Page 58 of Us

I can’t help but snort. “I’ll bet.”

“Hey now—I’ve been waiting for your story for eight months. It’s still a rookie season story.”

“Is it?” I stare him down.

“Of course it is.”

“So we wouldn’t be talking about my sexuality?” I say this with a straight face somehow.

“Well…” he hedges. “I’m not going to write some piece of clickbait. But your background was always going to be part of the story. Your college team. Yourupbringing.”

The man is smart. He already knows that I’d like to stick it to Dad. “Fine. We have a string of home games coming up. If Jamie is feeling better, I’ll make time for us to sit down.”

He almost keeps the glee off his face. But not quite. “I’m looking forward to it,” he says, thrusting out his hand to shake again.

“We’ll call you,” Frank tells him, and he gets a shake, too.

The guy makes himself scarce then, before I can change my mind.

“So,” Frank says.

“So.”

“Any problems? Anything you need to know about the media coverage?”

“To be honest, I haven’t read much of it. Too busy.”

He nods slowly. “Okay. I’ll have my team compile some clips of the highlights, if you’d like to be kept up to date.”

“What if I don’t?” I sound like a smartass, but I’m dead serious.

He shrugs. “Your call.”

“Hey—what’s with people selling their tickets? I heard murmurs.”

“Ah.” He shifts his weight. That’s his tell, I’ve learned. If Ifaced him over a poker table, I’d bet heavily whenever he did that. “That’s just noise. Nothing will come of it.”

“How many season-ticket holders bailed?”

“Not enough to matter. Just a few loud mouths with nothing else to yap about. Next week it’ll be old news. We’re trying to buy up any tickets for sale—I put an 800 number on the website and everything. Haven’t gotten many nibbles. The tickets go too fast on Craigslist.”

Huh. I don’t know whether to believe him or not. “Okay.”

“That all?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll let you know if you’ll be part of the post-game conference tonight. We’ll see how the game goes.”

That sounds a little ominous, but I’m not gonna ask.

He steps around me and opens the dressing room door. I follow him inside, and when I do, my team calls out various casual greetings. “How’s Jamie?” someone asks.

“Good,” I say for the second time in five minutes. “His sister is coming to stay with him for a couple days.”

“Nice.”

“Yeah,” I agree, feeling guilty. I should be there in Toronto myself. But instead I’m here in this unfamiliar room, trying to figure out where they’re putting me.