Safety Net (46 page)

Lowell reviewed everything
carefully and debated the merits of the top three, and Erick was getting
impatient, wandering through the store, idly inspecting all kinds of delicate
objects. Lowell worried he’d break something expensive. He chose a necklace
with a pendant for his mom and decided if it wasn’t enough, he could come back
and get the matching bracelet.

“Are you always like this when you
shop?” Erick asked as they left the store.

“They were all pretty,” Lowell said
defensively. “I couldn’t make up my mind.”

Erick dropped back to sneak in an
ass-tickle and said, “I didn’t realize you were such a girl.”

“Dude, you are so getting dunked in
the pool for that.” Lowell swiped at him but Erick scampered out of reach, and
Lowell recalled that Erick had gotten better at avoiding sacks this season,
with his O-line still woefully inadequate.

“Gotta catch me first,” Erick
taunted him and broke into a run when they reached the beach. Lowell chased
him, caught up with him, and they jogged the rest of the way back to their
hotel. The surfing lessons had ended, so they spent the afternoon on the beach
and Lowell got to dunk Erick in the ocean, though Erick got revenge a few
minutes later.

After playing in the waves for a
while, Lowell waded out of the water, watching Erick basking on a beach chair
in the sun: baggy swim trunks wet and plastered to his legs, his bare muscled
stomach, his strong chest sprinkled with dark hair. He noticed two girls
scoping Erick out and smiled at their ogling while Erick, behind his
sunglasses, was almost certainly oblivious to it. From the rise and fall of
Erick’s chest, he suspected Erick was napping.

The girls caught sight of him
walking up the beach and he received some flirty ogling of his own. They were
really pretty, curvy college girls, and as he approached Erick’s chair he thought
about the threesome fantasy he used to have. Though he’d given it up for dead
after he and Erick got together, the truth was, the idea of watching Erick with
a woman got Lowell hot. He smiled at the girls and walked past to wake Erick up
and drag him back to the hotel for a quick, frantic, incredible fuck.

The next day Erick woke him up
early to say he was going for a run, and Lowell wished him well before
burrowing under the blankets for more sleep. Erick climbing over him, on top of
the blankets, finally woke him up. Erick slid down, settling on Lowell’s back,
and placed a small box on the pillow in front of Lowell.

“This is for you.”

Lowell rubbed his eyes and squinted
at it. “What is it?”

“Open it,” Erick said.

Lowell opened it and inside was the
silver bracelet he had seen yesterday, the men’s bracelet he’d nearly bought
for his mom. The top was carved with cool Hawaiian native designs and inlaid
with pretty bits of local shell and coral.

“Erick,” he said, smiling. “What
the fuck?”

“You liked it, didn’t you?” Erick
said, nuzzling his neck. “I can take it back if you don’t like it. Or was there
another one you liked better?”

“No, no, I loved this one. I just
didn’t think... C’mere, you,” Lowell said, rolling around underneath him and
pulling him into a kiss.

Erick laughed softly. “C’mon. Take
it out. Put it on.”

Lowell took it out of the box and
was about to put it on when he noticed the inside. He held it up and read the
engraving:
There is no part of me that isn’t part of you. E
.

“Erick,” Lowell whispered. He
blinked rapidly. “Shit.” He caught his breath, blinked again and managed a
laugh. “Freudian much?” he said, making a show of slipping the bracelet over
his hand.

Erick grinned at him. “I thought it
was appropriate.” More soberly he said, touching Lowell’s cheek, “But it’s
true, you know. Seriously. Not just sex, either.”

Lowell gazed into his eyes. “I know.”
He smiled and ran his hands over Erick’s arms and shoulders, admiring the
bracelet. “When did you have time to get this? How did you get it engraved so
fast?”

“I’d already had them put it aside
for me,” said Erick. “I called the shop yesterday while you were cavorting in
the ocean.”

“Cavorting. Oooo, fancy Crocker
degree words.”

“Damn straight.” Erick poked his
nose. “When I went down there this morning, I asked if they could engrave it
and they said sure, they can do it while you wait. I think it came out really
nice.”

Lowell took it off to read the
inscription again. He touched the
E
with his fingertip. “Yeah,” he said,
sliding the bracelet on. “It’s beautiful. I’m gonna wear it all the time. I
mean, I don’t know if I can wear it on the field, but the rest of the time? One
hundred percent.”

“Good,” Erick purred, nuzzling his
cheek. “’Cause all I was thinking about on the way back here was how much I
wanna see you touch me with that bracelet on. Make love to me wearing the
bracelet.”

Lowell laughed. “You are such a
weirdo sex fiend.” But he was happy to oblige.

Later, holding Erick while they
drifted sleepily, Lowell rubbed Erick’s hair and said, “I wanna get you
something now. A bracelet?”

Erick kissed Lowell’s chest and
said musingly, “I don’t know. I don’t feel like a bracelet kind of guy somehow.
Even though it’s seriously hot on you.”

Lowell also couldn’t picture Erick
with a bracelet; Erick’s wrists were meant for wrist guards and the occasional
watch. “Necklace?” he asked, immediately thinking,
no
. He felt Erick
grimace and said, “Yeah, I don’t see it, either. Anklet?” he offered, feeling
silly. “Earrings?”

Erick lifted up, his eyebrows
raised, and murmured, “Yeah. I’m gonna pierce my ears so you can buy me
earrings, Menacker. Uh huh.”

Lowell flashed him a grin. “My mom
has these nice dangly ones with pearls. I think they were my grandmother’s. You’d
look darling in them.”

“Darling,” Erick snorted. “I was
thinking we could get matching tattoos instead. We’re part of the uninked NFL
minority. Maybe it’s time to join the crowd.”

Lowell arched an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?
What kind of tattoo?”

“The Crocker University seal. I
always thought it was nice. Classy. And since Crocker brought us together.”

Lowell didn’t think Erick was
serious but he kind of liked the idea. “Where would we put it?”

“Anywhere, as long as it was the
same tattoo,” Erick said. “I already decided where to get mine.”

“Where?”

Erick lay back and outlined a
circle over his upper inner thigh. Lowell frowned, thinking how much it would
hurt to get a tattoo there. “Why there?”

“Because you spend a lot of time
there, one way or the other,” Erick said mildly.

“You are so full of shit, Texas,” Lowell
laughed, grabbing him.

Erick wrapped his legs around him
and kissed him. “Am I wrong?”

Lowell wrestled with him for a
while, tickling until he turned his tickles into caresses and kissed Erick
tenderly. “I’m serious, though. I wanna get you something.” He hesitated. “Can
I get you a ring?”

Erick rubbed the back of Lowell’s
neck and smiled. “Yeah, you can get me a ring. I guess it better be for my
right hand,” he murmured, wiggling his fingers.

Lowell blushed a little. “Uh, yeah.
You sure? Would you wear it?”

Erick looked critically at his
fingers. “Well, as long as you don’t buy me an ugly ring, yeah.”

“If I promise not to buy an ugly
one, can it be a surprise? Like the bracelet?”

Erick smiled. “Uh huh.” He held up
his right hand and patiently let Lowell measure his ring finger with a piece of
paper from the hotel notepad. Lowell was so psyched about the idea he wanted to
get to the shop before it closed, and Erick, grinning, waved him off, hinting
that he might get his tattoo if Lowell took too long.

Lowell was disappointed by the
rings at the shop and wondered if he should wait until they got to the
mainland. But that defeated the whole purpose -- the whole reason why it was
special was because they were here together, alone. He went hunting around the
other shops and found a fancy jewelry store, the kind of place that would be snooty
back home, but on Kauai was expensive without being standoffish. He found the
perfect ring: a wide, squarish, masculine band with a large square stone inset.
The stone was Crocker red. The only problem was that the band was gold and
Lowell had wanted silver to match his bracelet. The guy at the shop was
helpful: they didn’t have this same style in silver but they had it in
platinum.

“That’s it,” Lowell said, seeing
the platinum version. “That’s the one.”

The guy measured carefully and
found one he thought would fit, and it cost an insane amount of money but
Lowell barely noticed the price.

“Do you want me to gift wrap it?” the
salesman asked.

“No. I’m gonna give it to him now,”
Lowell said, opening the ring box to admire it again.

The salesman gave him a goofy
smile. “He’s a lucky man.”

“We’re both lucky,” Lowell said,
scrawling his name across the credit card receipt.

Back at the hotel, he made Erick
wait for the ring, insisting on dinner first. Erick pestered him a few times
but seemed to enjoy the wait. After dinner they walked down to the beach and
sat on the rocks, watching a brilliant sunset, and Lowell took Erick’s right
hand and held it.

Erick said, “Bro. If you put it on
now, I can’t even see it. You and your so-called perfect timing.”

“Too damn bad. I’m putting it on
now.” Lowell took the ring out of his pocket and slipped it over Erick’s
finger.

“Is it too loose? Too snug?”

Erick held his hand out, squinting
at the ring. “No. It fits fine. But I can’t see it. Let’s go inside.”

Lowell caught his hand and threaded
their fingers together. “In a minute. First this,” he said, bringing Erick into
a gentle kiss.

“Outside in public?” Erick
murmured, kissing him back.

“I kinda don’t care right now,” said
Lowell. “Like, honestly. I’m sure once I’m home, I’ll be like, oh fuck, what
did we do? And go scouring the internet to see if anyone put video of us up and
busted us. But right now, I don’t care.”

“I don’t care, either,” Erick said,
and kissed him again before they went inside. Erick loved the ring, immediately
recognized the color of the stone, and promised he’d only take it off when he
was on the field.

He kept his promise. Whenever
Lowell saw him being interviewed on TV, Erick was wearing the ring.

-----

“I still can’t believe you know
Erick West,” Lyle said.

Dale was relaxing on Brent’s sofa
in front of the giant flatscreen TV. Lyle had invited him and a few others over
to watch the Super Bowl. Brent, not a football fan, was happy to stay in the
kitchen and keep the hors d’oeuvres coming.

Dale exchanged a quick glance with
Randall, who took a gulp of his beer and turned back to watch the commercials.

Dale had met Randall at one of Lyle’s
football nights and had vetted the guy carefully. Randall had played soccer and
football in high school but had given it up in college. He was a senior at the
University of Maryland, completely closeted -- not even out to his parents yet
-- and Dale trusted his discretion. When Erick had come to town for the game,
met up with Dale and haltingly asked if Dale knew any guys, Dale had
immediately thought of Randall.

The first meeting had worked out
well, and Randall went to Philadelphia a month later to see Erick again. But he
came back subdued and mopey, and it took a weekend brunch for Dale to get the
story out of him: Randall was totally besotted with Erick and wanted to visit
him in New Haven, but Erick had said no, they better cool things off.

Dale, listening to this as he poked
at his hash browns, had felt horrible. Somehow he’d failed to communicate to
Randall that it was only supposed to be sex.

Now, a month and a half later, Dale
noticed Randall start at Erick’s name and felt horrible all over again.

“Yeah, well, how did you get Kurt
Warner’s autograph?” Dale changed the topic, and Lyle proudly told his fanboy
story again.

After the game Randall offered to
give Dale a ride home; Dale was living frugally on his District of Columbia
salary and hadn’t bought a car yet.

“Have you heard from Erick lately?”
Randall asked in a voice he obviously wanted to sound neutral.

“Last week or so.”

“How’s he doing?”

“He’s fine.” What did he want to
hear? That Erick was pining for him?

“I’m being stupid,” Randall sighed.
“I should stop thinking about him.”

Dale tapped at the passenger side
window, watching lights go by as they neared Dale’s neighborhood. “There’s
something about Erick, I don’t know what it is,” Dale said.

The car turned onto Dale’s street
and Randall parked in front of the apartment building. “He was so nice to me,” Randall
said, like he was complaining, like it was all Erick’s fault. “He was sweet. He
ordered us room service.”

Dale gave Randall a sidelong look,
thinking if room service was all it took to win Randall over, the kid had
problems.

Randall laughed a little. “It wasn’t
just that. That sounds stupid. But he was sweet. And honestly, before I met him
I couldn’t have cared less about the New Haven Hawks, but since then I’ve been
watching them and seeing him play... Wow.”

Dale smiled. “Yeah. Wow.”

Randall was silent for a while,
picking at the steering wheel with his thumbnail. Dale was about to get out of
the car when Randall said, “Did you and Erick...? When you were in college
together were you lovers?”

Dale laughed a little. “No. He’s
not my type.” He very forcefully stopped himself from remembering how Erick’s hard
dick felt.

“Oh. I thought...” Randall shrugged
moodily. “He said it had been a long time since he’d been with a guy. I thought
maybe he meant you.”