Page 212 of The Locker Room
smelled, touched, heardonlyChris, sawonlyChris behind his closed
eyes, he had the dim thought that it was wonderful that a small part of
the world seemed to approve.
The kiss ended, and Xander carefully didn"t look around the table.
Conversation resumed again around him, but this time with Chris as an
integral part of it. Xander liked hearing him fitting in with the little table
of women. As foolish as it sounded, he was hoping that however this was
settled, whatever they decided to do at the end of the season, they could
keep the girls around until the girls themselves needed to go. He was
charmed by them—Mandy"s vivacity, Audrey"s quiet humor, even
Penny"s biting sarcasm—they made him remember the first wonder he"d
felt when he woke up at the Edwards"s home, and heard Andi up and
making breakfast.
Leo came by the next day, just to hang out and watch the college
games and bitch about the new roster. (He was mostly bitching to hear
his own voice. Chris and Xander were watching a promising bunch of
rookies-to-be, and enjoying their grace and their power, and, according
to Chris, “their goddamned indestructible youth!”)
They went running with the dogs every morning, although
“stumbling” might have been a more accurate term. Neither of the dogs
were particularly willing to let Chris out of their sight, and Chris had to
fight falling over for most of the run. Xander literally had a stomach
cramp from laughing while listening to him whine at them.
“C"mon, Max… man, just… just move! Dammit, just fucking…
get out of the way. Merc… Merc…aw, fuck it all, Mercury, would you
get down?”
“Well!” Xander giggled as they were coming inside the third
morning. “They miss you! You"ve babied them their whole life! Do you
think you just disappear and they"re not going to be all over you?”
Xander punctuated that with hands on Chris"s hips and a pull back
