Page 35 of Dibs
“Yeah, it is.”
“Then let’s do it. Been seventeen years in the making.”
“All right. Let me park.”
Gage pulled into the parking area of a beach, and instead of getting out, we stayed inside his SUV and removed our seatbelts.
“Where do we start?” he asked, turning his head to look out the driver’s side window and not at me.
“I …” I hesitated, peering down at my lap. “I don’t know, but I’d be lying if I said I haven’t been thinking about it.”
He glanced at me. “Because you regret it?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I mean, we both married women, had kids—”
“And are now single.”
“Yeah, but—”
“You regret it.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I was just confused after it happened.”
“Me too, and after my divorce I went out on a date with another guy to try to figure shit out.”
My eyes widened. “You did?”
“I had to know.”
“And are you?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so, but …”
“But?” I prompted when he didn’t continue.
He let out a long breath and looked out the front window of the Tahoe. “Seeing you again is making me question it.”
“Yeah, I’m having the same problem,” I admitted.
He turned his head back toward me. “Really?”
It was my turn to sigh and stare at the dark water in the distance. “After that night, I tried to forget about it. I started dating Jamie, got drafted, and just put it out of my mind because the sports world would have been less accepting of gay me.”
“Until your teammates came out as a couple,” Gage added.
I glanced back at him and shifted to face him better. “Yeah, but still, they weren’t welcomed by everyone. Miguel Santiago for one.”
He turned his body in my direction the best he could with the steering wheel in front of him. “No shit?”
I bobbed my head. “Had to break up a fight between him and Aron Parker after a game.”
“So, that’s why you didn’t find out if you had any sort of attraction toward men? You were worried about how you’d be treated in the clubhouse?”
I lifted a shoulder. “Yes and no. Aron and Drew confided in me after I caught them sneaking around. It didn’t bother me one bit, and I told them about you.”
Gage’s eyes widened. “You told them about me?”
“Well, not your name, but that I fooled around with a guy in college. I had to tell them I was okay with them being together because I was. Didn’t bother me any, and later that night, I thought about what we’d done in our dorm room. I wondered about you and whatever happened to you. Had no idea you were about to coach my son and our kids would be best friends.”
