Free Safe Harbor 2: Hiding in Plain Sight by Cassandra Carr

He took a few moments to stretch his lower back and legs as well, stumbled into the bedroom, and dropped face-first on the bed. He grabbed the covers, rolled over, and promptly fell back to sleep.

Chapter Five
    Joe worked some weekends, but on this particular weekend, he was off. It bummed him out Vlad wasn’t around, but at least he’d be back tomorrow. Maybe they could even go on their date tomorrow night. He tried to look on the bright side of not having the man around. Tonight he could watch Vlad play without worrying about having to get to bed for work the next morning, listening to the radio while he worked, or any of the other dumb things he’d been contending with when Vlad was playing.
    Having grown up in a small town about ninety minutes from Pittsburgh, Joe was naturally a fan of the Phantoms, but he’d never taken an interest like he was now. They were playing Boston, and both teams were in the thick of the playoff race. Right now, Pittsburgh was two points behind New Jersey for the lead in their division, while Boston was four points ahead in theirs but had played two more games than the team right below them.
    After spending the day cleaning the rest of the house and running errands, Joe made a pot of spaghetti sauce and sat down to eat like a civilized adult. It was easy to just sit on the couch or the floor in the living room and chow down while he watched television, but with spaghetti, there was potential for a disaster. As a nod to trying to eat better, he’d purchased one of those complete salad-in-a-bag things. He dumped the contents into a bowl and made himself eat that before the noodles.
    He finished up and cleaned the kitchen, stowing away the remainder of the sauce in the freezer, and went into the living room. The pregame had just begun, and he sat down to watch. The camera zoomed in on Vlad near the bench area, one skate up on the boards as he bent forward to stretch. Of course the sight caused an erection as Joe’s brain flooded with the ways he could bend Vlad to his liking. Joe sighed, forcing his attention back to the screen. The camera had moved on to highlight some other players, but Joe still watched Vlad, who was now in the background doing some stretch that made him look like a frog.
    Joe’s phone rang, and he picked it up. Obviously it wasn’t Vlad, and his parents were down in Florida for the month and virtually unreachable with their antiquated cell phones. He hadn’t reconnected with too many people in the time he’d been home. He hadn’t wanted their sympathy, and none of the friends he’d had before deployment knew he was gay.
    His heart skipped a beat when he checked the caller ID. Brendan.
    Joe took a deep breath. “Hey, man! How ya been?”
    How was he going to explain Vlad to Brendan? Was it even necessary to? He didn’t want to out the other man.
    Your dick got you into another mess.
    The line crackled, and Brendan’s deep voice answered, “Good, and I’ve got news.”
    “Oh yeah?” Joe glanced at the screen. Vlad had just taken a shot in warm-ups, and Joe watched as he turned away from the goal. He frowned. Shouldn’t he be wearing a helmet? He realized Brendan had stopped talking. Shit. Busted . “Sorry man, you cut out on me some. Can you repeat that?” It was amazing how easily the lie slid off his tongue, even though he hated being less than truthful.
    “I said they’re sending me home early. Did you see the speech the president made? He wants the troops out as soon as possible.”
    “Didn’t see it,” Joe murmured.
    “Anyway, I should be stateside in a few weeks and completely done about six weeks from now. Of course, those plans could get blown all to hell. You know how the army is.”
    Yeah, I do.
    “Wow. Congratulations.”
    “I thought after seeing my folks for a couple of days, I could maybe come to Pittsburgh to see you.”
    Joe closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. “Sure, man.” He was happy Brendan was getting to leave, but Joe was