Cam lined up.
With one second left on the clock, Joey snapped the ball. Cam caught it and flawlessly positioned it for Dawson’s foot.
He was the only factor of this play left. Themostimportant factor.
Dawson’s foot hit the ball and it felt good. It would have the distance, if he hadn’t sacrificed his aim for the strength needed to boot it fifty-nine yards.
He held his breath as the ball sailed through the air and only let it out as it split the uprights. The referees called it good and a second later he was suffocated by a crowd of excited, happy Thunder players.
Dawson was pretty sure that was Cam’s arm around him, Cam’s face buried in the crook of his neck. His voice telling Dawson, “I love you so fucking much, you absolute beast.”
It wasn’t that hard to believe it, not anymore.
And it was even easier to hope for it.
Epilogue
Five months later
Dawson’s phone rang just when they rounded the corner out of the elevator with the couch.
“Shit,” Dawson exclaimed, three-quarters of his figure hidden by the end of the couch.
“We should have paid for movers,” Cam said, for at least the tenth time.
“No, just . . .” Dawson swore again. “Let me get this balanced against the wall so I can answer. Natalia said she’d be calling today.”
“Or we could have used any of our friends. Our football-playing friends,” Cam teased, hearing the strain in his voice as he held up his side of the couch, watching as Dawson tried to juggle it and then press it with one hand to the wall of their apartment building.
Dawson shot him a look, full of heat, that promised retribution later. The sexy kind of retribution, no less.
Cam hoped that they’d both be up for the sexy kind of retribution. They were only a few pieces of furniture into this move, and already he was wishing he’d put his foot down and hired movers anyway.
So what if he and Dawson were just combining their apartments essentially as they moved into a bigger place? So what if it wasn’t evenallthe furniture, because his dad had decided to stick around, more long-term? He’d taken over Cam’s lease, and even though Shane kept arguing he didn’t need much, Cam hadn’t wanted to leave him with nothing.
Theystillshould have hired movers. Or taken Nate or Wes up on their offers to help move them. Cam was pretty sure Trevor and Lane had stuck around Toronto too, and weren’t flying home to Arizona for another week, at least.
The point was, they could’ve had help. Instead Cam was now holding up three-quarters of this couch as Dawson pulled his phone out of his pocket and shoved it between his cheek and shoulder.
“Hey? Oh, yeah, good to hear from you.”
It was Dawson’sI’m a grown-upvoice, which meant that it probablywasNatalia. Cam felt marginally less annoyed then.
His dad had mentioned this morning, as they’d chowed down on donuts and coffee he’d brought over, that moving tested every relationship. Cam had argued they didn’t need testing. He and Dawson were so solid.
But Dawson’s determination to not hire movers was possibly going to be the first real test. Not the Thunder’s season. Not the case against Richard Ackerman. Not even when Cam’s dad had shown up right when he and Dawson were still in the middle of figuring their relationship out.
Nope, it was going to be this couch.
Cam groaned under his breath, wishing he’d gone a little less hard at the gym yesterday.
Dawson kept nodding, adding a comment or two on the phone, but Cam couldn’t hope to decipher what was going on, not until Dawson got off the call and explained what he’d heard from Natalia.
Progress was being made in moving forward on going to trial. In a few weeks, Dawson had told him that he’d need to head to Baltimore for another round of interviews. It was looking likely that he’d need to take the stand.
Finally, he hung up, right when Cam thought he might lose his grip on the couch.
“So,” Dawson started to say, the smile evident in his voice, even though Cam couldn’t see his whole face.
