The phone call comes in the fourth inning. Ethan Cole just collapsed on the mound.
Nate Reyes has lived through a lot of terrible moments-brawls, breakups, four months of silence that nearly killed him. But nothing prepared him for watching the man he loves get stretchered off a baseball field while he sits in the stands, unable to do a single thing about it. He can't rush to Ethan's side. He can't ride in the ambulance. He can't hold his hand in the hospital. Because officially, they're just teammates.
Ethan's elbow is shattered. Tommy John surgery. A year of recovery at minimum, and no guarantee he'll ever pitch again. The golden boy who defined himself by his control has lost it in every way that matters-his arm, his routine, his identity.
As Nate becomes Ethan's secret lifeline through months of grueling rehab, their relationship reaches a depth neither expected. Late nights icing swollen joints. Arguments about pushing too hard. The raw, unglamorous intimacy of watching someone you love fight for their future, knowing the world can never see you holding them together.
But the closer they get, the more suffocating the closet becomes. Because the hardest part isn't the injury. It's loving someone through the worst year of their life and not being allowed to say it out loud.
