“Lucas, over here,” Coach Newberry called.
Caleb’s gut clenched. This was the announcer?
He slid his gaze to his locker as Lucas turned toward Coach Newberry. “Yes, sir.”
Caleb didn’t watch him as the man crossed the locker room. He didn’t watch as the man’s sexy little ass pressed against the tight denim of his jeans. And he definitely didn’t watch the man run his fingers through his short, spikey hair.
Fuck. He was in trouble. Big trouble.
“Guys,” Coach called.
Caleb put on his socks and shoes, then started to close his locker when he spied the slip of paper Juan had given him. He shoved it into his pocket before moving to the section in the locker room they called the “meeting area.”
Rows of folding chairs faced the large wall with a gigantic screen and a white board hanging to its left. More chairs lined the right wall and Lucas sat in one of those. Caleb ambled over, trying to act asnonchalant as possible—had he ever tried to be nonchalant in his life?—and took a seat on the end of the first row.
With Lucas close enough to touch, Caleb fought the urge to do just that. He couldn’t keep himself from staring, though. The beautiful man with the silky and spikey blond hair also had blond eyebrows archingever so slightly over those chocolate brown eyes, a perky nose, and delicate, creamy skin. He had those high cheekbones that people always talked about, and his cheeks dipped in a little, like he was sucking them in, but Caleb knew he wasn’t. God, he was model-beautiful. His rosy pink lips pouted just a little. Caleb wanted to bite those lips and see if they tasted as sweet as they looked.
Lucas darted out his tongue and wet his lips, and Caleb nearly groaned out loud. His rock-hard cock pressed uncomfortably against his zipper. He knew he would have to do something about it soon.
“Hey, you okay, man?” Brandon asked as he sat next to him and slapped his leg. “You look a little flushed.”
Caleb tried to compose himself and hoped he didn’t need to wipe any drool from his lips. He turned to face his friend. “I’m fine. Just a little stressed, I guess.”
Brandon seemed to buy that and nodded understanding.
Caleb’s gaze darted back to Lucas and his breath hitched when he caught the man staring back. A deep blush spread across Lucas’ face—cute—and the corners of Caleb’s mouth quirked up.
Coach Newberry stepped in front, along with the manager and Coach Ibarra.
“Guys, I’m not going to beat around the bush,” Newberry began and sighed. “Today was rough. You started out bad and got worse.”
Everyone nodded. There was no denying it.
“Listen, guys, I understand we have bad days, but you guys made it even worse with this attitude.”
Some of the guys bristled, but Caleb knew the coach was right. His own attitude had sucked. Caleb alwaysfelt that if you couldn’t acknowledge what you’d done, you couldn’t work through it, so he worked hard to be self-aware. To understand how his actions or inactions contributed to a situation. But, it was still difficult to hear that you were an ass, no matter if you knew it already or not.
The other coaches got in on the speech, and before Caleb knew it, thirty minutes had passed. Thirty minutes of being told they sucked. Yeah, that was just what he needed to hear ‘cause he didn’t alreadyfeel bad enough. At least the lecture helped him with his boner problem. His dick gave up on the whole idea of sex and shriveled as the coaches droned on.
“Okay, men,” Newberry said. “That’s it. I expect better. Now, if you can all pull yourselves together, I’ve got someone to introduce.” He waved over Lucas.
The guy blushed as he moved to stand with the coach.
Hmm, not a fan of the spotlight.
Caleb drank him in, and hardened again. He shifted slightly in his seat, looking for a more comfortable position. It didn’t help. This guy was sexy as hell.
* * * *
Newberry clapped his shoulder, and Lucas flinched. His eyes widened and he took a deep breath and tried to steady his nerves.
“You guys may have noticed that we have a new sports announcer,” Newberry began, his large hand still gripping Lucas’ shoulder. “Let’s welcome him and let him tell us a little about himself.”
As Newberry stepped away, leaving him standing alone in front of a room full of sexy men, all eyes on him, Lucas forced himself to breathe. He could do this. His gaze darted around the room, landing on Caleb. Number thirteen. It had been hard to keep his eyes off him for all nine innings. Caleb held his gaze and Lucas calmed a little. Odd.