Sunflower Love

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"I'm sorry." Theo's voice was muffled against my neck as he buried himself further against my back. I hummed, kind of on the border of falling asleep. His hand smoothed against my stomach and I could feel a buzzing begin from within it. This was the first time I had ever been cuddled before.

I think I like it way too much.

"I swear I hadn't meant to be that hostile towards you this morning." I felt myself waking up a little at his admission, turning slightly to glance at him. His head pulled away from my shoulder and I let my eyes wander over the bruises again. "We had a rough game the night before and Knox had a bunch of things happening for him. His sister showed up that morning along with his mom and that had been a lot for everyone." He sighed as his eyes scanned my face, trying to read whatever thoughts and feelings escaped me.

"I had no idea you were coming and seeing you there just added to the immense weight that maybe..." A pause. "...life was messing with me or something." Theo's hand stopped moving, but he didn't remove it. The heat from it was almost enough to lull me to sleep, but the look in Theo's eyes made me push myself to stay awake. 

"I like to be in control of my life. I like to know that I'm the one making the decisions and choosing the way things happen. I know that makes me sound like a control freak or something. But I didn't want you to find out about everything like that." He pressed a kiss to my shoulder, "And I definitely wished you didn't have to see me like that. Like this."

I knew he was talking about how heated Knox and him had gotten this morning. He also seemed a little upset that I saw him when he was covered in bruises and tape, which didn't make much sense. Was he worried, I'd think less of him or something? I didn't know what exactly happened at his game that resulted in the guys being bruised up like this, but I had a feeling that not everyone's head had been in the game that night.

I turned to face him completely and he let me, his hand sliding across my exposed skin leaving a trail of heat as it came to rest on the small of my back. I lifted my hand to press to his cheek, softly bringing my thumb over his bruises before brushing his split lip. Theo sucked in a breath, his forehead coming to rest against mine.

"Does your nose hurt?" I asked, breaking the silence. He shrugged and leaned back to allow himself to rest on his back completely. His hand puts a bit of pressure against my back to hint at me to move forward. I press into his side and go to rest my head against his shoulder. "My shoulder hurts the most, I think." Theo chuckles as I jerk up immediately. He shakes his head, "Not that one, Benji. This one." He nods to his other one.

"Hockey has always been rough. I don't think there's been a season where I haven't had some part of my body complaining." He muttered. "I was gonna tell you about hockey, I promise. I just didn't want you to..." He hesitated as he tried to pull his thoughts together.

"You didn't know whether I was truly into you or just playing you..." I finished as I finally realized how much this weighed on him. Theo had people calling him Cade all night when we were at the party, but he never had any of them calling him Theo. When I had called Cade it had really done something to him and I suddenly regretted choosing to say that because I don't think he'll ever be just Cade to me.

"I mean of course a huge part of me knew that you were 1000% not a hockey fan or even into hockey in the slightest, but a small part of me was worried. And I guess I will always worry." Theo admits as he runs his finger across my spine. "There was a girl who I dated back in college and she had come with me my first year on this team. But I was pretty much sidelined for the first half of the season because I was new and not a starting player yet. Ya know, testing the water."

His thumb sweeps once across my back, "I guess she wanted someone better than that and wasn't willing to wait. So one night after I came back from visiting family, I found her in bed with a teammate of mine." I feel my heart squeeze as his story settles over me.

"Theo..." He shakes his head as he pulls himself to sit up, wincing as he puts pressure on his hurt shoulder. I sit up too, pulling my legs under me as I straighten myself. His shirt that I'm wearing pools around me and I see him smile as he takes it in. 

"That teammate doesn't play for us anymore, but it still kind of hits ya know. Seeing you with Kyle was a blow to my ego a bit because he isn't even a starter. But also I knew that you had no idea who the guy was." Theo sighs, "And  I see how well you get along with my friends and obviously I know they wouldn't do that to me. All I can do is hope that you wouldn't do it to me either." Theo plays with the edge of the shirt and tugs on it a little, "Come here."

I try my best to make my way towards him without jostling the both of us too much, but I'm not the most graceful person and my palms still hurt a little from when I fell. I think Theo can tell I'm struggling a little because when I get close enough he wraps an arm around my waist and hauls me forward to straddle one of his thighs. "Better." He mumbles as rubs circles into my hip with his good arm. He has his other arm lying to the side to let his bad shoulder rest a bit.

"I know I can't control every aspect between us, especially because of how my sister had her hand in practically every meeting we had since I first saw you. But at this moment, I don't really care. I try to push you out of mind, so I can focus. Then something random appears and it has me thinking of you all over again. I try to help my friends, but all they want to do is help me with you." Theo laughs which pulls a laugh from me.

"And I'm not gonna lie, I think someone saw us together at that party because the team last night had mentioned you." He looked at me sheepishly. "Although, I swear I tried really hard not to let them get the better of me. But I'll be damned if I let some prick from the state of Washington not only deck my best friend, but also talk about how easy you looked."

Easy I looked...I thought that as well. I don't know what he'd do or say if he found out I had similar opinions of  myself.

"I think people only looked at me because I was with you, Theo." I mutter as I think back to the night of the party. But then a thought hit me, "Wait a minute!" I jump off the bed and begin to examine the room. Theo groans as my movement jostles his shoulder and I wince as I look back at him. "Sorry!" I giggle out as he rubs at his shoulder, sending me a playful glare. 

"I just remembered the house from that night. You said it belonged to some athlete, which after I heard the radio people talking about you, I thought you were talking about yourself." I opened the blinds slightly to take in the front yard, but already had the feeling that this wasn't the house so wasn't too shocked to see that none of this looked familiar.

"That was Knox's house." He chuckles at my antics, watching me from the bed. But then I guess his brain finally wrapped around what I said, "Wait...You heard about me on the radio? So you knew!" Theo tries to push himself out of bed, but his foot gets trapped in the sheets causing him to trip, landing on his knee. He curses as he tries to free his foot.

I wince again and send him an apologetic smile, "I mean I did think it was weird that all you guys could say was sports related this and sports related that, but I didn't really plan on finding out that way. I just happened to hear your name and was kind of confused I guess. So I listened to it a little and saw your name on that jersey. I guess I kind of put two and two together. But!" I kneel beside him, pressing a hand to his face to get him to look at me. " I did google you once, but that lasted like two seconds. I didn't think it was any of my business if you had gone out of your way to not tell me. I didn't even know what sport you played."

Theo sighs before bringing his hand around my neck, pushing my hair out of the way. "You're too cute, Benji." He chuckles, pulling me forward to press a kiss to my lips. I sigh into the kiss and wrap my arms around his neck as I settle myself on his lap again.

I pull back before the kiss can get too heated, "Why do you keep calling me Benji?"

"Because anyone can call you Winnie," Theo leans his forehead against mine, his eyes piercing mine as our breath flirts between us. "I can't stand thinking that I'm just anyone to you."

"Is that why you let me call you Theo?" I ask with a small smile.

Theo smiles too, but shakes his head. "Cade is for my close family and friends. Monty is for hockey. But Theo..." He settles his lips over mine, letting his lips brush mine with every word he whispers. "Theo is reserved only for you."

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enjoy.

xoxo,
happiness