Page 99 of The Locker Room

his eyes. The girl—sweet enough, but completely devoted to herfemale

choreographer—had asked him to accompany her to a charity dinner,

and he"d agreed. It had gotten him out of an unpleasant duty that month,

and the picture was worth its weight in gold.

“It"s going great, darlin"!” Xander said now, jovially. “I"ll let you

know when Chris is done hiding the body!”

Lucia snorted. “Like you wouldn"t be the first one to kill to keep

that one to yourself.” She shook her head. “You ask me why I read it?

It"s because this shit is even more fun now I know it"s fiction. Now go

shower. You smell like dirt and dog.”

Xander laughed his way into the bedroom, and then stopped

because Chris was sleeping with his head under the pillow, usually a

surefire clue that the poor boy was either sleeping in or hungover.

Xander wrinkled his nose at that last thought. It wasn"t like Chris partied

a lot—twice a month wasn"t too much to be hungover, was it? Or was it

three times? Or five or six? And it was never on game days or training

days. Since it was a game day, odds were he was just tired from

practicing the day after an away game. Airplane travel was getting

rougher on the old system every year, and Christian grew visibly paler

when he spent long trips away from home.

Xander tried not to think about it as he undressed, but he wasn"t as

good at that as he used to be. It used to be he could focus on Christian,

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focus on basketball, and say to himself,I have them both. That"s all I

need.But the toll… the toll this life took on the both of them.

Xander shuddered. It was the third home game of the month.

Christianwouldbe hungover tomorrow, and Xander would likely

be hurting right along with him. The next couple of days would be

strained and painful, and they would barely stand to touch each other,