The interview was actually a working interview that took an hour and a half. Reece’s hands trembled for the first ten minutes but then he was laughing his nerves away between the photographer’s enthusiastic guidance and his sisters’ chaotic support from the back of the room where the crafty set up was. They’d given him a push he didn’t know he needed and Reece was glad. Before he could leave the building, he was booked for his first official photoshoot.
Reece couldn’t wait to tell his friends all about it. As soon as Daphne dropped him off at home, he rushed over to Declan’s—through the gate that now connected their yards—and let himself inside. Declan’s parents were rarely home and Reeceknew little about them, but their place had become like a second home to him because he was there often. Since he wasn’t outside, Reece went in search of Declan in the house, hoping he’d be there with Nick—anticipating the two of them sprawled out napping or either in the middle of a game of 2K. Instead, he found them on the floor around the low table near the TV, studying.
Declan was highlighting nearly every word on a page while Nick was writing notes, but their attention was drawn to Reece’s entry and both of them closed their books almost immediately.
“And just where have you been, mister?” Declan asked, left brow cocked high while the right was pulled down low.
Quickly joining them at the table, Reece laughed and tucked his hair behind his ear, but it was short enough now that it fell back free. “Today was crazy,” he began, knowing they’d understand as soon as he mentioned his sisters but it was so much more this time, so he didn’t start with that and before he could say more, Nick’s fingers were in his hair.
“You cut your hair.”
Shorter than he had in a long time, but his sisters kept going on about how fast it would grow. They assured him countless times that it looked great but Reece couldn’t tell with the way Nick was studying him if he thought the same. Reece stared back at him, forgetting how to breathe for a moment. All the people watching him earlier and all the cameras on him made him feel nothing like he felt under Nick’s watchful gaze. If only he would never look away.
“You don’t like it?” His voice was small, soft and quiet but carried a hint of the hope he was clinging to.
“It’s different… but still cute.”
“You think I’m cute?” Reece blurted out, neck and ears burning from the unexpected compliment. He was teasing mostly, laughing it off and expecting Nick to deny it.
“Didn’t you have something to tell us?” Nick scowled at the floor and Reece pressed his hands to his hot cheeks, unable to stop smiling.
He spent the next hour animatedly telling his friends about his day, and then they got back to studying, this time with Reece joining. Finals were days away, graduation was fast approaching, and soon they would be spending their final summer together before college.
4
Chapter 4 – Nick
Things didn’t slow down after graduation. Those long summers when Nick had nothing to do but spend weeks having fun and playing basketball were over. While official classes didn’t begin until August, as athletes, everything started sooner. There were only a few weeks before summer classes started—Coastal Miami’s way of giving them a head start to lighten their load during basketball season.
Those weeks before the move into the campus dorms were too short and too busy. Nick finally took the time to meet with his top five agents after a thorough vetting. Out of the five, Donovan Luck was the clear top contender. Nick had been impressed by all of them and felt he would’ve been in good hands no matter which he signed with, but within the first minute of Donovan sitting across from him, Nick knew he was the one. By the time Nick was moving into the dorms, he’d already signed his first three contracts with brands that he already loved,earning him new shoes and clothes and salaries to come in exchange for promotional activities.
Declan was way ahead of him, already settled in a lavish apartment near campus that Nick and Reece had been crashing at with him. It was hard to believe how drastically their lives were changing every day. Reece’s offers came flooding in too, and he looked absolutely elated, eyes twinkling and smile bright, but he turned every one of the offers down, claiming an agent would only add pressure to him when all he really wanted to do was play basketball.
There was no time for Nick to argue with Reece about it. They were moving in and starting classes mid-June, and along with classes came training. Meeting their teammates—officially becoming part of the Coastal Miami Mess—conditioning, film review, and even some special appearances by the occasional NBA player. The teammate Nick had his eyes on most was a guy named Alex. The guy was short and quiet, but he had the most watchful eyes and was a certified genius. He’d also immediately taken an interest in Declan, and as if he’d been studying him for years, helped him overcome his Achilles’ heel in a single day. As someone who’d been playing with Declan most of his life, Nick was baffled that the slightest adjustment could have such a profound effect—and he would not let Declan soar right over him by not overcoming his own weaknesses.
“Yo, Shorty,” Nick said, snorting when Alex tipped his head back, onyx eyes meeting Nick’s with a single, emotionless blink. “Call me out on my bullshit too.”
Part of Nick said it hoping Alex wouldn’t have much to say—he did graduate as number one in the country after all—but Alex actually had a lot to say, and didn’t hesitate to respond.
“The first thing you need to address is your very telling weight shift. You’re settling your weight back on your heel before your drive. You’re fast, so it’s only costing you a fraction of asecond, but that’s just long enough for elite players to notice due to repetition. You should keep in mind how often your gameplay will be studied in film review.”
“Well damn, don’t you need to at least think about it?” Nick huffed, ears burning.
“I have,” Alex answered simply. “The brake is so natural to you that you do it almost every time. It hasn’t posed that great a problem for you yet, but it will without a doubt in the very near future.”
Nick wasn’t one to panic but Alex was so matter-of-fact about it that the taller man was instantly beading sweat. He had to move around, dribble the ball a few times as he went to shoot, eyes widening the instant he felt his heels lock before he shot. It did happen fast, and he supposed that in the moment he never checked himself on it because he was sinking his shots easily even with strong defenders on him.
“You felt it,” Alex noted, circling Nick with his dark eyes dragging up from his feet to his face. “Breaking the habit shouldn’t be too difficult for you, though I must say I’m disappointed in your high school coaches for not calling you out on it. Just because you’re already good doesn’t mean there’s no room for improvement.”
Alex didn’t just point out the problem, but he helped Nick work on solving it. In the following days, during his private practice, Nick went barefoot per Alex’s recommendation. Now that he knew about it, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. And with him overly aware and so focused on correcting it, Nick was consistently getting better with his movement by keeping on the balls of his feet.
Every day, Nick was learning new things. He felt himself improving in real time, so fast that when he looked back at his high school years, it was as if he’d mostly been sitting still. That wasn’t the case, Nick was still improving, everything nowwas just on a new level and it thrilled him. Adjusting to life on campus and life as a college basketball player was fun, proving to be exactly what Nick needed to put his past behind him. Leaving the family home he grew up in was like shedding a weight off his mind—he found a sort of freedom in this new chapter of his life.
The distractions were good. Classes and basketball weren’t the entirety of that. Nick was constantly reminded that his favorite distraction was Reece and he didn’t understand why he couldn’t move past it. One weekend while Reece was on a trip out of state with his sisters, Nick stayed over with Declan and vented to him about it. The whole need to be close to Reece, the protectiveness he felt around him, it was so different from his relationship with Declan that it didn’t make sense.
“Come on, Nick, it’s ‘cause you’re into him,” Declan said, waving a hand around in the air as if to emphasize his point.
“The fuck’s that mean?”
