I hate the off season. There’s too much downtime. I’m a beast and I need to be trained. I’ve spent my whole life working hard so that I can be the best when the time comes for me to step on the field. The off season makes players lazy.

Thank god I’ve got Dean to push me, because I do the same back to him. I’m normally pretty quiet and just grunt when I need to, but I’m extra moody when I’m not burning off all the pent-up energy.

My thoughts drift back to the patch of bare skin on her shoulder that I stared at for six long hours. I turn the shower to cold and hope that the chill takes away my need for that little blonde piece of ass.

Amelia.

Fuck, that name makes a knot in my stomach and I don’t know how I’m going to control it. I grab the shampoo and try to wash away the thoughts from the flight. I could feel the energy pouring off of Dean in waves and it made me jittery. His need triggered my own and there we sat inches away from what we wanted.

I hear the whispers. There’s always been talk when it comes to the two of us. From the moment we met we’ve been inseparable. After my parents died I was put in a group home. The people who ran the home were nice enough, but it was just a job for them. Dean’s parents raised me as their son, so when I tell people he’s my brother I mean it. I even call his parents Mom and Dad. I had a bed in his room that I slept in more than I did the home. We went to the same college, shared the same dorm room, and even lived off-campus together. People thought we were freaks because we always shared a room, but we never liked being alone. I’ve never touched Dean in a way that wasn’t brotherly, and I’m not sexually attracted to him. But he is my soulmate in every sense of the word, and I don’t like being apart from him. It’s the reason we entered the draft together and were a package deal. I don’t give a fuck what people think about us.

When we were in high school we went camping alone for a weekend. We were out on the lake fishing when Dean asked me if I thought about having sex.

“That’s all I think about.”

“No. I know that. But that’s not what I mean. I’m not saying it right,” he says.

“What do you mean then? Explain it to me.” I cast my reel and Dean is quiet for so long I’m about to get worried. I feel a stirring in my gut and I know what’s coming.

“Do you ever think about having sex. With the same girl, at the same time.”

I look over at him and he looks at me. For a beat there’s an understanding between us, and I nod.

“Does that make us freaks?” he asks, and I can hear the fear in his voice.

“Does it matter?” I grunt and toss my line again.

Silence passes again and I hear him let out a breath. “I guess not. It’s just…I think about fucking a girl and then I think about you. I don’t want to fuck you, but I love you.” He shrugs and I can tell this was a big confession for him.

“I love you, too,” is all I say. We’re a family.

We had a couple of conversations like that throughout our lives, and in college we tried it out. We were star football players and had girls beating down our doors, but there was never the right one. They were always more hung up on one of us more than the other, or they didn’t want to do it full time. It was a fantasy for them, a one-off. We were a circus act and they just wanted their turn at the freak show. After a couple of times we hated the way we felt and decided not to do it anymore. Not until we found someone who wanted us both and was in this for the long haul. Trying to divide us hurt our relationship, and we learned that we weren’t willing to settle.

I get out of the shower and towel off as I go to the sink and grab my razor. I look down to see the blade is dull so I go to the other side of the sink and grab Dean’s. We share a bathroom and bedroom just like we did in college. Our mom says we must have been conjoined twins in a past life and we don’t disagree. If we’re not in the same room, we usually go find the other one so we can hang out. Some people might find this weird, but we usually just keep our private life private.

There’s a knock at the door and I walk through the bedroom into the living room to see Dean answer the door. Cassie and Emma come in and I nod in greeting before going back into the bathroom. Cassie is Dean’s older sister and Emma is his younger sister. They’re my sisters, too, to all intents, and they’re in town for the weekend.

They know about our living situation, having grown up with the two of us always together. I guess looking back on it, it could have seemed weird to outsiders, but in our family it’s just the way it was. I got real lucky Dean’s family welcomed me and never made me feel different.

Cassie comes in the bathroom and opens the cabinets under the sink. “Do you guys have any tampons?”

“No,” I say, as I rinse off my face and go to the bedroom closet. Emma comes into the bedroom with Dean behind her.

“You guys still haven’t had a chick in this place. Whatever, I’ll just get some on the way out tonight,” I hear Cassie say from the bathroom.

“No chicks. But I think we’ve found the one,” Dean says, falling onto the bed and lying across. It.

“What!?” our sisters squeal at the same time.

I close the closet door and get dressed, but I hear Dean mumbling to them. He’s telling them about Amelia and our flight home.

Amelia.

I rub my eyes and take a deep breath. We didn’t talk about it when we got back. I knew what Dean was thinking the whole time without having to say a word. He’s always thinking and planning. She’s the one. We’ve been waiting for years thinking we might know when the time came. Turns out we were right.

I put on a pair of jeans and a polo before I exit the closet. Dean is lying on the custom bed we had made when we bought the place. We share it, but it’s big enough that I could roll over three times and still not touch him.

Cassie and Emma are sitting at the end of it hanging on every word he says.

“Didn’t I buy that shirt for Dean?” Emma asks as she shakes her head.

“It looks better on me,” I say as the material stretches tight across my chest.

“So you’ve found her,” Cassie says, smiling from ear to ear. “I can’t wait to meet her.”

“We haven’t even met her,” Dean says, and I shove my hands in my pockets. “It’s complicated, but she’s it.”

“Wes?” Emma asks, waiting for my confirmation.

I nod and she does a little excited clap of joy as she bounces on the end of the bed.

“We should celebrate. You guys have anything to eat?” Cassie says as she gets up and walks towards the kitchen.

We have a nutritionist who stocks our fridge twice a week, so she knows good and well we’ve got food in there. Cassie is like us when it comes to food and she’s not going more than an hour without a snack.

We all go into the kitchen and I grab a drink of water while Dean and Emma make food. After about an hour or so Cassie tells us she and Emma are going to a club, something they often do when they come to Vegas to see us.

“I’m out,” I say, and all three of them roll their eyes.

“We know,” Emma says, and she and Dean laugh.

Dean’s phone chimes and he reaches into his pocket to grab it. I take a sip of my water, but I feel the energy in the room change. I glance back at him and watch as his face turns white.

“What is it?” I ask, and I’m beside him instantly.

He doesn’t speak, he just turns his phone towards me. There on the screen is a picture of Nelson and Amelia together in a Vegas club, the two of them laughing and holding drinks. There’s another chime and it’s a text from Nelson.

Nelson: Y’all are missing out

Dean grips the phone so tight I think the screen might shatter. Usually I’m the one with the anger management issues, but not today. I take the phone out of his hand and text him back.

Dean: Where you at?

Nelson: The Strip…come and find us!

I growl as I hand the phone back to Dean, but before he can take it Cassie snatches it out of his hand.

“Looks like Nelson has something you want,” she says, showing it to Emma. “They’re at Viper.”

“How do you know?” I ask, and she rolls her eyes.

“Are we going or not?” Cassie says, looking between me and Dean.

We don’t even have to speak to know the answer to that question. We’re already in motion by the time she’s finished asking it.