Page 258 of The Locker Room
A Public Face
XANDER was outside shooting baskets, trying not to brood, when Penny
stuck her head out the front door and called him in.
“Dammit, Xander! It"s starting!”
Xander grimaced. “Aw, Jesus. Don"t tell me you"re watching that!”
“You asshole! The whole family is here!”
Xander blinked. He hadn"t really noticed, he"d been so absorbed.
He was trying very very very hard not to listen for the phone ringing.
“Why in the hell would they want to do that?” he asked blankly.
Penny looked at him and just shook her head. From inside the
house, a voice said, “Penny? Is he coming?”
Penny said, “In a second, Javier! His thick head is trying to let shit
trickle in!” (Javier was someone from her law firm she"d brought home
right after the New York playoffs. He was sharp, sarcastic, had a wicked
sense of humor—and a serious case of puppy-dog eyes for Chris"s little
sister. Xander approved.)
“I"ll be there in a sec, Penny. Let me put the ball in the garage.”
“It"s on pause, Xander. Jesus! You"d think a guy would want to see
himself on Barbara Walters!”
“Not if he didn"t want to go on the damned show in the first place!”
Xander called back, but she"d already slammed the door.
He hadn"t, either. But the day after the playoffs, after they"d taken
their phones off the hook and just sat, Chris exhausted in his bed and
Xander beside him on the couch, Leo had come over, trying to be gruff
but completely unable to hide his ear-to-ear grin.
“You couldn"t have consulted your Uncle Leo, could you? You had
to just spring the biggest sports story of the decade on some poor little
ESPN chickie who almost choked on her own tongue!” Leo crowed,
totally shattering the façade of fierceness. “Oh. My. God. Xander—holy
Christ. I knew you had it in you. I"d follow you into hell, you crazy
