332

"Drive back to Telluride tomorrow, jump my boyfriend the moment I walk through the front door and spend the rest of the winter teaching snot-nosed kids how to ski." She shrugged. "I wouldn't have it any other way. Brenda?"

"My life is so boring compared to everyone else's," she sighed. "I'm just heading back to Denver tomorrow morning, working tomorrow night, working a double on Tuesday, then rinse and repeat for the foreseeable future. Maybe I'll jump back into the dating scene."

"Has it been a while?" inquired Vienna.

"The last time I got laid was a quickie in the walk-in cooler with the dishwasher during a slow lunch hour, and my last date started as a buttdial. How about you, Vienna," Brenda said, turning the question around. "What do you have planned?"

"Sins and Needles. I love being a tattoo artist and I wouldn't change it for the world. Plus, you know, start dating this bitch right here." Vienna put her arm around Colette and snuggled against her. "And you, lust of my life?"

"Actually," Colette grinned, "I was thinking about opening a candy shop." Vienna smirked and lightly thumped Colette's shoulder, causing her to laugh. "Seriously, I'm gonna keep my focus on four things - the store, my therapy, my grandmother, and now my girlfriend." She reached up to gently stroke Vienna's cheek. "This is new and exciting territory for me. I've never formally dated a woman before."

"I have." After a moment Vienna shrugged. "Well, not 'date' so much as 'slept with her after last call frequently.'"

Colette raised an eyebrow. "That's how you and I started dating. Is this a pattern with you?"

"No, no! OK, this was like four years ago. I was visiting this tattoo artist in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, for the summer to pick up some drawing techniques..."

"Oh, this story!" Gio settled back against the couch, allowing Evelyn to press up next to him and get comfortable. "You're gonna get a kick out of this one, Colette."

"Anyway," Vienna continued, "my apartment was above a local watering hole. We used the fire escape to go down to the bar, and it turned out the bartender would use the fire escape to come visit me once she kicked the last patron out..."

X X X X X

Tyler nodded as he double-checked the KT tape. "There. That should hold until you get back to Salt Lake City. You sure you don't want some Advil?"

Sitting on a weight bench wearing a gray tank top, Danny shook his head. "I want the trainer to check it out as is. I'll be there before noon tomorrow anyway." He glanced at the structure of tape laid expertly across his shoulder, upper back, and upper chest. "I can tough it out until then."

"Put ice on it as soon as you get back to your house," Tyler urged. "And keep it immobilized as best you can with that sling."

A weary sigh escaped Danny. "At least the plane has ice, even if it's supposed to be used to chill the champagne."

Tyler had hung up the "CLOSED" sign on the front of Independence Fitness as soon as they had arrived from Sapphire Drop, leaving him and Danny the gym's sole occupants. Danny hadn't protested when Tyler sat him down on an empty weight bench and proceeded to put his arm in a sling before applying KT tape to support his injured shoulder. A dull pain throbbed deep within the joint, and trying to move it beyond a tiny range of motion sent a stabbing agony through his upper torso.

Danny had barely spoken while Tyler taped him up. The anger had long faded from Danny's body. The only thing that stopped him from slouching was the added strain it would put on his shoulder. He was used to losing. It came with being a professional athlete. But for the first time that he could remember, he felt totally, utterly defeated.

He looked at Tyler as he sat down on the weight bench opposite him. "Is this where you say you told me so?" he asked his friend.

"There's nothing for me to say," Tyler answered sympathetically. "All I can tell you is to get back home and take care of yourself. What's done is done."

Danny ran a hand through his blonde hair. "Damn it, I had him. If I had beaten him..."

He trailed off. After a few seconds, Tyler responded, softly but firmly repeating, "If you had beaten him, then what? Would you have finally moved on? Or would you have hung on to your hatred so the next time you saw him, you could have a rematch of tonight? Which one, Danny? Moving on or hanging on?"

"I don't know, Tyler. I honestly don't know."

"You better figure it out soon. Or else Garrett's right, and you are going to end up Christian Laettner."

"Hey," Danny shot back weakly, "I'm already a four-time All-Star. Laettner only made it once."

Tyler easily swatted Danny's comment out of the sky. "Yeah, and he made it to the second round of the playoffs. You haven't." Reaching out, Tyler gently squeezed his friend's good shoulder. "Go home. Ice up. Get some sleep before flying back to Aspen tomorrow morning. And talk to your team therapist. Your body's in the game, but your mind isn't. Garrett's been living rent free in your head since high school. Maybe that's what's holding you back."

"Maybe. Maybe." Danny got to his feet. As best he could with one arm, he gave his friend a firm hug. "Guess this wasn't the reunion weekend you expected, huh?"

"Fuck that. I got to see my friend. That's all that matters to me."

Tyler watched quietly as Danny took his arm out of the sling before carefully slipping into his coat, wincing several times in the process. "I'll text you when I get back to SLC," he called out before stepping out onto the sidewalk of a town he was no longer the king of, a broken, shattered, defeated young man.