Page 30 of The Mayor and the Mystery Man

I looked up at Mitch, who was enjoying the hell out of this show. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him smile this much.

Mitch stared me in the eye. “Leo, I think you should go for it.”

* * *

After stealthily flippingMitch the bird, Dusty and I got strapped into our protective helmets and pads. We were given oversized foam poles with paddles at the ends, like an enormous oar, and hopped onto our respective pedestals. I felt like a doofus, but Dusty looked like one, too, so I wasn’t alone.

“Let’s go. You and me, amigo.” Dusty climbed onto the pedestal.

I climbed onto mine. The pedestal was smaller than it looked. Made for kids. Not adults. It took me a second to get my bearings, what with all the gear I had on and balancing the large pole, which was a neon-colored, comically oversized Q-tip.

“You okay there?” Dusty asked from his pedestal. He looked as ridiculous as me, his blond curls shoved under a helmet.

“Never better.”

“Okay, let’s do this.” Dusty hunched forward, ready to attack. “You’re going down, McCaslin.”

“In your dreams, Michaelson.”

“No junk shots,” Dusty said.

“That’s a given.” We were guys. We knew the pain a shot to the groin caused.

Russ did a double-take when he saw us up here. “If either of you pulls a muscle or breaks a hip, don’t blame me.”

“Can you count us off, Russ?” I asked.

He rolled his eyes but was ultimately game. “Three, two, one.”

Dusty lunged his pole at me and almost fell off from the momentum.

“Watch yourself, old man.” I gripped my pugil stick tight.

“Who are you calling old man, geezer?”

I swung my pugil stick and made a direct hit to his hip. He stumbled but caught himself. His stick smacked into my arm. We might’ve been decades too old for this, but we were a force to be messed with. Our swordplay took on a rhythm. We swung, we hit, trading blows, but neither of us giving in.

“Thanks for being so cool about the interview,” I said. “With all the touching. I know we didn’t discuss beforehand, but you rolled with it like a champ, especially considering...”

“Considering what?” Dusty took a swing to knock out my legs. I jumped up to evade. I didn’t know my body could jump like that. Adrenaline seemed to do the work.

“Considering you’ve…never done that stuff with men.” I had a pained expression as I got the words out. What was I so afraid of? Dusty pounced on my moment of weakness and smacked me off my pedestal. I fell onto the bright red gym mats, which was like falling onto a hard mattress.

Above me, Dusty had jumped off his pedestal and held out his hand like a knight. His blue eyes were clear and warm, and I suddenly got an image of Dusty on top of me. I had to cool off before another pugil stick came out to play.

“That’s one. Best of three?” I smacked away his hand and got up all on my own.

His smile took over his face with childish glee. “All right. You’re on.”

I hopped onto the pedestal. From my perch, I caught Cal and Mitch on the sidelines, watching with perverse enjoyment. Who knew what the hell they were thinking. Mitch probably assumed this was me flirting or some shit like that.

We got into position, and both counted to three. Each time I swung my pugil stick, Dusty sensed my move and blocked.

“That’s not one hundred percent true,” Dusty said in between trying to knock me off.

“What?”

“That I haven’t fooled around with guys.”

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