Page 62 of The Inside Edge

Jess rubbed her hands over her face. “No. Yes. I don’t know.”

“Oh, well, that clears it up,” Aubrey said sardonically.

Nate shot him a quelling look, but he did have a point. “All right, can you explain in, I don’t know, five words or less?”

“The network sold the show.”

Nate blinked. He hadn’t been expecting that. “Oh.”

Aubrey went a little further with it. “Oh, of course they…. They spent weeks harping on us about viewership and ratings and blah, blah, blah, and all the work we put in was just us inflating our value so they could fetch a higher price for us?”

Well, when he put it that way. “I feel like a fatted calf.”

“You know the show has always been an experiment.” Jess sighed. “The truth is, getting the licensing we did was a coup we only managed because there was a gap in coverage and the show was a guinea pig. Well, phase one of the experiment is over.”

Wait— “They sold us to ESBN?”

“Effective tomorrow,” Jess confirmed. She looked like she needed a stiff drink, or maybe eighteen solid hours of sleep. “We won’t know more about what’s happening to us until then.”

“Well.” Nate’s throat felt suddenly thick. “Let’s make tonight a good one.”

In the end, they got through the episode all right, but even though he and Aubrey were good at their jobs, Nate could tell their banter felt strained. The game they were slated to cover was a gruesome slog, with the total shot clock barely creeping up to thirty at the end of three periods, the score a measly 1-0, and not even a fight to make things interesting.

Kelly’s coverage, at least, had more engaging fare to offer. The women’s game was tied 3-3 going into the second, and by the time it finished, it had crept up to 9-7.

They wrapped up as they always did, with score updates from around the league. Nate wished he’d had time to come up with something new and different and original to say if this was going to be their final signoff, but he hadn’t. The usual words felt hollow and insignificant. “That’s all for tonight. Until next time, I’m Nate Overton—”

Under the desk, Aubrey put his hand on Nate’s leg. “And I’m Aubrey Chase—”

“And this has beenThe Inside Edge.”

Chapter Twenty

NEITHER OFthem was in the mood for sex that night.

They also weren’t in the mood to be alone.

The nice thing about an actual relationship, Aubrey was finding, was that he didn’t have to be alone.

The flip side was that Nate took forever to fall asleep when he was stressed out and not getting laid, and Nate taking forever to fall asleep led to Aubrey being up until the wee hours after he dropped off, staring at the ceiling.

He had only barely managed to ask Nate to go on a date with him. Now he somehow had to gather the courage to have a talk about what would happen to their relationship if he moved to Vegas.

He’d been counting on having a little more time to get used to the whole having-a-boyfriend thing before he had to bring up long-distance versus cohabitation. It was probably too soon to tell Nate he’d been thinking they should move in together, and the show had been sold, not canceled. The new network could replace one or both of them… or change nothing. And there wasn’t anything Aubrey could do about it.

He had almost decided to give up on the dream of sleep and go watch TV in the living room when Nate sighed, rolled over, and burrowed his face into the pillow. “Ice cream,” he said happily, obviously deep in a very pleasant dream.

Save some for me.If Nate could sleep with this much on his mind, so could he. That competitive athlete drive was still good for something after all, because so resolved, Aubrey finally drifted off.

He woke up to Nate sitting at the end of the bed, fully dressed, holding his phone loosely between his legs.

Aubrey hated feeling wrong-footed before he even stood up. “Hey,” he rasped. “Going somewhere?”

“Jess texted,” Nate said by way of explanation, holding his phone at chest height and waggling it for effect. “Wants to see me in her office at eleven.”

Me?That was probably a harbinger. “Just you?”

Nate shook his head. “Didn’t ask. Check your phone.”

---