Play Me, I'm Yours [Library Edition] Read Free

again.”
    Lucas did no better on the next attempt. Unless he counted the fact that the ball made bodily contact. It hit him in the gut and bounced off.
    “Oh shit. You okay?” Mark said, walking toward him.
    “I’m fine.” Lucas waved him off. The tears that threatened to fall were more from humiliation than any physical pain. Please, please, please let me catch this one.
    “Ice cream sounds really good right about now, doesn’t it?”
    An image of Mark licking his way around an ice cream cone flashed in Lucas’s mind. Lucas wiped his sweaty palms on his shorts.
    Reminding himself to keep his eyes open, he watched Mark hit the ball to him one last time. It slapped against his hand, but as he attempted to close his fingers around it, it bounced back and hit the court with a thud.
    Lucas blinked back tears as he scrambled to collect the tennis balls, tokens of shame littering the court. He returned to Mark and his dad with his head down.
    “No worries, buddy,” Mark said. “If you want to be good at something—anything at all—it takes perseverance. You take a licking, you get right back up and try again. Remember that.”
    Lucas nodded as Mark peeled off his wet T-shirt. Lucas watched out of the corner of his eye as Mark wiped his chest and armpits with the balled-up shirt. He tossed it over by his bag, where it ricocheted and flopped to the ground.
    “See that?” Mark said.
    Lucas blushed, realizing he’d been caught staring.
    “Even I’m not perfect.” Mark peeled off his armbands and turned to face Lucas. “Now hold ’em up.”
    Lucas felt his heart thump. Was this half-naked man really going to slip his sweaty armbands around Lucas’s wrists? He turned to look at his dad, who stood behind him, but his dad just shrugged and said, “A deal’s a deal, kiddo.”
    Lucas nodded and held out his arms. It must have taken mere seconds, though it felt like an eternity as Lucas forced his hands through the tight, stretchy bands. They were saturated.
    Mark tugged and snapped at them until they were properly seated, and Lucas felt a tingling heat spread through his body.
    “There ya go,” Mark said. He wrapped his hands around the armbands, then gave them one last squeeze. When Mark let go, Lucas dropped both his arms, and Mark’s eyebrows rose.
    Lucas looked down and realized in horror that his arousal was noticeable. He froze. All thought vanished, leaving only fear in its place.
    Mark squeezed his shoulder. “Why don’t you go on ahead, buddy? Hit the head before we go.”
    Lucas bolted. By the time he reached the bathroom, his not-so-little problem had resolved itself, but he stayed and splashed cold water on his face anyway.
    When he met his dad and Mark at the car, he couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact with either of them. He was worried about what Mark thought of him, but Mark didn’t say anything. He acted as though nothing had happened. When Mark stopped by the next day to say good-bye to the family, Lucas hoped he’d forgotten the whole incident.
    Then his dad opened his big mouth. “Lucas? Did you give Mark his armbands back?”
    “No worries,” Mark said.
    Lucas figured he didn’t want them back after what had happened.
    But then Mark reached out and ruffled Lucas’s hair. “You keep ’em,” he said, smiling. Then he winked. “Something to remember me by.”
    Lucas did keep them. In fact, he still had them tucked away in a dresser drawer. He now winced at how silly he’d been, sleeping with them under his pillow for those first two weeks.
    Ted was the only other person who even knew about that. Not that Ted was a person. Lucas loved him nonetheless. When he was little, Lucas called him Teddy Beddy, because he slept with the bear every night. Over time, as they both grew older, Teddy Beddy became Teddy, and later, just Ted. Now Ted stared back at him blankly.
    “I mean, what do Chris Robins and I even have in common?” Lucas said to Ted. “What are we gonna talk