Page 8 of Watch Over Me

"I'm not sure your opinions count, since the two of you sleep with them." James shook his head. "You were accustomed to this."

"No, we weren't," Jeremy protested. "I went with a friendto a poker night and most of them were there already. Aside from the Judge," he added, pointing at Martinez. "This one is on him."

Martinez flashed a wide grin. "Oh, he's on me alright."

Groans went around both benches, loud enough to drag the attention of the senator and the judge in question—or Pascal and the Judge, as they usually called them. Thankfully, before either of the two could ask, Jeremy seemed to have enough of talking, because he told them all to get on the court already.

They were pretty evenly matched, with Dave being the obvious outlier since he'd almost gone pro right after college. Then he'd gotten injured, and once he'd recovered, he'd followed his brother into the service instead.

James was pretty good, too, but with Jeremy covering him, he had basically no chance to do anything. Still, his team was winning at half time, so he would take it.

"You're lucky I'm not the jealous type," Pascal shouted to Jeremy as they were approaching the bench. "Plastering yourself to a hot guy right in front of your partner is usually a bad way to go."

Jeremy rolled his eyes, but James didn't miss him looking around, canvassing the space.

"Shouting about it where everyone and their mother could hear you is usually a bad way to go, too," Jeremy told his partner, who merely shrugged.

"Don't worry, anyone would be too busy ogling you all to bother with me."

"Or me," the Judge added with a crooked smile. "I appreciate that."

"We also appreciate the view, of course," Pascal assured everyone with a placating gesture, obviously trying not to laugh.

Jeremy made a low sound that made James look at him, only to see him frowning at his partner with his arms crossedagainst his chest.

"Maybe someone else is the jealous type here," James heard himself say, then clamped his mouth shut quickly when Jeremy's glare turned to him.

A second later, Martinez was here, tossing an arm around Jeremy's shoulders, unperturbed by his friend's back-off stance.

"How about we take all that testosterone back out onto the court, huh? The viewers may ogle to their hearts' desire while the players may crush their rivals—hopefully without causing permanent injury, since we all need to be at work tomorrow."

They all huffed and laughed, and followed Martinez onto the court, back to bickering about the game and their performances. At some point, James almost lost the ball because he was laughing so hard, and Martinez and Travis did lose it a few times for that very reason.

All in all, that was exactly what James had needed. Those biweekly games had become the most relaxed time of his week, outside of hanging out in Eddie's office.

And if he sometimes pictured Eddie sitting there in the audience, alongside Pascal and the Judge, it was nobody's business but his.

CHAPTER FOUR

The living room of his parents' residence reminded Eddie of what he imagined British Victorian houses looked like—or at least how they looked on TV. The space was definitely not designed for comfort. The couches were narrow and hard, the chairs forcing him to sit straight and not move much or else he risked falling down, and the rest of the furniture belonged in a museum rather than a place that actual people gathered in.

Family rooms upstairs were more casual, but this floor was a spectacle for the guests, so they all had to sit in those uncomfortable seats and pretend to have a good time. Or maybe Eddie was the only one who had to pretend. Maybe the rest of the family genuinely enjoyed those parties—they sure acted like they did.

Near the window, his parents were entertaining two couples Eddie had never met before. His older sister, Rebecca, stood by the fireplace with her husband at her side, talking to Aunt Theresa and Uncle George. His brother was holding court around one of the couches, regaling a group of women with the stories of his military service—edited for company, of course. If one listened to Robert's stories, they could imagine war like a Saturday-morning cartoon, only with flags waving everywhere and lots of brave acts by the dashing hero.

Eddie's younger sister, Dorothy, wasn't here, but she did have a good enough excuse, since she was currently stationed in Japan. Whatever Eddie's excuses had been, over the years, they couldn't, of course, hold a candle to such a thing, which he'd been told too many times to count.

Growing up, his father's military career and his mother's political one were like two suns that the entire family orbitedaround. It had also been drilled into Eddie and his siblings that they were expected to have careers of importance, of substance. Ones that could rival their parents', although Eddie would bet that if that ever happened, neither his mother nor father would take kindly to a relationship of equal standing. As it was, Robert's military career was ever growing and he was now Lieutenant Colonel working at the Pentagon, Rebecca was preparing to launch her first campaign for the House of Representatives, and Dorothy had graduated from Yale Med before joining the Navy instead of taking on a civilian job.

There was no doubt that Eddie, even with his Stanford diploma with distinction, was the black sheep of the family. Being bisexual was nothing compared to the fact that he held a low-ranking job in the private sector and had no intention of moving up the ladderorchanging fields to something more acceptable to his parents, like law, medicine, or politics. One would think that working for a company founded by a decorated veteran which employed its field agents almost exclusively from the former military personnel would be an argument in Eddie's favor, but it didn't seem to move the needle. Since he hadn't served himself, working with veterans meant nothing, at least according to his father. Robert was more accepting, but likely because of the reputation of the company and the respect it held in younger military circles rather than because of any brotherly love.

Still, since Eddie lacked the aforementioned excuse of being on another continent, he had to be here at least every other month for somebody's birthday party or a benefit of some kind.

Today, it was a "small affair" of a few dozen family friends gathered under a pretense of his parents' fortieth wedding anniversary, but it was more of a garnering of support before Rebecca officially announced her campaign. There were some high-ranking people around the room mingling with hisparents' "friends" with deep pockets, which meant Eddie had to remember to keep his poker face on or he would become not just a black sheep but a pariah. And while it sounded tempting as he listened and nodded along to the same story the deputy commissioner had told him three times before, Eddie really didn't want to alienate his family, despite what his mother had said a few times in the past.

So he listened, and nodded, and smiled, doing his best impression of a man who didn't want to hit his head against the wall.

At least he didn't have to talk much at these events. People were definitely more interested in being listened to than in listening to Eddie, which was fine with him. He never gave out the name of the company he worked for if somebody didn't already know, since KRK Security was a household name in DC and it could definitely bring up too many questions. Instead, he offered a roundabout answer of doing IT work in the private sector and watched people's eyes glaze over. Then it was a matter of changing the topic back to them, which everyone seemed to like.

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