“Yeah, I invited him, and when it goes bad, I want you to acknowledge it wasyouridea.”
“It would’ve been worse if wedidn’tinvite him. He’d be so left out, and for what? Just because he doesn’t have a boyfriend?” Brody argued.
That was the conclusion that Ramsey had come to too. He’d ended up underlining it twice on theproside of his list.
“He’ll put a good front up while you guys are there. But it’s after I worry about.”
“Maybe it’ll motivate him to reach out. You told me you thought he should.”
Ramsey sighed. “I wish that was true, but he seems determined to be a martyr for the rest of his whole fucking life because Marcus told him he was picking football over him.”
“But he wasn’t?” Brody frowned.
“That’s debatable,” Ramsey said. It wasn’t his business—but of course he knew exactly where Wes and Marcus had gone right, and exactly where they’d gone wrong. “I don’t think either of them anticipated that he would bounce around so much in the first year.”
“Speaking of that,” Brody said, not very casually, “what areyougoing to do about that?”
Warmups were just finishing up. Ramsey looked away from the field for a second and gave his friend the toughest look in his arsenal. “Are you fucking joking?”
“No?” But there was a hint of guilt in Brody’s voice.
“Don’t come here and do Wes’ dirty work, okay?”
“He’s just trying to prevent you from making his mistakes. And obviously I’m not against that either.”
“Obviously,” Ramsey retorted snarkily.
“Ramsey, itisa concern. In what, three weeks, a month? You’re going to be back in Buffalo, and there’ll still be months left in the football season.”
“And?”
“And,” Brody stressed, “you’ve never had a relationship before. Nevermind a long-distance relationship. Wes and Marcus—”
“I told you, don’t come here and parrot Wes’ self-fulfilling prophecies. I’ve got it handled.”
He hadn’t talked to Nate—he hadn’t known how, especially when Nate had to know the inevitable geographical separation was coming and hadn’t said anything either, like it was truly not a big deal—and he hadn’t quite been able to stomach telling Barty about the possibility of a trade. Not when Rossbury and the Wolves had been so supportive. When they’d done everything that Ramsey had ever wanted. They’d stood by him through everything, even when it might’ve been easier, simpler, more convenient, to move on.
“Do you?” Brody questioned.
“Yes,” Ramsey snapped. Painfully aware that the more vehement he grew, the more suspicious Brody was going to be. The more inevitable it was that he’d tell Wes all about this conversation.
Brody was easier to dismiss than Wes.
Wes was paranoid and haunted by his own past mistakes and saw Ramsey as a way to set history straight.
Stupid.
“Okay, we don’t have to talk about it,” Brody conceded. “But at least tell me you and Nate have talked about this. Long-distance isn’t so difficult, if you guyscommunicate. You know what that is, right?”
“I know how to use words, yes,” Ramsey ground out.
“Alright.” Brody didn’t sound convinced, but that made sense. He wasn’t stupid and couldn’t have missed that Ramsey hadn’t actually answered the question.
There was no way he wouldn’t be reporting back to Wes. And after tonight’s dinner, there was every chance that Wes, upset and sad and lonely, would refuse to let Ramsey brush the subject off again.
“It’s really not that far. Only what, an hour? Two, tops?” Brody continued.
“Depending on the traffic, the middle of that, depending on where we’d each be coming from,” Ramsey said guardedly.
