The Wall of Winnipeg and Me

Zac leaned down to give him a rub with the tips of his fingers, but Leo was out cold. We had gone for a twelve-mile run at the gym where he was training, and immediately afterward took Leo out of his crate, which Aiden kept in his room, and let him run around in the backyard. Sitting straight, Zac took a big drink of the lime green Gatorade bottle sitting in front of him. “Are you goin’ to the game tomorrow?”

“I was planning on it. Did you want to go?”

He went back to peeking under the table. “You have anybody else to go with you?”

Since that first game, Zac hadn’t gone with me to any of the rest. I’d been going alone. “I can go by myself. It isn’t a big deal.”

“I know you can go by yourself, but it’s a division game. It’ll be nuts.”

I crossed my eyes. “I grew up with three psychos. I can handle nuts.”

Zac raised his eyebrows and I realized what the hell I said. I could handle nuts. Idiot.

I groaned. “You know what I mean.”

He grinned big, wide, and so not innocent. “Just for you, I won’t say nothin’.” The doofus winked. “Look, I’ll go with you tomorrow. Just make sure Aiden gets us good seats since you think you’re too good to sit in the box.”

“Too good to sit in the box?” I squawked. “I just don’t want to get friendly with the other players’ wives. That’s all.”

That had Zac sitting back with a frown. “Why?”

“I told you.” Or was it Aiden I told? I couldn’t remember. “I feel like a phony.”

“You’re not a phony.”

I lifted up a shoulder. “I feel like one. Plus the season is almost over. Who knows what’s going to happen. He hasn’t kept me in the loop at all about what’s going on with Trevor or even brought up when he’s leaving for Colorado this year.” Honestly, I hadn’t thought too much about him leaving for the offseason because I didn’t want to. The one and only time I had, it had made me sad to think about not seeing him for months at a time. I’d rather live ignorantly than with this weight of missing someone who wasn’t gone around my shoulders. Plus, he would tell me when he was leaving… wouldn’t he?

“He hasn’t told me a single thing, Vanny, and the last time I talked to Trevor, it was just to go over what my goal for the offseason was,” Zac explained.

That gave me an excuse to forget about Colorado for the moment and remember that what Aiden decided to do with the rest of his career didn’t just affect me; it affected Zac too. If he went to a different team, it wasn’t like Zac would go. Things had been so strained between them the last couple of months, that I had no idea where they stood. “Have you decided what you’re going to do?”

“My old Texas coach gave me a call a few weeks ago. Said he was plannin’ on retiring this year, and he’s from a town real close to Ma’s. I think I might end up heading back to Austin to work with him.”

Austin? I gulped selfishly. “Really?”

“Yeah. It wouldn’t hurt to go home. I told you how guilty PawPaw made me feel during Christmas,” he explained. Zac said his grandpa kept reminding him he wasn’t getting any younger.

Then the second step of the future hit me. Sure we’d only been living together for five months, but… we might end up in different states. Forever. I’d be essentially losing Zac, one of my closest friends. What kind of messed up, self-absorbed dimension had I been living in to not contemplate these outcomes?

He must have seen the despair on my face because he let out a sharp laugh of disbelief. “Why you gettin’ upset, sugar?”

“Because I won’t be seeing you anymore,” I said with every ounce of horror I felt. “You’re basically my second best friend.”

“Ahh shit, Van. You’re basically my best friend, too.” Those blue eyes widened for a moment. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without you these last few months.”

I had to reach up to swipe at my eyes with the back of my hand. I’d been the biggest crybaby since Christmas, and I had no reason for it. “Why am I getting so upset? We’ll still text message each other, right?”

“Of course we will. Of course we will. Come on.” Were his eyes getting shiny? “Gimme a hug. You’re gonna make my mascara run.”

I laughed even as I threw my arms around him. “You’re an idiot, but I love you.”

With two arms slung over my shoulders, his chest gurgled beneath mine in what sounded like a watery chuckle.

“You don’t have to do the marathon if you don’t want to,” I let his shirt know.

“You haven’t put me through hell for me to back out on you now, darlin’. We’re doin’ it.”

“But if you’d rather go to Austin sooner than later…”

“We’re doin’ this,” he insisted. He pulled back, his hands going to my upper arms so he could peer down at me. “You know you’re gonna be all right, don’t you?”

“Doing the marathon or if I have to move with Aiden?”

Those light blue eyes narrowed down at me. “I’m not worried about you doin’ the marathon. You got that thing in check. I meant movin’.”

“Oh, yeah.” I shrugged. “I’m not that worried about it. I don’t do much here in Dallas anyway, and Aiden’s been keeping me company a lot more.”