Chapter 832 - B
“That’s because he’s used to swimming against himself and not having to hand off to team members. He’ll get it, but you’ve still left me in a lurch to replace him. I added one more swim team member but he’s no Auggie, not yet anyway. Auggie beats everyone without hardly trying. He’s so damned athletic, it’s all natural to him. The dude swam the Barrier Reef in Australia for shits sake. He only played high school basketball, yet he’s way above all the other, even senior basketball stars. Everything is effortless for him in sports. You should see him play volleyball. If he gets a piece of the ball the point is over and he gets it. I’m amazed at all the talent he has. As much as I hate to say it, he will be a great team member for the basketball team, and I have a major hole in my squad now. But, I’ll take one for the team, just for you, big brother,” I told him causing Tuck to give me a hug and nubby my hair with great protest from me. Forest just laughed, but told me he knew I always did what was right. I frowned at him.
While I was talking to Tuck, Forest and Millie, Cal came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. “Hey, Josh, how’s it going? Looks like there’s going to be quite a crowd here tonight. I love what you’ve done with the place. What do you call this, early industrial?” Cal joked. I shook my head as he gave me a hug. “Congratulations on yet another enterprise,” he said.
“Cal, I want you to meet our Uni basketball coach, Tuck and his wife Millie. This is Cal, the FBI field agent heading up the large task force here in Uni that took care of all the drug ring corruption here in Uni this summer,” I said, introducing them. Cal shook hands with Tuck and then Millie telling them he was glad to finally meet them. “And this is Tuck’s better half in basketball, Coach Forest, who’s our assistant coach that keeps Tuck grounded and on track,” I said, introducing Forest to Cal.
“Glad to meet you too, Coach Forest. I’ve heard so much about you, I almost think I know you,” Cal replied as he shook Forest’s hand. I was chuckling to myself inside. Tuck and Millie were chuckling at what I said.
“Josh is the one that keeps all of us in line, I guess you could say,” Tuck told Cal. “Heard all about your busy summer in the news. I heard you even did some undercover work also in an effort to nail all those guys,” Tuck added.
“We had a lot of help from many people to bring this ring down and thankfully it was all successful. Unfortunately, we had a couple of innocent people get hurt during that exercise, one police officer, a friend of Josh’s actually, and someone that was working with us to help bring the group down. Josh had a lot of leads and some of his people helped us with some reconnaissance so it was quite a group effort. Anyway, I got to know Josh like a brother during my stay here in Uni because of all that, so there were some good things that came out of the whole mess,” Cal explained. “So, Millie, what’s it like being married to a famous college basketball coach, and Forest, what’s it like working for one?” Cal asked.
Before any of them could answer those questions, Jake beckoned me to talk to some others that were waiting to talk to me. I told the four of them to keep on talking, but I had to mingle, then excused myself to make my way through the crowd that was packing the place. So many people wanted to talk to me. There were so many great friends that showed up. Jake sent me to Conner and Neal, a couple I knew I was going to hear shit from for Lucky. The two hugged me first, then started harassing me.
“So you went and did it. You turned a perfectly straight guy gay right under our noses, and never even bothered to tell us about it. Good grief, Josh, I don’t know what it is about you, but you definitely have a gift of some sort,” Conner started off. I told Conner I couldn’t help it if I was irresistible. “Yeh, right, but you kind of are if the truth were known. Neal and I sure as hell don’t fault Lucky for falling for you, as we can totally understand that. I mean any gay man with any sense would cream his jeans to have a shot at you, but now you have the straight ones running after you also. I swear no man is safe around you, straight of gay,” Conner chided. “By the way, nice work on the new brewery. The beer is fantastic,” Conner added.
“Well thank you. I haven’t had a chance to talk to you two since Lucky’s coming out party of sorts in your office, but I guess all is well from what he told me,” I replied. Conner chuckled.
“You could have blown us over with a feather, Josh,” Neal chimed in. “When I think of all the teasing that dude did to me while I thought he was totally straight, I just can’t believe I was that gullible. I never thought anything about his being gay. I told Conner my gaydar took a dump or something as he could have fooled me. Hell, he’s even kissed me before and I never thought anything about it, other than I kind of liked it. I liked it when he paraded around naked in the locker room also, but felt a little guilty lusting after him. Not anymore. The whole thing was just a total shock. Dirk, we kind of knew about, but it was one of those things you just didn’t talk about. He was closeted and wanted to stay that way. We don’t know what Lucky did to draw him out, but both of them are fantastic individuals and Conner and I were happy to see them get together. They make a nice couple,” Neal added. I smiled, telling them I was happy for Lucky also as he was looking for someone to share with.
“Well, in essence you improved two peoples lives even not knowing about Dirk because now they are happy together,” Conner added.
“Jake and I could improve two more people’s lives if you and Neal would come over and shower with us sometime,” I chided. Conner cracked up, but Neal asked what day and what time, with Conner giving him the evil eye again. “So how’s your new job? Guess there was quite a shakeup in Uni city management after your boss got arrested along with the mayor,” I chided.
“Unreal, Josh. Of course you were right there with us in all of that. I couldn’t believe how close you got to being in danger after I told you to stay the hell away from all of that. You scare me to death at times. I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you after all the good you’ve done for so many people and the ones I especially needed the help with like Dylan. Gees, I love that kid today compared to what he was before. You’ve touched too many people’s lives to lose all the good you’ve done in this world and your special place here with all of us. Lucky told me about a couple of the incidents you two were involved with. I’m sure there’s more, but he says it’s of no consequence. Can’t say that I believe that, and then we almost lost him. I’m still kind of pissed at Cal for letting Lucky do what he did to get the evidence we needed for the case. Cal swears there was no stopping him as he was determined to do it. Thankfully, that Kenny dude shielded him for the fatal blow. I still have nightmares over that situation. I ask Lucky how he copes with what happened. Get this, he says as long as he has a nice ass to fuck and a nice cock to fuck his ass, he never thinks a thing about what happened. I guess I can kind of see his point,” Conner said, making all of us chuckle. “My guess is that you taught him well, Josh,” Conner chided. I laughed.
Just then Jake came and told me there were people waiting to talk to me when I was done. Conner and Neal told me to take off as they’d catch me later, just as Lucky and Dirk were coming up to talk to Conner and Neal. I got hugs from both of them before I took off.
Dr. Wayne and Henry were waiting to talk to me. I immediately hugged Doc and even patted his ass in the process, making him chuckle, saying he should have known I was going to do that. I hugged Henry also and patted his ass, with him telling me I should have squeezed his ass. Doc told him to behave, but we all got a chuckle out of it.
“I know tonight is not the place and time to talk shop, but I’ve been worried about you and Rowen, Josh. Are you two doing okay mentally or do we need to spend more time on what happened? I ask this once, and then we’ll talk about better things,” Doc asked. I smiled.
“Honestly, we’re doing fine. I’ve been so busy with so many projects, some of which are in Key West, I’ve been flying back and forth trying to take care of wrapping up some projects there. I just never think about it, and I’ve certainly never had any nightmares over it at all. I know it happened, but I could care less. I’m not denying it shook me up at the time because it did rather dramatically, but it’s not where I focus my efforts. It’s a negative thing that happened in the past, under my category of shit happened and it’s over so let’s go on. It bothered Rowen at the beginning, but he’s in love now with someone that had a traumatic incident in their life also, so the two decided to bury the past and concentrate on the future with each other. They’ve actually worked out very well and are very happy. They are out of state now, but I see them every so often, and we have a good time drinking beer together,” I replied. Doc seemed relieved.
“He really does worry about you, Josh. He’s not all the sophisticated doctor he leads us to believe he is. He does have feelings, and cares a lot. You’re one of the ones he cares about. I tease him about that a lot just to get under his skin,” Hunter chimed in. I chuckled, telling Doc that was the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard about him. Doc shook his head.