“Oh, you know… beating in an alley, Bryce is in town indefinitely for work, Eric had to do everything but wipe my ass for the first few days,” I began as if none of this was out of the ordinary. “Then, I turned into a total prick like I always do when I’m aggravated, but for some fucked up reason, those two haven’t given up on me yet.”

“Is it serious?” Cam asked with a hopeful look on his face.

I shrugged, still trying to decide if I saw the same possibilities Bryce had laid out before we were interrupted. I’d love to think it’d be possible for the three of us to figure out a way to work the logistics, not only in bed, but even more when the baseball season started. But that was a fool’s dream.

“Oh, my God,” Cam practically squealed. I dug my finger into my ear, pretending he’d damaged my ear drum. “You’re falling for one of them, aren’t you?”

“No,” I answered emphatically. At least that much was true. I wasn’t falling for one of them, but if I let my guard down, I could easily fall in love with both of them. And that shit didn’t happen, not to guys like me.

“Shut up! You so are!” I wondered if they could hear Cam’s every word out in the living area.

“No, I’m really not,” I insisted, my face impassive even though my heart raced uncontrollably. “Look, things between us are still new. If you’d asked me before you left if I’d ever in a million years even think about being with two guys, I’d have asked if you were high. You know that’s not my style.”

“But they made you change your mind?” Cam asked, pretty much finishing what I’d been about to say. I sat down on the bed next to him. Only briefly did I think about the last time we’d had a chance to sit down and talk like this. Not before he left for New York, but back when we were still in high school. Before shit got complicated. It was good to finally feel as though I truly had my friend back.

“They did,” I responded. Knowing that Cam didn’t seem to think it was fucked up did a lot to ease my nerves. I wasn’t foolish enough to assume everyone would react so well.

“Will you throw something at me if I ask why?” he asked.

I draped my arm over his shoulder, the same way I had when we were younger. Back then, it’d been to comfort him when he’d faced the wrath of his piece of shit uncle, but it became a matter of needing to feel him next to me. I needed to know he was still there, no matter what.

“Like I said, they haven’t given up on me,” I admitted. It sounded like a crappy reason to get involved with someone, but it really wasn’t. The fact that they kept pushing me to get better showed me just how much they cared. As we sat there, I wondered to myself if I might have been unconsciously testing them. “Not only that, but when they both realized I was struggling to figure out which one of them I wanted more, they offered me a solution where I wouldn’t have to choose.”

“And you think that’s going to work?” I’d have been upset about Cam’s doubts, but they were valid. Besides, I knew he was only trying to look out for what was best for me. I appreciated that.

“I guess only time will tell,” I said, unwilling to say anything more that might jinx us. I was trying to live in the moment for once in my life, without worrying about what might happen down the road. Ever since I could remember, I’d been the one who tried to plan out not only the next step in my life, but what came five steps down the road. That had worked for me up to a point, but the truth was it also led to a very lonely existence and major letdown when things didn’t go the way I’d planned. “Now, let’s get back out there before they come looking for us.”

Chapter 16

By the week of Thanksgiving, everything seemed to be moving along smoothly. Drew was still mostly a hermit, but he’d made an effort to get out of the house a few times. He’d even agreed to mentor a student at Pot of Gold, which I figured was a huge step in the right direction. He needed to get out there and see that others had it worse than him, and even though they were younger, they were far wiser than his sheltered life had allowed him to be. One young man in particular seemed to be leaving an imprint on Drew’s heart. While he’d originally agreed to meet with the kid once a week to help him catch up in school¸ Bryce and I had started joking that we’d never see him if I didn’t go down to the center to visit Bryce every day after working out.

Cody had dropped out of high school after his parents kicked him out. Not only that, but his father had beat the shit out of him for destroying his chances at a basketball scholarship by getting caught making out with one of his teammates in the locker room. Drew had made it his mission to do everything in his power to make sure Cody caught up on the classes he’d missed and still had the chance to go to college.

“I don’t get it,” he’d said when he got in the car. He’d been working with Cody for about a week and every night he grew more agitated with the situation. “All he wants to do is play ball. Yeah, he fucked up by fooling around in the locker room, but was that really such a major crime? Kids get caught fucking around in school all the time and it doesn’t get them a beating when they get home.”

“True, but I think it was more the fact that his old man thought it was a reflection on their entire family that put him over the edge.” His dad was a bit more extreme than a lot of people, but from what Drew and Bryce had told me, he was a blue collar worker who’d seen his son as a chance to correct all the mistakes he’d made when he was younger. Unfortunately, all he’d managed to do was put his son in the same place he’d been in at one point. “Cody is a prime example of why Bryce needs to keep doing what he’s doing. He’s back in school and he may still be able to graduate on time. And in a twist of fate, by his father kicking him out, he’s in a better district than he was before.”

“I know, but I still can’t imagine how hard it’d be for him to know that his family is out there and doesn’t give a damn.” I knew what Cody was going through. I was lucky enough to have my grandfather step up to the plate and raise me when my own parents weren’t around, but it still hurt to see other kids having a great time with their families, knowing I would be going home to Pa kicked back in his recliner with the evening news cranked up loud. But he was there. He made sure I didn’t want for anything and he was my biggest cheerleader at every game. He pushed me, hard, because he wanted to make all of my dreams come true.

“That’s because you have a family who loves you,” I pointed out. I reached over and took Drew’s hand in my own, noticing how much thinner his left hand was than his right. He’d finally gotten rid of the cast, but there was a lot of work to do to make sure he’d be strong enough to play come spring. “They’ve always accepted you for who you were and supported you. Not everyone has that. But the world needs the guys like you to remind the rest of us that life goes on. That there is something more out there for us, even when people say there isn’t. Hell, look at what you’ve done for Cam.”

“I haven’t done anything for him,” Drew protested, looking out the window of the car.

“You have,” I insisted. “You brought him home to your family when no one else wanted him. Your parents taught him he wasn’t as worthless as his uncle tried to make him believe he was. And that love helped him get to where he is today. Hell, would you have ever thought the kid you met back in school would be driving himself crazy trying to keep from telling us how far he made it on A Cut Above?”

That made Drew laugh. As he sat silently in the passenger’s seat, I could tell he was thinking back to his own youth, hopefully realizing just how much his family had done to save Cam. I didn’t know the guy well, but Jason had told me enough stories that I knew Cam credited the Jackson Family with saving his life. Had it not been for them, it would have been easy for him to become nothing more than another statistic like the boys and girls at Pot of Gold.