“I still don’t get how you pulled this off,” I admitted to Eric when he returned from schmoozing with some potential investors. As it turned out, Eric’s grandfather had been well connected and Eric knew exactly how to pull on both their heartstrings and purse strings. He was determined to find a way for the new, yet to be named, center to not only survive but thrive.

I reached up and smoothed the lapels of the tuxedo he’d bitched about having to wear. This may be my only chance to see both of them dressed up with their hair slicked back, so I hadn’t budged when he’d tried arguing that his suit would be dressy enough. I couldn’t wait until the crowd thinned so I could take them both home and rip them out of their tuxes.

That thought made me realize I hadn’t seen Drew in a while. He’d excused himself to check on something toward the end of dinner and hadn’t returned. As much as I tried, I couldn’t stave the building panic. Granted, everyone here had paid handsomely for the opportunity to have a meal prepared by the four semi-finalists of A Cut Above, which thankfully included Cam, but that didn’t mean his attacker didn’t have the means to buy his way into one of the few places where Drew’s guard was down.

Feedback screeched through the room, drawing all eyes to the dais at the front. I breathed a sigh of relief when Drew caught my attention and flashed a wicked smile. Next to him, Cody fidgeted with the cuffs of his button-down shirt. “Ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention for a moment.”

The entire room fell silent. I looked to Eric, but he seemed just as confused as I was by what was unfolding in front of us.

“First, I would like to thank you all for coming tonight,” he began. This wasn’t the same goofy, somewhat self-centered man I’d met a few months ago. This version of Drew commanded the undivided attention of everyone within earshot. At the side of the room, I noticed Cam and his fellow semi-finalists step into the room and lean against the wall. “I know I speak on behalf of both Eric Sapp and Bryce Shaw when I say the support you’ve all shown over the past few weeks has been incomprehensible.

“When Eric first mentioned opening a new and improved center to help Milwaukee’s homeless LGBT population, I think we were all worried about how it would be received,” he admitted. That drew more than a few murmurs, both of agreement and dissent. “While it’s true that Eric and I have both faced challenges in our lives and have hid at the back of the closet so we could have what we wanted most, the past two months have taught both of us just how easy we’ve had it.

“Rather than sit here and tell you why your donations mean so much and try to express my appreciation that you all came together with such short notice, I’d like to introduce another man who’s become very important in our lives. To me, he’s the little brother I always begged my parents for and never got.” The crowd bustled with laughter and quickly quieted again. “But he’s more than that. In a way, Cody Marshall is the reason you’re all gathered here tonight. You see, when I was recovering from everything that happened to me last fall, Bryce and Eric shoved me out of the house. Bryce told me about this student athlete who’d have an amazing future, if only he had someone to push him to succeed.”

I swallowed hard around the lump in my throat. As Drew continued sharing bits and pieces of Cody’s story, I noticed I wasn’t alone in trying to keep hold of my emotions. More than a few women reached for napkins to blot their teary eyes and even some of the men had to clear their throats so they could breathe. Then it hit me. The majority of the men in the room were either baseball players Eric and Drew had met along the way or they were somehow connected to the sport. They lived and died by the game, and Drew made them see something many of them hadn’t considered before. He asked them to imagine what it would have been like to be forced out of doing something they loved, simply because of who they were. As he continued speaking, he made them consider what life would have been like if their passion had been ripped away. He made what Cody, what every gay athlete faced, very, very real.

The room erupted into applause as Drew pulled Cody in front of the microphone. He seemed shell-shocked, standing up there with so many eyes focused on him, waiting to hear what he had to say.

“Thanks, Drew.” He’d been standing too close to the microphone and another shrill screech of feedback echoed through the room. He cleared his throat and closed his eyes, likely trying to figure out what he wanted to say. When he opened his eyes and looked out over the crowd again, it was as though he’d just realized how many professional athletes were sharing this moment. He looked to Drew. “Wow, I need you to come over here and pinch me.”

“This is no dream, kid, it’s your life!” someone yelled from the back of the room, causing everyone to break down into laughter once again. When it didn’t die off as quickly as it had when Drew was speaking, Drew shoved his fingers into the corners of his mouth and whistled loud enough they likely heard it in Chicago.

“Yeah, tell me that a thousand times and I still won’t believe you,” Cody called back. He scrubbed his hands through his hair, leaving him looking slightly disheveled, exactly the way a teen who had it all should look.

And compared to the beginning of fall, he did. He had parental figures who pushed him to be his best even when that wasn’t the same as being the best. He lived in a huge house on Lake Michigan rather than a crappy cot at Pot of Gold. He was on the honor roll and had signed his letter of acceptance to Marquette so he could stay close to home. Cody had been upset about wasting Drew’s time to guarantee his scholarship in Minnesota, but I think everyone was happier knowing he wasn’t running out of state for school.

“Drew asked me if I’d mind getting up here to share my story,” Cody let everyone know once it quieted down. “The truth is, I was your all-American kid. I grew up in an upper-class family and my parents were willing to do anything to support my dream of playing basketball. Unfortunately, there were strings attached. Big, heavy strings. I had to stay the epitome of all the stereotypes. When my dad asked me why I wasn’t getting into trouble with one of the cheerleaders, I always told him I was trying to keep my grades up so I had my choice of where I wanted to go to college.

“Unfortunately, the truth came out at the beginning of the second semester of my junior year. I won’t go into the details, but let’s just say I’d finally found someone who understood me. Who liked me just the way I was.” Even from a distance, I could see the subtle sadness overcoming Cody. He hadn’t talked much about the day everyone found out he was gay, but it seemed there was more to it than any of us, except possibly Drew, realized. “We let our guard down one day after school and our coach happened to walk in. No matter how much we pleaded with him, he said he had to tell our parents.”

Murmurs built around the room. That delighted me, not because of Cody’s pain, but because everyone here seemed outraged by what they knew was coming.

“When I got home, my Dad met me at the front door with one duffel bag,” he shared. “I wasn’t even allowed to set foot inside the house. I was called a disgrace and told I was dead to them. Even then, I’d convinced myself it’d be okay because Jeff’s parents were much more accepting than my own.

“Unfortunately, when they’d confronted him, he played it off as a misunderstanding and swore that I’d instigated everything. His father wasn’t upset that I was gay, only that I’d tried to coerce Jeff into doing something he didn’t want to do. And that’s when I hit rock bottom.”

He took a step back from the podium and Drew was instantly at his side with an arm draped over his shoulder. Drew whispered something to him and Cody nodded. Drew stepped back at the same time Cody moved back to the podium.