Page 132 of Scoring the Player
He shrugs.
Wild he can’t see it. “You made theGlobal Time100 list!”
“You like it?” he asks, biting his nails.
I stare at him. “Did anything I just said register?”
“Yeah, yeah,” he garbles around a yawn.
“I’m sorry, is your greatness boring you?”
He snickers. “Wait, tell me if you like it.”
“Am I really this hot?”
He rolls his eyes. “You know you are.”
“Yeah.” I lean down and kiss him. “But I like when you say it.” I stare at the painting. It even captures the backs of the heads of the reporters. “Who’s the artist?”
“One of Anaïs’s friends.”
I nod. “I love it. Thank you.”
“I know how much courage it takes to come out. I wanted you to have something to remember the moment.”
“I actually got you something too, but it’s weak compared to this.” I head over to my bag. “You can’t open it until I tell you. It’ll be better that way. Promise me.”
“Okay.” He nods. “But my promise expires in three days.”
“So impatient.” I laugh and put the gift bag directly into his bag. “In two nights, I’ll call you.”
“Is that an—?”
“Elk,” Blue answers as it crosses the clearing just ahead of us.
He was watching me when I woke up this morning. We exchanged slow grins before I pulled him into my arms, and we watched the treetops sway through the window.
Instead of going for a run before heading out, we decided to explore the woods.
“It’s huge.” The elk lowers its head and chomps on twigs.
“We should stop until it sees us. I don’t think we’re supposed to approach.”
We stop walking. “How do you know?”
He shrugs. “I just don’t want it to be afraid.”
A minute or so of our waiting for the elk to acknowledge us passes.
“Homie’s gonna be here all day at this pace. He’s not paying attention to us.”
“She,” he corrects me.
“How do you know?”
He raises and curls both sets of his middle and index fingers over his head. “No antlers.”
“Oh,” I reply, turning around. “Isn’t it your dream to live in a place like this one day?”
