Page 52 of Men in Shorts

“I’m not afraid of you,” Brodie repeated, his jaw firm and level. “But I am afraidforyou. I fear you’ll stay this way your entire life, which means you’ll surround yourself with other people like you, which means you’ll never be happy.”

The man’s eyes blazed. “Look, ya wee bufty, naebody asked you?—”

“You can change, you know,” Brodie said. “You can stop being afraid. I did.”

Duncan squeezed Brodie’s hand tighter, which he hadn’t thought possible.

Then Brodie stepped forward, halving the distance between himself and the bigot. “You can hit me now if you want, if what I’m saying scares you. I’ll understand.”

“But you’ll have to hit us both.” Duncan moved beside Brodie again, close enough to feel him quake.

“Archie, man,” said Kyle. “Gonnae let’s go for a pint? ’Mon, I’ll buy first round—firsttworounds, since I owe you.” He nudged his mate. “It’ll be pishing down soon.”

Archie finally broke eye contact with Brodie to examine the sky, which was still clearing. Then he nodded, using the nonexistent impending rain to make his exit.

“Bunch of pricks playing today anyway,” Archie said as he got to his feet. Brodie and Duncan moved back to let them leave. As the two men slouched past, Kyle turned and gave an apologetic shrug.

When they were gone, Brodie whooshed out a breath and slumped against the side of the home bleacher. “What was I thinking?” He swept his trembling hands up over his paling face, then clutched his hair. “He could’ve killed us.”

“You were thinking you deserved better, and you do. We all do. That was so fucking brave.” Duncan edged as close as he could without touching him. “I love you,” he said for the first time.

Brodie gasped. He lowered his hands slowly, and they came to rest on the sides of Duncan’s face, their fear-chilled skin making him shiver. “Why?”

“Because.” When Brodie just stared at him, he added, “Don’t make me elaborate. After exams, I’m pure finished with essays and explanations.” He rested his forehead against Brodie’s. “Just believe me, okay? And try to love me back, even though I’m a proper eejit sometimes?”

Brodie nodded, his eyes wide and wet. “I believe you. And I love you.” He pulled Duncan into a hug. Duncan shut his eyes and held tight, feeling the frantic-rabbit thump of his own heart against Brodie’s chest.

Out on the pitch, a whistle blew to signal the end of warmups.

Duncan let go of Brodie, sweeping a kiss over his cheek as they parted. “C’mon, let’s go watch Warriors kick some meaningless arse.”

They sat close together within the loving fold of the Rainbow Regiment, who cheered at the sight of them. One of the Regiment lads presented Brodie with the rainbow tartan kilt he’d apparently ordered a few weeks before.

Then Duncan’s parents arrived, with a warm greeting for Brodie, who still seemed overwhelmed at their unquestioning acceptance. Fergus came too, with a few mates from his architectural firm, who seemed similarly overwhelmed by the Regiment’s raucousness.

“You think your manager will agree to do the charity match?” Brodie asked Duncan as the teams lined up for the kickoff.

“I think she’ll love it. Fergus might take more convincing. He thinks we’ve had enough drama for one year.”

“Perhaps John could make the sales pitch. He’s quite the force of nature.”

“I got that impression.” He tugged the hem of the kilt in Brodie’s lap. “Gonnae put that on for me?”

“It’s not proper fitted yet. I’ll wait until next season to wear it.” Brodie gave him a wicked smile. “Publicly, at least.”

At the thought of a naked-but-for-his-kilt Brodie, every nerve in Duncan’s skin went on full, happy alert. “Shall I get one too?”

Brodie’s eyelids went heavy with desire as he gazed at Duncan’s mouth. “I think that would be…” He paused, searching for the words. “Affa fine.”

The whistle blew, and the game began. On the pitch, the Warriors took control of the ball, playing for nothing but pride. But when all was said and done, Duncan knew, pride was the only thing that mattered.

And then…

I hope you enjoyedPlay On(Book 0.5)! Duncan and Brodie’s followup happier-ever-after story, “All Through the House,” is found at the end of this anthology.

The next work in the collection is the short story “Play It Safe” (Book 2.5). By those numbers you may deduce that there are two entire novels between here and there:

Book 1 =Playing for Keeps(Fergus and John novel), a star-crossed-lovers story that begins two weeks after the end ofPlay Onand revolves around the charity match birthed in that novella.

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