Page 139 of The Locker Room

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are already tender from the game, and you know what? You"re a

professional goddamned athlete and you can take a day off. Now sit

down and finish your breakfast.”

Xander rubbed his face with his hands and tried to get a handle on

the situation. “Andi, I"m fi—”

And now he had her full attention. “Don"t lie to me, Xander.

You"re not fine. You and Chris have been spouting all sorts of bullshit

about „nature of the game" and „we should have expected this sooner or

later" but you donotlive with someone for what? Twelve years? And

then just wake up with them living a thousand miles away and befine,

okay?”

Xander sat down abruptly. Chris was in a strange place, with

people who didn"t know what he"d lost. How fine was he?

“I"m gonna go call him,” Xander said roughly now. “He"s usually

up by now.” He went to stand up again, and Penny brought him the

handset and patted his shoulder, then walked back up the stairs to her

own room.

Xander was in the room, alone with Andi and Jed. Uh-oh.

“You know, Penny,” he called, “you"re a grown-up now! You

don"t have to leave the room just because—”

“Shush, Xander,” Andi said softly, a smile on her face. “She left

the room for us, not you. We like to think she"s still a little girl, even

when we know different.”

“I"ll be fine,” he said abruptly, staring past the two of them through

the large bay window that overlooked the lake. It was actually a pretty

bleak view, even in the winter when the grass was green. In the summer

there was the high contrast—blue sky, blue-green water, yellow hills,

green oak trees—but now? Everything was a varying shade of

swampwater. Under the murky sky, even the bright green grass was

muted. The lake was a shifting glitter of tarnished gray. Xander had

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