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After a week-long road trip, Tyler and Callan make it to their home at last in the historic neighborhood of Beverly, Chicago. It's nearly midnight, and their house-sitter has left for the night, but their baby – a Jack Russel terrier named Stella – bolts to the door and welcomes them home. Stella jumps and prances about the room, her nails tipping and tapping all over the hardwood floor, her tail whipping left and right.
“Hi baby!” Callan coos, kneeling down to pet her sleek coat.
“Stella, Stella!” Tyler chants, encouraging the playfully rowdy dog.
The two have talked about possibly adopting someday. But, with their busy schedules and hectic lives, the decision will obviously have to wait until one of them retires. Besides, Stella is perfectly content to serve as the couple's de-facto child in the meantime. She loves to wedge her stout body between the two muscle-bound athletes at night and sleep belly-up.
“You're so spoiled, Stella!” is a common refrain heard around the Vance-Jones household.
***
FOR ATHLETES WHO DEDICATE their lives to sport, the off-season has a habit of flying by far too quickly. It takes weeks to unwind and recuperate from the fatigue of a demanding and physically-taxing schedule. But even in the off-season, the grueling work-outs don't stop; these days, an athlete has to maintain his top-level conditioning year-round, lest he let the competition (or Father Time) get a step-ahead of him.
And then, once you've finally managed to catch up with the latest from friends and family and feel at-home with them, it's time for training camp to start again.
But for Callan and Tyler, the off-season after the Cup win really blew by. There was the post-championship frenzied madness – the city parade, the team parties around the city, the gatherings at teammate's houses for their own private parties, the non-stop bombardment from the media (who were dying for all the details of Callan and Tyler's relationship), the contract negotiations ...
... But all of that was the haze-filled background to something else that was going on that seemed a lot more important, a lot more fun, and a lot more real: the rush and excitement of their budding love. The feeling that they could never have enough time together. The feeling that birds were always singing, the Sun was always shining, that flowers opened for them as they walked by and the air always felt so fresh and Earthy and pure.
Most know that when you've fallen in love with someone for the first time, you can't possibly spend enough time with them; in fact, you can't bear to be apart from each other – and that certainly proved true for Tyler and Callan. They did their best to fulfill their obligations, knowing how important it is not to lose sight of family and friends. But they always rushed home in a hurry, eager to rip each other's clothes off as if it were their first time together.
They delighted in each other's bodies, learning their intimate likes and dislikes, g-spots and tickle-spots, preferences and outright dirty kinks. They made hot, heavy love daily if they could – often, if one of the men woke in the middle of the night, he'd tiredly put a palm between his lover's legs and paw at his crotch. Just to see. And almost always, his lover would stir awake, his cock expanding under the pressure of that hand. The two men would push aside the need for sleep, just long enough to suck and fuck each other into a state of bliss, until the room was filled with orgasmic grunts, groans, and moans. Tired and worn out once more, the two men would wrap their arms around each other and pass out again.
Of course, when you're in that phase with someone, it can be hard to be in public together – without sometimes being tempted, that is. You can't always rush home and fuck at the drop of a hat. Sometimes you can't wait any longer, and you have to make do with what you have. It's true, they took risks – with Callan always muttering what a terrible idea this is! At the park, they'd sneak into the woods and suck each other off. At a night club, they met up in an unused upstairs room, just long enough for a quickie. At the beach, they wedged themselves under a rocky bluff, out of sight, where they could make love with the ocean waves lapping at their toes.
Thankfully, even with their risky behavior, they managed not to get caught and avoid any further controversy.
Ahem. Back to the off-season!
The first matter of business was their contract situation. Doug Johnson realized how valuable the two men were to his team, and happily offered the athletes two identical contracts: a seven year, multi-million dollar deal. Both players were even offered no trade clauses, so they couldn't be traded and split apart. They'd be a member of the Hawks, together, for the next seven years.
But the length of the deal freaked Tyler out at first. “I have no idea if I'm gonna be able to play that long! I'll be 36 when it expires ...”
“You gotta!” Cal urged him. “C'mon! We'll do it together, man.”
Tyler's agent agreed with Cal. “You can always retire early if that's what you truly feel like.”
Tyler grumbled. “True ...”
Cal waved his hand in the air. “But he won't have to do that.”
After sleeping on the decision overnight, and with some convincing from Cal, Tyler agreed to the contract. And immediately after, the two snuck off to Hawaii for an impromptu celebration of their mutual business commitment, and, more importantly, a much-needed mini-vacation.
Now that Callan finally had his big payday – and Tyler had yet another – it was time to find a new place to live. Callan wouldn't live in a hotel forever, and the decision was made to buy a house. Tyler joked that they might hire Jason to find them a house. Ha ha. Of course, that'd be a terrible idea ...
But Callan did call Jason's former employer, and asked them to give Jason his job back. Why? Tyler had asked with a gasp. Callan could only shrug – he couldn't quite put his feelings into words. He only knew that forgiving people and moving on seemed to feel far, far better than carrying around a big, angry grudge for the rest of your life. And so it seemed the right thing to do.
Tyler could only shrug with befuddlement and say “you're actually a really good guy,” as if that fact still managed to surprise him.
And maybe, honestly, it surprised Callan, too.
Regardless, Jason got his job back, and he held true to his word – his YouTube channel became something of a fireside chat about LGBT issues in sports.
Still, Tyler and Callan opted for a different real estate agent, and found a perfect house in Beverly – a gorgeous, turn-of-the-century, two-story house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, complete with a pool and stunning flower garden.
Donovan also returned for the next season. He'd thought long and hard about retirement, but ultimately chose to come back for one more year. And though he'd had friction with Callan initially, the next year, he took it upon himself to be the team's enforcer. No more shying away from fights – Donovan was a force to be reckoned. Anyone who took liberties with Tyler or Callan had to answer to Donovan – who went out with guns blazing in his last year.
Donovan's increased physical role let Callan focus more on scoring goals – and he developed nicely into a bonafide scorer who didn't need to talk trash 24/7 to be effective. Not to say he went soft; not at all, and Callan never backed down from dropping the gloves when his team needed the boost. But with Tyler feeding him passes, Callan scored a career-high 40 goals the next year.
And it didn't hurt that Coach Stevens drilled it into Cal's head anytime he started with the rough stuff: “Callan! We're a better team with you on the ice, not sitting in the penalty box!”
Over the coming years, Tyler would finish up his psychology degree – taking online courses during the season and taking summer semester classes in the off-season. Cal, inspired by Tyler's effort, managed to get his GED. (And also read The Trial, a book he called “completely and totally fucked up, man!”) Although Cal swears he's not smart enough for college, he has started practicing piano again and kinda-sorta flirts with the idea of going to school, someday, for music. An idea which makes his Grams excited beyond belief.
As for how the two players and lovers fit in on the Hawks going forward? Tyler and Callan's relationship was something of an open secret. Everybody knew it, but it wasn't necessarily a topic of interest or conversation. Tyler and Callan did their best to be professional around their teammates, like they would at any job. And the boys respected the hell out of them for that.
Which, in a way, always made it that much hotter when they finally got home. Spending all that time together, but having to be 'professional' and not touch either? ...
***
“I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR this that whole flight,” Cal grunts as he pushes Tyler into their bedroom and shuts the door behind them.
Stella wants to follow them in – but love-making is their private time, and she has to sit in the hallway. She pouts and whinnies, her nails scratching at the door, frustrated at being separated from her Daddies.
“Stella! Shh!” Cal laughs, unbuttoning Tyler's jeans in a hurry. “Just wait a little while, Stella!”
“Oh my God,” Tyler laughs as Cal drops to the floor and pulls his lover's cock out. “She's so spoiled ...!”
“Stell—ohhhh,” Tyler groans loudly, deeply, as Cal swallows his manhood and slurps up and down its length. “Hell yeah, Cal.”
And then, softly, seriously – “I love you, Cal” – as he stares into Cal's eyes, while Cal pushes his lips down the thick penis.
“Mmmf.” Cal lets Tyler's big, girthy cock swing out of his mouth, a tendril of saliva clinging to it. “I love you too, Tyler.”