by Sean Michael
“I’m not saying it won’t be a lot of work. We have to find the sponsors first—and I’m a liability on that—oh, they’ll take one look at you and want in, but they’ll try to talk you into a different coach. Someone without a scandal attached to their name. It never did get proved that I didn’t do it. She just recanted.”
“So what? You go and say, look at him, he can jump?”
“Basically. My word that you’re the best diver I’ve seen ever will get us in the door. Then they’re going to want film of you diving, and then they’ll want to see you, talk to you, find out how serious you are about diving, what our plan of attack is.” He grinned wryly and added again, “They’ll probably try to talk you into getting a different coach.”
“So you said.” Austin shrugged. “I got a videotape of me down at the lake, if you want it.”
“Or we could put one together with some specific dives over the next couple of days.” He was jonesing to watch Austin dive some more, wanted to put the kid through his paces.
“I have tonight off. My shift starts at ten tomorrow night. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try. I mean, if it doesn’t work, it’ll still be cool to tell people.”
“I’ll have to make a couple of calls, but I can probably get us some time at the diving pool tomorrow morning. Now, you’re not just teasing me, right? If I get you the sponsors to compete, you aren’t going to suddenly decide you’d rather be welding?”
“Dude, I can weld anywhere. It’s not like the training expires.” Austin cut into another roll, nibbling. “I don’t know what all to do, man. This comes just out of the blue.”
“Yeah, for me, too.” He ate a cucumber slice from his salad. “You’re the real deal, though, Austin. You should be competing—bringing the sport to new heights.” He took another swig of his beer and then cleared his throat. “So we’re going to find some sponsors, and I’ll coach you, and you’ll compete.” He held out his hand. “Deal?”
“Okay. Sure.” Austin shook his hand, looking like he’d been whacked in the head with a baseball.
Vince tried not to crow, tried not to put all his eggs in this brand new basket. Austin could change his mind at any minute, come out of the stunned wows and decide he didn’t want to hook up with a disgraced coach.
“How about we enjoy our dinners and get to know each other,” he suggested.
“Okay. Okay, I can handle that.”
“Good. So, why welding?”
“Auto mechanics was more expensive, and I heard you could learn to weld underwater.” Austin grinned. “My folks retired, moved to Arizona. I needed a way to pay my bills.”
“Weld underwater? That sounds dangerous.” He chuckled. “It also sounds like something a water baby would be attracted to. Have you done it?”
“No. Not yet. Getting your scuba certifications is real expensive. Sounds fun, though.”
He grinned at Aunt Jenny when she showed up with their steaks. “Oh, this smells divine.”
“Only the best for my favorite customer.”
“Love you, too, Aunt Jenny.”
First thing Vince did once she’d gone again was to take a bite. “Damn, it tastes as good as it smells. So your folks are in Arizona, but your aunt and uncle are still here. Any other family?”
“I have a brother Dallas—he’s in the Navy. He’s quite a bit older than me.” Austin grinned, chuckled suddenly. “Guess we’re both water babies.”
“Sure seems like it. You didn’t go the Navy route yourself? They’ve got underwater welders there, I’m sure.” He gave Austin a wink, glad to see the kid relaxing a little, losing that stunned bunny look.
“I, uh. Don’t do the orders things so well and I, well, I didn’t pass the physical.”
“No? Why not?” The orders thing he could work with, but if there was something seriously wrong with Austin….
“Diabetes. They wouldn’t take me. That a problem?”
He grinned, relieved. “Shouldn’t be. You on insulin?”
“Supposed to be, yeah. I sort of don’t, sometimes.”
Vince shook his head. “That’ll change if I’m your coach. I don’t want you passing out up on the five meter. It’s a good way to end a career real fast.”
“Yeah. I just get busy, you know? Shots are a hassle.”
Vince chuckled. “Oh, you’re going to love me. Shots are going to be the least of your hassles.”
Those bright eyes twinkled, one almost-white eyebrow rising. “You did hear me say I don’t take orders well, right?”
He nodded. “I did. I’m good at giving them, though, and making sure they’re followed through on.” He leaned forward. “I can live without you taking them well, but I’ll need you to try. Austin, you can’t do this half-assed.”
“I’m not even sure what I’m trying to do, yet, man.”
“Be recognized as the best diver in the world. Meets here in the States, around the world, the Olympics. The next Greg Louganis, only better.”
“Olympics? Like on the TV?” There went that look again, unbelieving and confused.
“Yeah. Like on TV.” He shook his head. The kid would come out and do this, Vince just had to hope that once Austin understood the dedication needed to do it, that the kid would be able to come through. “Eat your steak. And maybe I should let you ask the questions for a bit.”
“Do you dive, too?”
He tilted his head from side to side. “Compared to what you do, I just jump into the water.”
“Hell, that’s all I do. I practice on the trampoline, then do it in the water.” Austin ate some more steak. “You got a boyfriend?”
He swallowed rather abruptly and shook his head. “He went south when the career did. What about you? You seeing anyone?”
“Me?” Oh, now that was interesting. Austin’s cheeks went bright pink, eyes cutting away as he shook his head. “No.”
“Good looking guy like you? With that show you put on at the pool? I’d think they would be lined up around the pool.”
“Oh. I just goof off. I don’t.”
“You don’t what? Put on a show? Date?” He wondered what the kid was dancing around.
“Oh, I’m a show-off. I don’t date much, though. Never have.”
“Why not?” He found it hard to believe, that this good-looking live-wire would be celibate. Of course that wasn’t exactly what Austin had said, now was it. And if the kid really didn’t date it would make things easier. Significant others were often not understanding of the time athletes needed to put in to train.
“I. Uh. This is a pretty small town. It ain’t Austin.”
He frowned and then suddenly the penny dropped. “Oh, fuck, I’m not always so dense.”
Lord, down boy, he told himself. Austin was a good-looking guy, but he was also an amazing diver and that’s where Vince’s focus was right now. Which was likely why the kid slipped totally under his gaydar.
“Yeah? Good to know.” The kid’s cheeks were almost purple. “Nobody knows, yeah? Nobody.”
Jesus, that was a lonely way to live. “Nobody? As in not one person?”
“Not one person.” Austin wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“Well, one now, yeah? You’re not alone anymore.” And that was more loaded than he meant. “I just mean… ah, your secret’s safe with me, kid.”
“Thanks, man. I just… I mean, the chances are I’ll have to come back here, even if you do find someone who wants to pay to have me dive.”
“You could come clean—people surprise you. My mother….” He chuckled and shook his head. “Once she got over the disappointment of no grandchildren she started a local chapter of PFLAG, started marching in rallies, the whole nine yards. Is it going to be a problem for you, that I’m out?”
“Shouldn’t. My folks’ll just think I’m being a jackass, trying to avoid working. You won’t even register.”
“You’ll show them. I might register once you’ve got a few gold medals around your neck.”
Something flare
d in those pretty eyes. Something very much like hunger. Like want. “You think I could do that?” Oh, there it was. There was the look that belonged in the eyes of the kid who could dive like Austin could.
“I’m willing to bet everything I have and everything I am that you can.”
“Yeah? Damn. Damn.” Austin started bouncing a little, food forgotten.
He chuckled, his own enthusiasm sparking again now that Austin had lost the stunned look. “They won’t even see you coming, Austin, and you’re going to blow them out of the water.”
“I just…. Are you real, man? Did I whack my head on the board and am dreaming?”
“Funny, I was wondering the same thing when I watched you dive today. Couldn’t believe my eyes. And then when I found out you didn’t have a coach.” Vince shook his head. “I’m as real as that steak you’re not eating. And I truly believe in what we can do out there.”
“I. Damn. Just damn.” Austin looked over at him, blinking a little, eyes a little red.
“Hey. It’s okay.” He reached out and petted Austin’s hand awkwardly. “Look, if it would make you feel less like a dream we can have a contract drawn up, saying I’m your coach, I’ll find us sponsors, outlining what your responsibilities are and stuff.” It was a good idea anyway, but he hadn’t wanted to spook the kid more than he already was.
“Okay. Yeah. That’s cool. Right now though? I’m thinking I had one too many beers on no sleep.”
“You should have a bit more steak, Austin. Get some nutrition in you.” He didn’t think he’d ever seen anyone so tall who was so skinny. “You’ll have to keep your strength up—I’m going to work you hard, and it’ll all be during your off time until we find enough sponsors for you to give up your welding job.”
“Yeah.” Austin cut the steak. “I work ten to six, Sunday night through Friday morning.”
“When do you like sleeping? And do you prefer not changing up your schedule for the weekend? Because I can find us space that’ll let us use their platforms and boards at night.” They could do longer practices on Friday and Saturday, shorter ones—workouts and whatnot—during the week. And it wasn’t like he couldn’t just conform his schedule to Austin’s, given he was currently between jobs.
“I sleep in the late afternoon, early evening. Prime time, you know?” Ah, that explained the way the kid was slowing down. They’d have to change that, before the season started.
“Well then I guess to start we can work in the mornings. See how that works for us. I have to admit, though, I’m not a morning person.” He chuckled. “You might want to think about changing up, just to keep from having to deal with me as a bear.”
“Well, what are you talking? A couple hours? A couple days a week? What?”
He had to fight his grin. A couple hours, a couple days a week. Right. “A little closer to a few hours every day.”
“Okay. How about like ten to one or one thirty? That gives me a few hours to do errands and shit before and a few hours to sleep after and, if I have to pull overtime, I’m cool.”
He smiled and nodded, pleased Austin was falling in line. “And ten ’til four or five on the weekends?” He’d put together a schedule. Set up a regimen for Austin to follow. He’d have to find out what the kid liked to eat, too, put together a menu….
Wow. He was really doing this again.
“Man, you’re gonna have me working my ass off.” Austin chuckled, winked. “My boss’ll be impressed.”
“Until we get the sponsors we need and you quit.” He wanted to make sure Austin knew that was in the cards, that once they could afford to do it full time, it was going to be full time. “Then you’ll find out what working your ass off really is.”
“Man, diving is fun. Welding is work.”
“Good. That attitude is going to come in handy.” He patted his pockets, looking for some paper and a pen or something, but he hadn’t come out today looking to score a new diver.
“Whatcha need, man? A smoke?”
“Paper and pen. We need to exchange numbers, and I was hoping to write some notes.” Funnily enough, when he was coaching, when he was excited about stuff, he rarely smoked.
“Aunt Jenny? Borrow a pad?”
“Sure, honey.” He was handed a little order pad, a sort of greasy pen.
“Thanks, ma’am.” He wrote out his full name and address and his cell phone number on one piece and tore it off, handing it to Austin. “I don’t have a landline, but this way you can get me no matter where I am.”
“’Kay. I got a cell, too. I live in the Pleasant Vale apartments. Number 201.”
“Great! That’s not that far from the dive pool.”
He took down the address and Austin’s cell phone number and made a few notes. “I’ll call around later today and then give you a ring in the morning with where to meet me. We’ll start out with you going through your paces—give me a chance to see how you do with all the various dives.”
“Okay. I’ll practice on my trampoline, warm up.”
“Cool. You’ll need to continue to do that daily, do some working out. And the dive practice.” His leg was bouncing. And he was grinning, knew he was grinning like a fool. “This is going to be fun.” He couldn’t wait to see the faces on the other coaches at Austin’s first meet.
“Yeah.” Austin nodded, yawned. “It’ll be an experiment, huh?”
“It’s my life.” He’d been pretending the last three years, making like it didn’t matter, like he didn’t care. He cared plenty. “You want dessert or something, or should I just drive you home?”
“Home, if you don’t mind. Jack gave me a ride to the pool.”
He nodded. “I can do that. I need to know the way to where you live anyway, as I’ll be dropping you off a lot, I imagine.”
He caught Aunt Jenny’s attention. “Bill, please, ma’am.”
“Oh, I can drive. I just was saving my pennies.” Austin pulled out a ten, put it on the table. “That’ll cover mine.”
He shook his head. “You put that back in your pocket. You earned this dinner fair and square.”
“Yeah, but I got a job, man. I can buy my own.”
He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Okay, okay. You can pay for your own.”
He put ten down for himself and added five for Aunt Jenny, figuring he could afford to be generous, considering he’d been expecting to pay for them both.
“Cool.” Austin stood, went to hug his aunt, the affection freely and easily offered.
Vince grinned as he stood as well. The kid had a good heart, that was clear. Seemed to have a good work ethic as well. And all that talent.
Someone up there had obviously decided he’d paid long enough.
More from Sean Michael
Firefighter Jason “Jase” Weller and EMT Scott Bronson are living the perfect life. They work together in jobs they love, they live together, and in their downtime, they still can’t get enough of each other. It’s been six amazing years. Then on Christmas Eve, Jase’s former lover Elsa shows up with a six-year-old girl in tow. The strung-out junkie claims Kerry is Jase’s daughter and it’s his turn to care for her, and then she walks out.
Shocked at both the fact that Elsa is now a junkie and that he has a daughter he never knew about, Jase nonetheless steps up to the plate as her father and Scott offers his full support. Having an instant family comes with plenty of challenges, and the two men work to deal with sweeping changes in their lives and to make things right for Kerry.
It’s not going to be easy, and their new circumstances test them and their relationship like nothing ever has. They’ll need all the love they have for each other—and the love they discover for their daughter—to keep from breaking apart.
Who wouldn’t want a do over?
When Thaine wakes up in the hospital after a bull-riding injury, he immediately asks for his lover, Jerry. He has no idea who this man next to his bed is, despite the fact Drew insists they have been an item for the last five yea
rs.
Thaine’s best friend, Jesse, calls Jerry. He thinks it’s a pretty crappy thing to do to the new boyfriend, but tells himself it’s unlikely Jerry will come after so many years. He also doesn’t get why Thaine would pass up the opportunity to be with Drew since he’s young, optimistic, and hardworking. In short, everything Jesse ever wanted in a man.
Jerry still carries a torch for his cowboy, so when Thaine asks to go home with him to recover, Jerry agrees. At first they pick up their intense physical relationship right where they left it before the breakup. Jesse, in turn, consoles the now homeless Drew and offers him quite a bit more than a shoulder to cry on. But in the back of all the men’s minds loom Thaine’s lost five years.
When easygoing Texas artist Dakin McBride makes his way to Ottawa, Canada, for a showing, he meets Jeff Tamrin, the fastidious manager of the Sussex Gallery. Despite coming from different worlds and being opposites in almost every way, the attraction is immediate, and soon Dakin and Jeff negotiate their own brand of diplomatic relations, forgetting all about art or seeing the sights the city has to offer. They get wrapped up in the moment, each of them intrigued by what he feels for the other.
The more they get to know each other, the more they like what they see. Dakin has a life to go back to in Texas, though, and Jeff has his own in Canada. Is there any way for their budding romance to survive the thousands of miles separating them? The relationship seems doomed, but at the same time, it feels too right to give up without a fight.
Cash McCord’s life is pretty much perfect. He owns the family ranch, loves his work, and invites the occasional cowboy into his bed. But everything is turned upside down when his brother Jack and Jack’s wife Val are killed in a car crash, leaving behind six kids.
Cash is made guardian of the children, along with Val’s brother, Brad Rafferty—a man who couldn’t be more different from Cash if he tried. A Yankee, Brad is a video-game developer who works twelve-to-fourteen-hour days at his desk. They lock horns as soon as they set eyes on each other. Neither man is happy to have the other around, but neither is willing to give up custody of his nieces and nephews.
