I would probably scoff if Soren was still dancing with Marie Anne, and I would probably just turn away and ask Caden to dance with me or something.
But then there’s the last image my asshole of a brain conjured up... Soren looking over at me and with a smirk, he says, “I told you you’d be alone forever.”
Now that . . .
Well, that’s the only fucking reason I’m actuallyentertaining the idea of taking AJ with me, so he can act as a human shield that doubles as a traveling circus.
He’ll protect me and he’ll take my mind off of everything that’s wrong with the world.
That’s the magic of AJ Quick.
The stadium erupts with shouts and cheers, and I stand with Clive on autopilot and clap and cheer while looking at the Jumbotron. As expected, they show the replay of the absolute mind-bending dart AJ just threw at the far left corner of the end zone.
Richard Matthewson, the star wide receiver for the Warriors, caught it in the air—after jumping and twisting while airborn—and then landed just on the tips of his toes before falling face first out of bounds.
A perfect throw and a perfect catch.
Yeah, that’s theothermagic of AJ Quick.
Damn, he’s so fucking good.
More than a decade since I first saw any film of him, and I’m still struck speechless every time he shows just how much gold he has in that arm.
I resist looking to my left where Trip Ramsey, the GM, and Warwick O’Donnelly, the owner, are sitting.
They know damn well what they’ve got in AJ, and that’s at least another five years of a good, reliable leader for their team.
I might want to get his next deal done now, but despite what so many other people think of him, he has good business instincts, and like he told all of us last June, he feelsstrongly that we should wait until the off-season to negotiate his contract.
I don’t have any doubts that they want to re-sign him, but he’s not getting any younger, and that’s when contracts start to become a real pain in the ass.
He’s never been injured, though, not seriously, and that bodes well for him.
And if he can get another ring this season... Yeah, no, those thoughts won’t do anyone any good. He’ll win or he won’t, my job is going to be the same either way.
I know AJ wants to win, he always does, but I’ll never tell him how much easier my life will be if he does... that wouldn’t be fair to him.
Or to any of my clients, I add, reminding myself that heismy client.
And that brings up another roadblock for me.
Anyone who knows I’m an agent—and a successful one—also knows I represent AJ, and though Lindsey doesn’t seem to think it’s a big deal, announcing to basically my whole home town that I’m dating one of my clients could present some potential risks.
We’ll have to think carefully about how to go about that, because being outed as bisexual sadly has the potential of affecting his life in ways we can’t predict.
I realize then that I just thought all that as if us doing this is a given.
I . . .
I guess it is?
“Doyou want to go out for a celebratory dinner?” I ask AJ as soon as he’s in sight.
“I just wanna go home,” AJ mumbles dejectedly when he stops beside me outside the family room.
“What’s wrong?” I demand.
It’s not unlike him to want to go straight home after a game, and he has no reason to be so down right now. They won the game by more than a score.
