Sidelined Read Online Free

the small amber bottle and shook out a pill, then chased it with whiskey straight from the bottle.
    This was his high school nemesis. The damned reason he knew he was into guys. Levi Brody, the one who did the impossible…falling the fuck apart right in front of him.
    He stepped inside and closed the door behind him without another thought. “And that’s not going to make it better.”
    “It’s not going to make it worse either. Maybe I can sleep.” The hat came off and not because Levi took it off, but because he wanted to run his fingers through his hair and knocked it off. “What does it matter to you? You don’t know me.”
    “I know you, Levi. Everyone here knows you.” He leaned against the closed door. His heart pounding, and he didn’t know why…why anything.
    “And that’s where you’re wrong, Coach, completely wrong. Nobody knows me. Not here. Not anywhere.” He reached for the whiskey bottle again, and this time Tracy didn’t stand by and watch. He moved across the small room and took the bottle from him. “Fuck you.”
    “Not with pain pills. Are you trying to kill yourself?” The look that Levi gave him said he’d gone too far. He reached for the bottle with his right arm, too fast, pain lanced across his face bad enough that his lips went white. Tracy grabbed him around his waist with his free hand to steady him, but Levi fell onto him instead of standing on his own. He hissed and tucked his arm to his chest. “How bad is it?”
    There were several long moments when Levi didn’t answer. He didn’t move. His head on Tracy’s shoulder. Tracy’s hand pressed against the small of his back. Awkward didn’t exactly describe his dilemma. Holding his first crush as if he were a lover. Wishing…no use wishing anything where Levi Brody was concerned. Levi Brody didn’t seem to get that same memo; he wrapped his other arm around Tracy’s waist and leaned heavily against him.
    “Career ending. They said I’d never throw again. I don’t know what to do now.”
    Tracy set the bottle down on the nearest surface; he winced when it hit the floor. The place would reek of whiskey now. He didn’t stop to think or worry about what Levi would think as he wrapped him tight in both arms and held him. Bodies flush. He could feel Levi swallow and knew he was choking back tears.
    “Go ahead. It’ll help.” This he knew from experience. Too many years of manning up just didn’t cut it anymore when he had to stop playing back in college. “I never went pro. I don’t know what to tell you.”
    “That press conference caught me off guard. They were so cold. As if I brought this on myself. As if I did something wrong. They didn’t even tell the team until Wednesday. I was just let go. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. They drafted a kid. A fucking twenty year old to take my place. What the hell am I supposed to do now? I can’t play. I have nothing left.”
    Tracy ignored the dampness on his shoulder. He rocked the man in his arms as if he were calming a baby. A baby nearly as tall as him and wide shouldered, who reeked of man, and Tracy didn’t care what Levi thought of him when he came to his senses.
    “I thought I was in love with someone, and I lost that too. Shit is fucked up. Don’t care about the pills and the whiskey. I live in a fucking trailer.”
    Tracy looked around the small room for the first time, noticing the pictures on the wall, pictures of him as a kid. And Jude. Other people, a mother, grandparents. This was where Levi grew up. His heart ached for him. He hadn’t known. Levi lifted his head, left arm going higher up Tracy’s back as he rubbed slow circles through his shirt. He hadn’t realized that they moved together. Side to side. A mimic of dancing. Levi’s stubbled jaw scraped Tracy’s. He sighed against Tracy’s ear. And Tracy couldn’t hide what his body wanted.
    “It’s not such a bad place. Could use a decent air conditioning unit.”
    “It was worse