here with you, working, than up in Dallas without you, moping around.”
Wes was quiet. “Will your parents be okay with you not going home?”
“I’m a big boy. They know I make my own decisions. We had that argument when I was eighteen.” He sighed. “They’ll miss me. And I’ve gotten closer with my dad these past few months. I want to see him. But when I do, I want to have you with me.”
The rest of the drive was silent apart from the hum of the tires on the road and the click of the turn signal. When Justin pulled into Wes’s usual parking spot and killed the engine, Wes lifted his head from Justin’s shoulder. “I don’t want to leave,” he said. His voice was almost fragile. “I don’t want to let you go.”
“Come spend the night with me again?”
Wes turned his big eyes to Justin’s. “I shouldn’t. We shouldn’t.”
“You’re right. We shouldn’t.” Justin shook his head. “I’m sorry—”
Wes kissed him, slowly, like they weren’t parked around the corner from the jock house, like there weren’t still parties going in the houses around them. Like they couldn’t be seen at any moment, spotted by a fan or one of Wes’s teammates or even one of Justin’s housemates. Justin finally pulled back, and he stopped Wes from chasing him for another kiss. “Not here. Jesus, we’re trying to be less risky. Come with me, even if it’s just for a little bit. You can climb out the fire escape if you need to.”
Wes followed him into his house, tiptoeing up the stairs and past the rooms where parties were raging. Across the street, Wes’s home was lit up like a parade float.
Justin led Wes to his bed, stripping him as he went. He pushed Wes to the mattress and straddled him. “Let me take care of you, cowboy.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Campus was a ghost town Thanksgiving week.
The dorms were closed, and the university kicked nearly all of the students out. Only the ones on West Campus, or students who lived in their own apartments, were allowed to stay. At least until the weekend, when everyone was told to come right back and cheer on Wes Van de Hoek and the rest of the team in their biggest game of the season.
Justin checked the line in Vegas. The odds were ten to one for Texas. Everyone believed Wes would smoke Mississippi, never mind that they were also undefeated. Van de Hoek mania, some sports writers called the bets. But is it mania when Wes Van de Hoek is the greatest player of his generation?
Wes Van de Hoek mania, and not a single person on the planet, other than Justin, knew who the man really was.
I think about quitting. I just want to be with you.
I feel like I’m being torn apart.
It wasn’t fair to Wes to make him feel like he had to choose: football or himself.
What would the world say if Wes walked away from it all, turned his back on the NFL and millions of dollars? Moved in with Justin and started playing gay house?
Justin shoved those thoughts away, focusing on his clinical rotations. Hospital shifts. Trauma nursing. He shadowed the charge nurse and prepped an IV, then took another patient’s blood pressure and updated their chart.
Wes had to decide for himself what he wanted from his life. Whatever that decision was, Justin would be there at his side. That was Justin’s choice.
For now, they were going day by day. They’d built up weeks together. Months. They were over two-thirds of the way through the season. This was the tenth game, with the highest stakes. Wes and the team were definitely heading for a bowl game, but would they be playing for the national championship? That was the question on everyone’s lips, and the Mississippi game would be a big factor in deciding that.
The regular season was ending in two weeks. After January, the bowl championships would be over.
And then Wes could breathe a little easier.
He’d take Wes somewhere in spring. They could drive to the coast, disappear on a beach where no one knew them. Though, after this season, how likely was it that no one would recognize Wes Van de Hoek? Where could they go where he wouldn’t be seen and known right away? He wasn’t exactly inconspicuous, and, thanks to ESPN’s wall-to-wall coverage all season long, he was a household name.
Maybe they’d go off the grid. Wes would like that. Camping, or out to some cabin hideaway. Just