Tipping the Balance (28 page)

“Do you need me to take it up with the oversight committee?” Brad said.

“That’d be great if you could pry more money loose, but no, that’s not why I’m here.” He looked Brad right in the eyes. “I want you to be my assistant coach.”

Brad stared at him. Then he sat down on the steps. Hard. He knew Nick needed one. He’d just never imagined that Nick planned to ask him.

Nick swooped in and removed the bottle of sports drink from his hand. “Easy there, big guy.” Then he laughed. “I can’t believe I’ve managed to render Brad Sundstrom speechless.”

Brad shook his head. “I must be hallucinating from the heat. For a minute there, I thought you asked me to be your assistant coach.”

“I did,” Nick said. He sat down next to Brad. “Why’s that so hard to believe?”

“Dude, I’m not even remotely qualified, for starters,” Brad said, the “duh” hanging unspoken between them.

Nick shrugged. “Beyond rowing for four years, neither was I when I started, and you’ve got that much under your belt.”

“I don’t know, Nick….”

“I think you’d be really good at it, and an asset to the crew,” Nick said softly.

Brad didn’t say anything. Wow. Assistant coach. His mind raced with reasons to refuse. He was busy enough as it was between working part-time for his father and more than that for Drew, plus working on his contractor’s license. Adding coaching to the mix would mean a lot of early mornings on top of everything else.

And Drew. Their relationship took time now that they were boyfriends. He’d better talk to Drew. It wouldn’t be fair to him to take on another time commitment without checking with him.

He rested his chin on his knees, arms wrapped around his legs. He felt Nick watching him, but he ignored the other man. Crew. He’d missed it. He hadn’t known how much until Nick dangled the chance to get back into it in front of him. It had been such a big part of his life for so long. To have it back… longing overwhelmed him.

“Just promise me this, that’ll you’ll at least do a ride-along with me in the launch before you make a final decision,” Nick said, mistaking his silence for refusal.

Brad looked up, blinking away his dithering. “Yeah, I can do that. Maybe Friday morning?”

“That’d be great, Brad, and thank you,” Nick said. He stood up. “I have to run if I’m going to eat and make class on time. See you Friday morning.”

Brad watched Nick jog to his car and drive off. Huh, go figure. Assistant coach.

“
Knock
, knock!”

Drew looked up and smiled when Brad opened the door. That Brad felt comfortable knocking and entering delighted him, and he’d taken to leaving the door unlocked when he expected him. “Hey, you!”

Brad walked in carrying a duffel bag in one hand and a brown paper shopping bag in the other. He stopped in the living room just off the foyer where Drew was at work on a laptop. He leaned in to kiss Drew. “Hey, yourself.”

“Long day?” Drew said.

“You know it,” Brad replied, dropping the duffel.

“Go shower, and I’ll go throw something together for dinner,” Drew said.

Brad held up the paper sack. “No need. I hit the deli at Good Foods.”

“Then I’ll set the table. Go get cleaned up,” Drew said, giving Brad a playful push.

“I smell that bad?” Brad said.

“No, you stink. I smell…
you
,” Drew said.

“I’m going, I’m going!” Brad said. He picked up his duffel bag and headed to the back of the house and Drew’s guest bathroom.

Drew saved the search on his computer. More clients, more comps, followed by home inspections, pest inspections, and arguments about staging. His job, he reflected, would be so much simpler if his clients simply stopped living in their houses.

“Ah, it’s nice to relax after a long day,” Brad said ten minutes later when he sat down next to Drew on the sofa in the family room. “Cool, that show’s on.”

Drew rarely ate in front of the television, but somehow kicking back with Brad felt right, even if he knew many of his other friends would never believe that Drew St. Charles
ever
ate in front of the television. “It’s very nice to relax with you. But—and don’t take this the wrong way, because I’ll take every moment with you I can get—doesn’t your family object to you being gone all the time? Do they even notice?”

“Yeah, right,” Brad said. “Actually, my brother Philip asked me where I was. I just told him at a friend’s house.”

“What’d he say?” Drew asked. He’d wondered himself if Brad’s family cared at all. Brad was at his place nearly every night. They pretended it was to go over the day’s work on the reno and upcoming small jobs that Drew could now contemplate taking on while they waited to hear back on the bid for the Bayard project, but he was pretty sure they both had the same ulterior motive.

Brad shrugged. “He didn’t say anything. It’s not like he’s there much, either. He hides at his girlfriend’s house when he can.”

“Why don’t you guys move out?” Drew asked.

“I can’t afford to yet, or believe me, I’d be out of there so fast I’d get whiplash,” Brad laughed without humor. “Philip? I don’t know. He certainly earns enough. But he’s always been Randall’s favorite, and that means he’s on a real short leash. I used to resent it, but lately….”

Drew waited to see if Brad had more to say, but as usual, the subject of his family shut him down. “You’re realizing you’re a grown-up, perhaps in a way that Philip isn’t, maybe in a way your dad doesn’t want you to be. I don’t understand it, but whatever.”

“Whatever is right. As soon as I’ve saved enough for first and last month’s rent, I’m gone. I’ve got a small trust fund from my mom, but it’s supposed to be used ‘to help me get ahead in life and not for daily expenses’,” Brad said. “That’s a quote from her will, by the way. How’s that for a kick in the pants? I’ve actually got money, I just can’t touch it.”

“At least she cared enough to set you up and cared enough to make sure you did something with yourself,” Drew said.

Brad smiled. “Yeah, she did. You’d have liked her.”

“If you’re what she turned out, I’m sure I would’ve,” Drew said.

Brad smiled at him. Time to lighten the mood, or at least get off the serious stuff, Drew thought. “So how’s the reno? How was your day?”

“Funny you should mention that,” Brad said. “Guess who came by after work today?”

“The building inspector?” Drew said.

“I’d have sent you a text message. No, Nick Bedford.”

“Good ol’ Nick,” Drew said. “Now that he’s back in school and back to coaching, I don’t hear from him as much. This sounds bad, and don’t take this the wrong way because I’m nothing but happy for those two, but it was kind of nice when he and Morgan were trying to get their act together. It meant I heard from Nick a lot.”

Drew felt Brad look at him. “You’ve known him a long time, haven’t you?”

“Since we were freshman. That’s eleven years now,” Drew replied.

Brad put his hand behind Drew’s neck and rubbed it. “I can’t wait until I’ve known you that long.”

Drew leaned over and rewarded Brad with a kiss. “Me too. So what’d Nick have to say?”

“I think I told you how the oversight committee authorized money for an assistant coach for the varsity?” When Drew nodded, Brad continued, “Nick wants me to be his assistant coach, if you can believe that.”

“Assistant coach,” Drew said.

“Yep,” Brad replied before taking another bite food.

“So now darling Nicky’s poaching,” Drew said.

Brad stopped chewing and swallowed. The gulp was audible even to Drew. “You think he’s after me?”

Drew stared. “Oh, God, I’m sorry! No, not that way! Jeez. This spring, back when Nick was first going out with Morgan, I—” He stopped, the color rising up his neck when he remembered where this story ended. “Are you sure you want to hear this?”

“Since you’re as red as a tomato? Oh, yeah,” Brad said. “You’re adorable when you blush, by the way.”

That just made it worse. Drew felt like his face was burning. “I was pretty into you by this point—”

“Really? That early? You hid it well,” Brad said, grinning at Drew’s discomfiture.

“You were just clueless,” Drew said, his face afire. “Do you want to hear this or not?” Brad mimed zipping his mouth closed. “Anyway, you’d definitely caught my eye, and I joked that since Nick got to have a hot rower boyfriend, why couldn’t I? There. Are you happy?”

“Oh, yeah,” Brad said cheerfully, snuggling down into the cushions. “So what do you think? About me assistant coaching, I mean.”

“Honestly? I can’t say it thrills me,” Drew said. When Brad opened his mouth to protest, he held up one hand. “Let me finish. It doesn’t thrill me because I’m already worried about how busy you are. You work part-time out at that awful subdivision six days a week, then you work more than half days a week on the reno. We’re talking about taking on more jobs since you’re here to lead, and even though those’ll be small jobs, it’s still a demand on your time and mine, and they bring with them more responsibilities. And then there’s your contractor’s license.”

“Yeah,” Brad said, “I know, but still….”

And that was it, that
still
. Drew looked at Brad, who was now staring glumly at the television. He knew Brad had felt rudderless since graduation. Working on renos seemed to help, but he also knew Brad missed rowing. Maybe this would help. “All of that said, I can’t really point fingers, because I’m just as busy trying to sell lots of houses now, just in case that needs to carry us, assuming we get the bid on the Bayard project. If this is something you want to do, we’ll find the time.”

Brad looked back at him. “I guess it couldn’t hurt to go talk to him. I mean, it’s crew. And Nick.” Then he smirked. “And Morgan. I’d be coaching Morgan.”

Drew laughed. “Just don’t start any fights with Nick, I beg you.”

“All right, I promise,” Brad said. “So you don’t mind if I take this on?”

Drew nodded. “I said I don’t.”

“I just want to check to be sure it’s okay with my boyfriend,” Brad said, smiling shyly.

Drew replied with a smile of his own. “Boyfriend. I sure like the sound of that, you big lug.”

“Just so long as I’m
your
big lug.”

“Oh yeah, you are,” Drew said, happier than he remembered being in a long time. “You are.”

Friday
morning found Brad up dark and early and down at the CalPac boathouse. His dress clothes for the sales office were in the back of the car, along with the carpenter’s pants and old T-shirt he wore when he worked on the reno. Despite the fact that the September day would warm up nicely, it was still cold down on the water, and he had his parka on and a lightweight fleece cap.

Brad paused in the open doorway of the boathouse. Nothing had changed, but somehow things appeared different. All the familiar sights were there, the boats, the ergs, the locker rooms…. He flushed when he thought of the time he’d seen Nick and Morgan rushing into them. Now he had a better idea what might’ve gone on. Now he wanted that himself with Drew.

He shook his head to clear it. He really didn’t need the distracting mental image. No, the boathouse was familiar, yet somehow not. He recognized people, varsity rowers from last year, junior varsity rowers who hoped to make the jump to varsity this year. Across the boathouse, Morgan raised a hand in greeting as he sat on the ergs to warm up. Brad smiled and waved back.