Page 196 of The Locker Room
the game—not only were they going toseeeach other again, they were
going toplaytogether again. “Yeah, man—I don"t know if anyone else
on the court can learn to read my mind like Chris.”
Vince shook his head. “You two were like magic. I can"t imagine
what they were thinking about with that trade. The whole NBA is talking
about it, and not in a good way. I mean, you know there"s turnover in
this job, but when something"s working?”
Xander"s smile was razor thin. “I"m sure they had their reasons,”
he said, “but I sure don"t understand them.” And that right there was the
honest-to-God truth.
The Locker Room 169
“Well, yours is not to reason why,” Penny said, downing her
Cosmo with a long draught. “Yours is just to do or die, right, Xander?”
Xander winced. God, she was like a dog with a bone. “There are
times to fight and times to hold the line,” he said mildly, throwing Vince
an apologetic glance because Vince had no idea what this was about.
Penny cast him a challenging glance. “Are you gathering your
troops, Xander?”
Xander looked at her, and for the first time that evening, a real
smile—a crooked one, but it was real—escaped. “I don"t know, Penny,
have you seen how full my guest bedrooms are?”
A laugh wiggled out of her, and they both returned to their
conversation with Vince. Silently, Xander was asking though, what else
did she expect him to do?
It didn"t matter. Not this night. There were speeches, and then there
were pictures, and then there was small talk. Mixing, mingling,
representing. Somehow, he made it across the room casually, to meet
Chris in the middle.
“Jesus, Karcek, did you grow in the last six weeks?” Chris asked,
and the center of Xander"s body started quivering like a plucked string.
