Series: Fever Falls Series by Riley Hart
Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 81272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“Sorry. I don’t mean to interrupt. I know this isn’t the best time. I’m Dean Browning, journalist with Sports News Daily. I couldn’t help but overhear in the waiting room, and I…well, I have a lot of respect for Rush Alexander for being the only out gay man in motocross. I came to the race hoping to talk with him, and to run into his boyfriend… I mean, that’s got to be a sign, right?”
Dean grinned.
Ashton cursed.
Beau groaned.
Rush was out, but it wasn’t something he talked about a lot when it came to his career. He kept his sexuality and sports separated. He’d dated a guy a few years back, and they’d kept it on the down low because Rush hadn’t wanted his interviews about sports to turn into interviews about being gay and having a boyfriend.
I’d not only lied to his family about us being together; I’d announced Rush had a boyfriend to a journalist. Only Rush didn’t have a boyfriend, did he?
“I think I’m going to be sick,” I said, and ran past them all.
CHAPTER SIX
Rush
And that’s how fast the landscape of a supercross season can change. One mistake and it’s a whole new competition out there!
I kept my eyes closed, trying to tell myself that if I didn’t open them, none of this would be true. Nope, I hadn’t fucked up on a jump I should have been able to land in my sleep, no matter how big it was. My whole season wasn’t hanging in the balance as I lay in the ER, my head foggy and my shoulder fucking killing me.
“Rush?”
I frowned when my mom’s head peeked around the curtain of my ER room. My head must have gotten a little more jostled than I thought because now I was apparently seeing and hearing things. Wasn’t that fucking great?
“How are you, son?” she asked as she walked into the room, followed by…
“Jude?”
“Surprise.” My best friend winked at me. There wasn’t a single memory of my childhood that didn’t involve Jude. We’d grown up next door to each other. We’d gotten drunk together and sneaked out together. We’d played sports together and hooked up with girls together, and he hadn’t batted an eye when I told him I was gay. It hadn’t mattered. All that mattered was our friendship.
“What are you guys doing here? Did they call you?” Christ, if they called my family, something must be really wrong.
“No, no. Don’t freak out. We’d come to your race. We wanted to surprise you. You’re not supposed to crash when your mama comes to watch you race. Don’t you know that?”
I chuckled. “I’m not supposed to crash at all.” I bit back my anger at myself, not wanting to deal with them all telling me it was fine. “Where’s Dad?”
Mom’s eyes darted away, and Jude started cursing under his breath. My heart dropped to my stomach.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Mom replied. “Your dad is fine. He stayed back home. We needed to get away for a bit, so we decided to come watch you race. Jude was nice enough to come with me. Enough about me, though. I don’t want to take up too much time. They said only two visitors, and I’m sure you want to see your boyfriend. That was a surprise, by the way. You don’t tell your mama when you’re seeing someone?”
“Excuse me, what?” I asked, thoroughly confused.
“Lincoln! We had no idea! He came to see you, and we were sitting in the waiting room when up he walked—quite fiercely, I might add—wanting to see his boyfriend, Rush Alexander. Don’t worry. I played it off like you’d told me about him. Which you hadn’t. I knew he was your friend, but not that he was your special friend.”
Oh God. “Please don’t say special friend, Ma.”
“You didn’t tell me things progressed either.” Jude cocked a brow at me, and I shook my head at him. He knew Linc and I had hooked up, that I had a little thing for him, and that Linc obviously wasn’t interested. Jude thought he was playing games with me, and so wasn’t too fond of him.
“Is he still here?” It wasn’t hard to put two and two together. Linc had lied to get in to see me, not knowing my family was there, but I also wasn’t going to let him live it down. “And it’s not serious. It’s just…a thing.”
“Yeah, he doesn’t look too good. Poor thing is obviously worried like crazy. There’s a whole group of guys out there waiting for you.”
My pulse sped up. “With Linc?”
“Yeah,” Mom replied, and I relaxed some, knowing it was our friends and no one else. Motocross was different from most sports. If it were Ashton Carmichael in this bed right now, the waiting room would have been packed with everyone trying to get a story. It was one of the things I loved about moto. It was easier for us to just love what we did without all the other shit attached.