Alex stood by the window in Dane’s room, phone to his ear.
Bas and Jacob were sitting on the end of the bed behind him, Dane against the headboard, inhaling a takeout meal of one of everything from the Hill Country BBQ place they’d eyed since arriving in San Antonio. Last practice done, they’d rewarded themselves with brisket, ribs, mac and cheese, baked beans, and jalapeño corn muffins, a little bit of everything Texan for their last night in Texas.
They’d just started piling their plates high when Alex’s mom returned his call from earlier in the day. He filled her in on what was happening, including the possibility he’d be leaving for international training tomorrow.
“You’re sure everything’s okay there?” he asked. “I’m sorry I was there and gone again.”
“Don’t apologize, mijo. You did what I told you to do. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed SportsCenter as much as I did tonight, seeing you smiling and happy at the airport and pool.”
Needless to say, his and Dane’s announcement and the doping controversy that wasn’t had been the lead sports story of the day. Coach had handled the latter well, Roger the former with the glee of a publicist working a whole new angle.
His phone dinged with an incoming text.
“Just sent you a picture,” his mom said. “So you’ll stop worrying.”
He lowered the phone to take a look. On the screen was a picture of his family, holding up the blue blanket she’d been knitting, and in rainbow colors across the middle, the words Go for the Gold, Alex, and in what he could tell was a last minute yet heartfelt addition, And Dane tacked on beneath his name.
They were behind him, behind them, all the way.
“Thanks, Mom,” he said. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you all.” He’d gotten so lucky to have a family that accepted and supported him. They would do the same for Dane too.
“You’re a good son, Alejandro. Someone we’re all proud of. Though if you boys don’t bring home a relay gold this time, I’ll repurpose the blanket into mittens and a toboggan for winter.” He loved hearing that spark back in her voice, even if it was at his expense.
“We’ll see what we can do,” he said, grinning.
When he was done saying goodbyes to the rest of his family, they hung up, and he took the phone over to the bed, showing the picture to Dane, then to Bas and Jacob.
“She says she’ll be very disappointed if we don’t bring home the gold.”
“Nuh-uh.” Bas waved a rib at him. “I know Mrs. C. That’s not what she said.”
Alex rolled his eyes and tossed a corn muffin at him. “Fine, she said she’ll make mittens and a cap out of it if we lose.”
Bas caught the corn muffin and stuffed it in his mouth. “That’s more like it,” he said around the mouthful of food. “I love that woman.”
They all rolled with laugher, even Dane, which Alex was grateful for after what he’d learned of the confrontation with his parents. Dane and Bas had appeared on deck twenty minutes after Alex, and for the rest of practice, the relay teams had run hard. The days off had thankfully not dulled their timing when running as they should. After, as Coach had drawn blood for their retests, Dane had given Alex a recap of the showdown with his parents. Alex could tell it had upset Dane, but they’d both known that’s where things were headed, and Dane seemed relieved to have it over with and to have Coach, Roger, the team, and Alex behind him.
“What’d Coach and the Committee say about the evidence?” Jacob asked.
“They wanted to check it themselves, given my personal investment in the matter,” Dane answered, bumping Alex’s side. “Coach was pretty confident it would get sorted out.”
And Dane was confident enough to insist Alex pack his bags for the flight to Europe tomorrow. They sat ready to go next to Dane’s, who’d insisted, when leaving Colorado, that Alex bring everything back with him. Alex hoped all his insisting wasn’t for naught.
“What’s going to happen to Ryan?” Jacob asked.
“He’s off the team,” Alex answered. “Likely off his club team too.”
“I still can’t believe he did that,” Bas said.
Alex had a hard time wrapping his head around it too. “No one said anything at the practice or after, but how much of a concern is it?” he asked Jacob, the youngest member on their team. “Us returners hogging spots and medals.”
“It’s out there,” Jacob replied. “You can either resent it or learn from it. Most of us choose the latter.”
Alex reached over and ruffled the short mop of hair growing back on his head. “Thank you, guys, for sticking by me. I know I don’t make it easy.”
“You take on too much,” Bas said. “But that’s why you’re the captain. And we’re behind you. Especially that one.” He held a hand out to Dane, who shook it. “You proved me wrong, Ellis. Couldn’t be happier about that.”
As they finished eating, talk moved to lap times, seedings, and likely competitors, time passing unnoticed until the knocking of nightly bed checks sounded down the hallway.
“That’s our sign to go, Pup,” Bas said. “Let’s leave the lovebirds to it.”
They gathered up the takeout boxes to toss in the hall trashcan, and Alex and Dane unfolded from where they were nestled together against the headboard.
“Thanks for helping with the takedown, Pup,” Alex said, following them to the door. “Those were some impressive moves.”
“I’m just glad you two are back and happy,” Jacob said, pulling first him, then Dane, into bear hugs.
Bas approached next with a backslapping bro hug. “Glad I was wrong.”
Before he stepped away, Alex asked, “We’re not the only lovebirds here, are we?” He hadn’t missed how Jacob and Bas were even more connected at the hip than when he’d left and how they gravitated toward each other in any situation.
The pup picked up his pace to the door, confirming Alex’s suspicions, and Alex clasped Bas’s arm, holding him back. “Do you know what you’re doing there?”
“Not doing anything,” Bas said, playing dumb.
If this threatened the team. If it cost them the relay gold like another of Bas’s mistakes had four years ago . . .
“I won’t fuck up again,” Bas said, reading his mind. “Now, turn off that captain brain for a night,” Bas added, knowing him too well. “Enjoy your last night off with your boyfriend before the chaos starts tomorrow.”
“If it starts tomorrow, for me at least.”
Dane slung an arm around his waist, hauling him close and kissing his temple. “It will.”
“He’s right,” Bas said. “And if this afternoon was any indication, heaven help us all with you back as captain.”
He skirted out of the room before either he or Dane could lob a comeback.
The door clicked shut behind them, and Alex turned in Dane’s arms.
“You want to talk more about what went down with your parents?” he asked.
“Not really.” Dane ducked his head for a kiss, and Alex evaded.
“But they weren’t behind Ryan changing the test. At the airport, then after with them here, you did all that—came out—for nothing?”
Dane tugged him over to the bed, bringing Alex tumbling down with him. “Not for nothing.” He rolled so Alex was underneath him, forearms braced on either side of his head. “For you.” He stared down, blue eyes swirling with a devotion that made the question nagging Alex hard to ask. But necessary.
“Where does this go, Dane, after Madrid?”
“You and me, in Colorado Springs, if you’ll have me. I don’t plan on spending another decade without you.” Dane’s thumbs played with the hair at his temples. He seemed so calm, so at peace, even as they talked about uprooting his life.
“Just like that, you’ll leave everything, for me?”
He smiled, small, a sudden sadness creeping in. “What’s there to leave? I live at home with my parents. I swim for a club five miles from my house.”
“One of the best clubs in the country.”
“One of the best. But as you said, any club would be happy to have me. The question is, would you?”
“Would I what?”
“Be happy to have me, for good?”
Heart pounding, Alex ran his hands up Dane’s arms, over his shoulders, and to his neck, finding Dane’s own racing pulse there, betraying his outer calm. He’d offered himself to Alex, afraid he might be turned away.
“This is real, isn’t it?” Alex said, marveling at this new road he found himself on.
With Dane.
“That’s what I’ve been telling you.”
Alex smiled, and took that first step. “Yeah, Big Red, I’d be thrilled to have you with me.” Before Dane could kiss him, he took another step, hoping Dane would follow. “Though maybe not in Colorado.”
Dane’s happy face fell. “I get it. It’ll take some time to get used to. I can wait.”
Alex cupped his cheeks. “That’s not what I meant, babe.” He rubbed his palms against the red scruff there, reassuring both of them. “I’ve been thinking, when Mom’s recovered from this round of chemo, that I might make a change.”
“What kind of change?”
“California, if I can swing it financially. I miss it, and Bas is there too. I’m sure his club would take us, if you’d want to go there, with me?”
Dane dipped his head, giving him another one of those kisses so full of promises Alex thought the world possible. “I’ll go anywhere with you, Alejandro Cantu.”
On his stomach, head pillowed in his arm atop a soft pillow, Alex thought this was a much better way to wake up than yesterday morning. Sunlight streaming in around the edges of the window blinds, warming the side of his face. Body sore from yesterday’s hard practice in the pool and last night’s hard workout in the bed. His partner in both endeavors a heavy weight draped over his back and side, his light snores ruffling the hair on the back of Alex’s neck.
Dane Ellis.
In his bed, in his life, and hopefully on the same team together again.
Alex turned his head and opened his eyes, happy to find he hadn’t woken in an alternate reality. Dane’s freckled face glowed in the morning sun, his shining red-gold hair stuck out in every direction, and a hint of a smile played on his lips, even in sleep. The world had gone to hell around them the past week, and Dane seemed more relaxed than ever.
If someone held a mirror to his own face, Alex suspected he’d see the same this morning. Sure, there were plenty of problems to tackle, but he felt lighter, fuller. Because he’d let someone else, his teammates and Dane, help carry the load. No matter the outcome this morning, no matter whether he added more medals to his case or not, Alex was in a better place, with the trust and respect of his family, team, and coach, and with the love of his life at his side.
“You’re staring,” the sleeping giant mumbled.
Alex chuckled. “Yeah, I am.”
Dane opened one eye, pupil shrinking in response to the bright light, the blue of his iris translucent in the morning’s rays. He grinned wider. “You’re smiling too.”
“Yeah, I am.”
Dane’s other eye popped open. “We get word from Coach, yet?”
Alex snaked an arm out from in between them and brushed the hair off Dane’s forehead. “No, but I’ve got all I need right here.”
Mo was right. There was more to life than medals. And Alex’s more was Dane.
Hand diving under the sheet, Dane threw it over Alex’s waist and hauled him closer. “You saying you don’t want that gold medal anymore?”
“Oh, I still want it.”
Dane forced a thigh between his, spreading Alex’s legs and making room for other parts of them to meet, to bump and glide, both half-hard already. Dane dipped his head, licking a path up Alex’s neck to his ear, breathing hotly there. “I bet I know what else you want.” Dane’s sun-warmed hand slipped off his hip and around to grasp their cocks, gathering their slick and using it to ease the glide of his fist around them. “That round four we didn’t get yesterday morning,” Dane said, and Alex groaned his agreement, arching into the tight, hot grip.
Definitely a better morning.
He made to fall back, but Dane kept him on his side, even as he slid down his body, kissing a path from neck, to nipples, to belly button, to the place that craved his attention most. Those full lips closed around Alex’s tip, tongue teasing his slit, and Alex braced a knee on Dane’s broad shoulder to stay upright.
Dane moaned as he swallowed his cock down, as if there was nothing he liked doing more. His fist at the base moved with his mouth, and he slipped a finger along Alex’s length, wetting and teasing, heightening the sensation.
Preparing Alex for what came next.
Hooking an arm under his leg, Dane palmed his ass, steadying him, then trailed that slick finger down his crease and over his rim, circling the edges but never pressing in. Alex was forced to thrust after his mouth and chase after his touch, a back and forth where both directions were mind-blowing pleasure.
Alex clutched the sheet with his outstretched hand while the other dove into Dane’s hair. “Babe, please,” he begged, hips so far back, so wanton for more inside his ass, that he’d brought his tip to Dane’s lips. Dane circled his tongue around it, and Alex didn’t know which way to go. “Gonna fucking kill me.”
“Gonna fuck you,” Dane mumbled, then took all of him down again, tip bumping the back of his throat, at the same time two fingers pushed inside.
Senses overloaded, Alex didn’t know which way was up; all directions pointed to Dane. His fingers in his ass, his mouth around his cock, and his leg thrown over Alex’s, Dane’s dick hard and wet against his calf, humping in time with his mouth and hand.
Alex flattened his hand in Dane’s hair, turning it into a caress that tunneled in and out of the strands with each pitch of their bodies. Heat all around, both of them still hungry for every touch, every connection, they were at the edge in no time flat. The speed of Dane’s rutting escalated, hips snapping on either side of Alex’s leg, and he homed in on the spot inside Alex, stroking with single-minded focus, until Alex spilled down his throat, shouting all manner of Spanish obscenities as he came. Dane’s release followed in short order, coating Alex’s leg.
Teetering on his side, Alex finally fell back and Dane rolled with him, hand still under his ass, face nuzzling his groin, like he was perfectly happy to stay right there all morning, in spite of their mess.
Alex hummed, likewise content. “You comfy down there?”
“Very,” Dane said. “You mind if I stay here?”
“Go right ahead.” Alex slung a leg over Dane’s back, caging him in. “I enjoyed round four.”
Dane tilted his head, chin resting on Alex’s hip bone, grinning up at him. “I know you did. Though technically, it’s round five, counting last night. Give me a few to recover, then I’ll treat you to round six.”
Alex was going to ask what that entailed, but then their sex-dazed bubble was burst by someone pounding on the door.
Dane’s tortured groan was loud enough to be heard outside. And unmistakable.
“Go away,” Alex hollered at the unwelcome intrusion.
Bas’s deep laughter floated through the door. “Stop fucking like rabbits for two minutes, and open up.”
A curse-laden version of his previous order was on the tip of his tongue, but Dane beat him to it. “Give us a minute.” Alex glared down at his bedmate. “He might have news,” Dane said, pushing up from the bed.
Alex growled in frustration. Dane was right; his dick didn’t care. Dane laughed and slapped his ass. “Up, Cap.”
They rolled out of bed, Dane grabbing a hand towel out of the bathroom so they could clean up before pulling on clothes. With each piece, the morning’s lightness faded and Alex’s nerves crept in. He wasn’t lying, all he needed was Dane and the future they’d talked about, but it would still sting to lose the other thing he wanted most.
The chance to compete again with his team. And now with the man he loved.
If nothing else, though, they’d done everything they could to make that happen.
“Hey,” Dane said, at his side. “They’re going to let you back on the team.” He held out his hand. “Come on, let’s get the official word.”
Buoyed by his confidence, Alex slid his hand in Dane’s, marveling at how much easier this was now that he wasn’t doing everything on his own. Dane dragged him toward the door, opening it to reveal Bas and Jacob standing in front of the rest of the team.
“Tell me,” Alex said. Perhaps his last order as captain.
Bursting into a smile, Bas withdrew his hand from behind his back, holding up a plane ticket. And it wasn’t back to Colorado Springs.
Alex’s relieved exhale was choked off in a gasp when Jacob hit him square in the chest, wrapping him up in another bear hug. “Welcome back, Cap.”
Alex smiled big, but it was nowhere near as big as the heart expanding in his chest. The road opened back up in front of him, full of all the possibilities.
Dane hugged him from behind, whispering in his ear. “Now I get to kiss my boyfriend in Madrid when we win the gold.”
“If we win the gold.”
“You bet your ass we’re winning,” Bas said, piling on as chants of “Al-ex” and “U-S-A” broke out in the hallway.
If Alex had to guess that morning, he’d say they were going to win too.
Not the silver this time.
Gold.