The Locker Room (13 page)

on the court, no one saw it for what it was.

The press, in its relentless quest to make men"s basketball the game

for warriors, had dubbed them “the happiness twins,” and speculation

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69

abounded on whether the two of them would manage the impossible,

odds-shattering feat of being recruited by the same team. Xander had

been courted by an agent already, and he and Chris had agreed on it.

They would play nowhere if it wasn"t together.

So Xander knew exactly what Penny was talking about, in spite of

four years of denial as he and Chris had tried hard not to think about it.

“No,” he said softly. “We don"t watch the sports shows.”

Penny took a deep, shuddering breath. “You guys, me, Mom,

Dad—we may be the only people on earth who know who you are. Who

you
really
are, and what you mean to each other. Maybe you should man

up, tomorrow, and just be who you really are. Because the whole world"s

going to be watching you, and seeing what they want to see. Wouldn"t it

be nice to have people who love you for yourselves?”

Xander had needed to close his eyes then, blocking out the pleasant

late twilight, magnified off the gray hush of the sea. The terrifying

blackness of the world beyond the microscope lens was before his eyes,

and he shivered, just shivered, trying hard not to cry like Penny was,

until Christian grabbed his hand and said, “Don"t worry, Xander. I"ll tell

them.”

“We don"t have to tell them, Chris. All you have to do is give me a

good-morning kiss at the breakfast table, and they"ll know.”

Chris sucked in his breath, and then, thank the gods, took Xander"s

hand to his lips, and said, “Okay. So that"s what we"ll do.”

And that"s how they did it. Andi and Jed had looked at them,

smiled a little sadly, and said, “Good morning, boys. What do you want

to do today?”

And that had been it. They"d spent the vacation with Chris"s

parents holding hands on the beach and playing Scrabble and video

games and touring North Carolina in a rented minivan. They"d managed

one of the happiest memories of Xander"s entire life.

And now, as Christian dragged him tippsily into the misty dawn of

the quiet of the arboreatum, Xander remembered that moment so clearly,

he could almost feel the clench of Chris"s hand in his as Penny had

finished speaking.

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Amy Lane

“Of course,” he said more loudly now. “How could I forget last

summer?”

Chris hauled him to a big tree, and Xander found himself pressed

up against the side of it, and Chris"s mouth, tasting pleasantly of beer

and barbecue sandwich, invaded his.

He opened for Chris, regardless of the risk or the chill in the air,

regardless of the potential for everything they"d worked for to implode.

He opened his mouth for Chris because he had to, because Chris was

bigger than basketball, more important than the court, more important

than their careers, just more important than anything, and even though

he"d started to be their voice in the interviews, the public face of the

team, he just didn"t know how to say that anyway at all to the person

who needed to hear it.

So he opened his mouth and let his lover in. He let Christian

Edwards, the most beautiful man he"d ever known, go down on his knees

and pull Xander"s hardened cock into his mouth, and worship him in the

misty North Carolina dawn, because who they were to the world had

become so much bigger than they felt, and who they were to each other

was so much more than words.

THE NBA draft was a blur, a terrible, frightening blur of flashbulbs and

sound bites and uncomfortable suits and people talking to him like he

and Chris would understand all that shit anyway.

If it hadn"t been for Leo Schindler, they wouldn"t have made it.

Leo had been the most persistent agent to track them down, and

what had made up Xander"s mind about him had been an unexpected

thing. He"d been sitting in Xander"s dorm, on the bed because Chris had

the chair, and Xander had been saying for the umpteenth thousand time

that he didn"t go anywhere without Chris.

Leo had been shining them on.

“Now c"mon, boys—no one does that. The odds of getting you

drafted onto the same team? Astro-fucking-nomical. I mean, I can

represent Chris, but other than that, I don"t see what else we can do.”

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71

Leo was one of the shortest men Xander had ever met. He stood

about five foot three and looked like a leprechaun, with bright red hair

and a ruddy complexion and some of the most flamboyantly gay gestures

either of the boys had ever seen in someone related to sports. Even now,

in their room, he was wearing a natty pinstripe suit with a bright pink

necktie and matching kerchief in his pocket. He sat with his legs crossed,

and his fingers locked around his knee, as though he were presiding over

one of those women"s shows like
The View
. Every now and then he"d let

limpid green eyes linger over Christian, and it was starting to piss

Xander off. He was pretty sure he could handle it if they were straight, or

if Leo was a girl, but dammit, Christian was
his.

“Now, Oregon wants you really bad, Xander—the signing bonus

that"s on the table, I mean, that alone should give you a hard-on, and

Chris? The Kings are pretty high up in the draft this year, but I think we

can do better than that—”

“The Kings?” Chris and Xander both said in unison, and Leo rolled

his eyes and patted Chris"s cheek.

“Look, sweetcakes, I get it. I do. You guys want to go home.

Totally understandable. But that just doesn"t happen, okay? I mean,

guys… they"re not the worst team in the league… by about two games,

they"re not the worst team in the league.”

Of course Xander and Chris knew about Sacramento"s stats. It

didn"t matter. That was
their
team, the team they"d grown up loving.

There was no way on the planet they"d give up a chance to play for their

team. They met excited eyes, and Chris grinned playfully, and Leo, who

had just patted his cheek as he sat there, pinched it now.

“Ohmigod, aren"t
you
adorable! Oh, honey, it is a real shame I

wasn"t that kind of agent, because you and me, we could do some

business on the modeling front, oh yes we could.”

Chris jerked back, startled, and Xander felt a surge of real jealousy

for the first time in his life. “Get your hands
off
him and get out of my

room!” he roared, vision red, and then Leo, who hadn"t seemed to stop

talking since the coach had introduced him to Xander, grew very, very

still.

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Amy Lane

Xander flushed uncomfortably, and Chris cocked his head and

shook it, grimacing with good nature, and Leo looked from one of them

to the other and then let out a low whistle.

“Who knows?” he asked, all of his flamboyance gone.

“I don"t know what you"re talking about,” Xander said, keeping his

face blank.

“Don"t bullshit me, kid. One of you gets busted with a

chickenhawk in the middle of the night, who do you think is going to be

the one to bail you out and cover to the press about drinking too much on

painkillers? Who knows about you two? I need to know names, and I

need to know now, or you"re going to have to get yourself an agent who

will
not
get your particular needs, do you hear me?”

It was like a furnace opened up from Leo"s mouth and sucked all

the air out of the room. Chris was the one who managed to answer, and

Xander could only listen to him, half crazy with the mixture of hope and

despair.
How many people really play ball after college, after all? Chris

is for the rest of your life.

“My parents and my little sister,” Chris said quietly. “But they

didn"t know for sure until last year.”

Leo"s mouth pinched in at the sides. “So what was your plan, guys?

See each other on the weekends for the occasional bang? Pretend to be

roommates on multimillion-dollar salaries? What in the hell did you have

in mind?”

“Giving up basketball so we could be together?” Xander asked

rhetorically, and Chris said, “Don"t even fucking mention it!” his voice

as angry as Xander had ever heard it.

“Chris!” Dammit, Xander was pretty sure it was a romantic

gesture, but Chris wasn"t looking flattered.

“Basketball makes you get up in the morning. When you"re on the

court, your face is as open as day, Xander. It"s the only time ever that the

whole world can see in you what you let me see all the time. I"m not

going to let you give that up. Not now. Not when there"s a whole lot of

time you still have.”

“And what about you?” Didn"t Chris want a home? Because

Xander wanted a home, dammit, and you couldn"t have one when you

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73

were playing in one state and your lover was playing on the other, and

you could only pretend to see each other personally once in a while!

“I love the game too,” Chris conceded—but he wasn"t passionate

about it, not by a long shot, and Xander"s heart grew tight and painful in

his chest. He wanted a home too. Xander had grown up knowing what

Chris wanted from life, and it didn"t have anything to do with living on

different sides of the country.

“Well, I"ll give it up before—”

“No no no no no no!!!” Leo snapped, standing up and pacing. “My

God. You two boys have the NBA panting after you like Comic-Con

fans after Joss Whedon. Do you think that just comes along for nothing?

I mean….”

Leo turned and looked at them, and for the first time there was

more than flirtatiousness or venality on his ruddy, blunt features. “Guys,

I"ve seen you move on the court. It"s the whole reason I got into this

business. Because when human beings can do what you do… God. It"s

fucking inspirational. You don"t just take that talent and flush it away

because you think you"re in love!”

“We"ve been in love since high school,” Xander said with dignity,

and Leo nodded his head and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Well, that"s nice. I hope it"s all sparkly and peachy and

everything, because I think we can do this. I think we can pull this off.

It"ll mean I sign a first-round draft pick with the world"s crappiest team,

and that"ll make
me
look like shit, but I think we can do it. Because,

guys… I"d give a whole lot of commission to be able to see you two play

on the pro floor, and say that yeah, you"re my guys.”

“We just want to play together,” Xander said roughly, leaning

forward on his knees. It seemed to be the only way his body would fold.

“I"m not any good on the court without him.”

“Oh, honey, I"ve seen the tape, and that"s a lie you"re gonna have

to live with, okay?”

Xander glared at him, and Leo held up his hands in surrender.

“Okay, okay, okay, down, Cave Man—”

And now Chris was the one standing up and growling, his chair

tipped over in front of him. “Call him that again and I"ll fucking end

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Amy Lane

you!” he rasped, and Leo nodded, the last vestige of atti-dude seeping

out the guy"s spine and into the mattress underneath his thousand-dollar

suit.

“I get it,” he said, sounding sad and a little bit older, like an uncle.

“I get it. The two of you cock-docked for life, I got it. You sign with me,

and I swear I"ll do everything I can to make sure that stays true, okay?”

He started to perk up then, recouped from the fury on Chris"s face, and

the understanding of just what he was up against.

“It"ll be a challenge. Biggest one of my career. At the end, you

guys come out, write the multimillion-copy bestseller, and I"ll be your

agent for that too. It"ll be fucking awesome. I"ll branch out, schedule

press tours, you can talk to every schmuck from Bryant Gumble to

Barbawa Wawa, and I"ll start looking into getting you onto
30 for 30
or

whatever the fuck they"re doing when this blows up in our face. Just—”

And again, his entire snot-slick-Harvey-the-crooked-leprechaun shtick

melted away. “Just be careful, you two. That Amaechi guy, he got

lucky—he outed himself after retirement. Everybody could love him

then. You guys… you"ve got five, ten, hell, fifteen years of playing to

go, since Super-Xan here seems to be injury proof.” And now he turned

to Xander in supplication.