Page 73 of Scoring the Player

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“Raw?” I clarify.

He shakes his head. “Why are you grinning?”

“Pass me that strawberry tart,” I reply, wishing the warm feeling in my chest would knock it the fuck off.

“What did you mean by a ‘wolf cake?’” He pulls the strawberry tart back as I reach for it. “Am I supposed to know what that is?”

“It’s a planet outside our solar system.”

“Why is my cake from there?” He hands over the tart. “Did we give up trying to live on Mars?”

“Mars, bleh. Wolf has a red dwarf star that is cooler than our sun, literally.”

“Ah, the sun again.”

I bite into the vegan tart and moan at the salty and sweet strawberry glaze. “Twry thish one.”

He leans in and takes a bite. His long lashes flutter as he groans.

“Right? Let’s try the chocolate one.”

He swipes a crumb off the side of my mouth and reaches for the mousse cup. “How’s it been for you since coming out?”

I stiffen. “Let’s see, what was today’s headline?”

“‘The Courage of Two, 79 Years Later?’” he asks at the same time I answer, “‘Some Players Call for a Separate Locker Room for Gay Men.’”

“Wait, what?” he asks.

“Yep.”

“That’s bullshit.” His voice has gone tense. “Let ’em try.”

I attempt to tune it out, but some of it is hard to miss. “How’s it been for you? Your teammates and management are cool?”

He shrugs. “There are definitely dickheads on my team, but they’d never say it to my face, you know?”

I’m not naive enough to think no one on the Royals would vote for something like that, but I can’t see it. They had Sid’s back first when he spoke out about homophobia in the league, and they’ve had my back since I came out.

“The response from your college coach was dope,” he mentions.

My mouth goes dry. “Wh-who?”

“Your coach from college.”

My fist tightens around the spoon. “What response?”

“Here.” He dusts off his hands. “I can show you.”

“N-no.” I drop the spoon. “Don’t.”

Salem

My breath catches as the same glacial stare that sometimes clouds my brother’s eyes pins me in place.

“You good?”

Like a taxidermy or wax figure, he sits rigid, posture bone straight.

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