “I didn’t say that,” he said
finally.

“You
did the first day you were here,” Will reminded him. “The season is over. I
should probably find a rental or a hotel or something.” Maybe he should start
thinking about a new place to live, especially now that his dick was working
without the help of the erectile dysfunction drug fairy.

“That
was then, and you’d just pulled a gun on me. Since then I’ve gotten used to
having you around. And your gun.” Jude seemed to be suddenly absorbed in his
food. He played with the noodles moving them around his plate.

“You
like my gun?” Will tried hard to find a way that couldn’t be construed as
sexual. Was Jude like his brother after all? Was this Jude’s way of telling him
he liked dick. In particular Will’s dick.

“I
lived here alone for about nine months. My car was stolen from right outside
and I was mugged…twice. I never felt safe here.” Jude stuffed a piece of garlic
bread in his mouth, and without even touching the salad he’d made, went to
scrape the rest of his food in the trash. He busied himself by rinsing the
dishes and loading them into the dishwasher. “You don’t have to move out…unless
Levi asks you too. It’s not really an issue with me.”

“Let
me get this straight, you like that I have a big gun?” The big gun in his pants
seemed pleased by this statement. Will pinched himself hoping the pain would
cause the damned thing to go back to being bored unless called for duty.

“You’re
a fucking behemoth. You look like you could tear someone apart. Just don’t
leave the damned thing in the bathroom, and I won’t have a problem…as long as
you don’t point it at me again….okay, I have a presentation to prepare and a
couple of cases to study over the weekend. I’m just going to go upstairs
and…you finish the clean up since I cooked.” For the first time since he met
the man, Jude suddenly became a human instead of a fucking robot.

“So,
you’re saying you feel safe with me in the house?” Will leaned back in his
chair to watch Jude’s bubble ass retreat down the narrow hallway to the front
parlor. “Ah baby, I didn’t know you cared?”

“Fuck
you!” Jude’s voice echoed back to him.

“Not
tonight baby, Daddy has a headache,” Will called after him, he smiled at the
sound of heavy footsteps pounding up the stairs and then the distant slamming
of a door. And for the first time in weeks, he didn’t feel so damned out of
control. He had a place to stay for as long as he needed it and someone to talk
to that didn’t judge him or want to discuss his career and his plans for after
his career ended. Or try to get him to marry them just so they could get their
manicured fingernails on his bank account. And home cooked food several times a
week that he didn’t have to pay for with money or sex. Life was good. He helped
himself to seconds of the tangy pasta with bacon. Life was very good.

Chapter
Five

Jude
stood at the French doors on the second floor balcony overlooking the courtyard
restlessly watching as snow fell in the courtyard. He’d lived in New Orleans
for five years and never once remembered it being this cold. Not cold enough to
snow at least. There was a couple of winters that he thought his fingers were
going to freeze off walking from his dorm to his classes, but there had been no
snow involved.

The
coffee in his hands kept him warm. The heating in the house did a great job,
but it was just too cold—the chill continued to creep in. The world outside was
gray and lifeless. He shivered. The silence in the house and the chill added to
his restlessness.

Slater
had left early that morning to run some errands. He hadn’t waited for Jude to
get up. But he’d left a note. He’d never left a note before. And he’d never
given Jude his cell number before either. The bike was still tucked up next to
the house under the tarp, so Jude figured he’d taken a taxi. Not his business.
If the team hadn’t lost last Sunday they would have played tomorrow, and he
would have been home alone anyway with Will being at practice all day.

As
the day wore on and the weather turned worse, Jude started on his third pot of
coffee and paced the small den as his laptop sat open and blinking at him, the
presentation he was working on only half finished. He liked having the coffee
maker upstairs along with the mini fridge and the small bar in Levi’s workout
room. No need to constantly run down the stairs to get his fix.

At
four o’clock the house phone rang, and for some reason Jude expected it to be
Levi. “What’s wrong,” he answered expecting the worst.

“Don’t
cook. I mean if you were planning on cooking. I’m picking up take out on my way
back.” But it was Will, and Jude had forgotten all about eating in the
unnerving solitude.

He
repressed the urge to ask the man where he’d been all day. Not his business. He
thought about calling Jasmine and seeing if she wanted to get together. But he
didn’t want to go out in this weather. “Not a problem. I was working and
forgot. Take out will be great.”

“Anything
you’d like? I’m open for suggestions.” The voice on the other end sounded far
away. Jude went to the front window overlooking the street. There was no
movement outside.

Nothing
stirred. The snow seemed to be sticking to the ground now. The neighbor’s car
wore a dusting of white.

“I’ll
eat anything. Whatever you bring back is fine with me. The snow is starting to
cover the ground. I’ve never seen anything like this….well, here. I’ve seen
snow before. It’s cold.” He had no idea why he said that. After last night and
the almost comfortable dinner with the man nothing felt right anymore.

“Tell
me about it. I swear my fingers have frost bite. I should have stayed home.” Will
laughed a little on the other end. Jude could have sworn he heard the smile in
his voice. “Don’t worry baby, Daddy will be home soon to warm you up.”

“Asshole,”
Jude growled as he remembered exactly who he was talking to.

“You
know you want me, baby. Love you too. Be home soon,
baby
.” The laugh was pure evil and then the bastard hung up.

“Bastard,”
Jude cursed at the phone as it rang in his hand. This time he thought it would
be Slater calling back to taunt him some more and answered that way as well.

“Well,
damn, Judah, tell me how you really feel,” Levi laughed on the other end of the
line.

“Levi?
What? No, sorry. I thought you were Slater, he just hung up on me,” Jude winced
at how that might possibly sound to his brother.

“I
see. I guess a couple weeks together and you’re both ready to kill each other.”
Levi didn’t really stop laughing and said something muffled and Jude heard more
laughter in the background. “Of course, there could be other things going on if
you’re arguing on the phone like a couple of teenagers.”

“Fuck
you, Leviticus.” Jude ran a hand through his hair and stalked into the weight
room to refresh his coffee.

“That’s
what I’m talking about. Maybe you and Slayer have come to some mutual—“

“Livy!
I swear to god, man. Not everyone is gay. I am not, and he is not…and why
exactly did you call?” He sloshed fake cream into his coffee along with fake
sugar and stirred.