Page 157 of The Locker Room

while playing it.

When it was over, Denver had won, but not pretty. Chris had

proved himself as a capable first-string team player—but not any better

than Cliff, and only a little better than the guy they"d shipped from

Denver in his place. Leo and Xander sat expressionlessly and watched

the postgame wrap-up, where Chris grinned amiably into the camera and

lied his pretty little ass off.

“Yeah, it was fun being here with Cliff. If we had Karcek with us,

it would have been just like being in college again. Do I think I can

replicate the same success I had with Karcek?”

And Chris"s grin faded, became bittersweet.

“Xander and I were a team for a lot of years. You don"t just bust

something like that up on the court and expect it to be rebuilt in a day.”

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And then someone, thank God, threw him a soft ball that put him

right back in the driver"s seat again. “How do I feel about Colorado?

Have youseenyour roads? Nobody here believes in guardrails! My God,

Iloveyou people!”

The obligatory burst of laughter pretty much wrapped up the press

conference, and they shifted to an announcer somewhere else in the

sports complex. Xander"s hungry fixation on the screen eased up a bit as

the object of his desire became another body primed for the mysterious

art of sports dissection.

Then Leo turned off the television and said softly, “It"s you, Xan.”

Xander tried for light. “I swear that one was the dog,” he said, and

he was gratified when Leo let out a rusty chuckle. The dogs, overtired

from barking at Xander in the rain, lay sprawled on their cushion on the

floor and didn"t move.

“That one was you, you overgrown fifth grader, and don"t lie to

me. No, that"s not what I was talking about.”