Second Thoughts by Kristofer Clarke Read Free Book Online Page B

see. So you became a Sooner, huh. What? The Jackets weren’t good enough for you?”
    “That wasn’t it. Mom’s wanted me close to home, plus they gave me the full ride I wanted.” Jacoby said.
    He didn’t seem like a momma’s boy.
    “I’m joking. You did what you had to do,” I said, managing a quick smile. 
    “Yeah. I did.”
    There was a brief pause.
    “We should just walk to baggage claim. It doesn’t look like this train is coming any time soon, and it’s not that far from here,” Jacoby said, even though the train was less than a minute away.
    So, that’s why I never heard anything about this Jacoby Means after I hosted him during his visit to G’Tech at the beginning of my sophomore year. Coach had told me about this prospect with a good arm. He could throw the ball at least 50 yards to a good wide receiver, and he could run a decent 40, too. As his host, I had to pick him up from the airport, show him around campus, and convince him that Tech was the place to ball. When he walked through the doors at Hartsfield, I took pleasure watching his muscular, 6’2” compact sexiness strut towards me. That was the first time I met Jacoby Means. The good time I was going to show him had nothing to do with what coach had in mind. While my roommate was away at a Kappa party on Techwood Drive, N.W., Jacoby and I had a party of our own. He had walked into the room with a tightly wrapped white towel hanging low around his waist and expected me to ignore him. He must have been tripping. I’d thrown a few test questions to Jacoby. Once I knew he would keep whatever happens between us to himself, shit, it was on. When I met Jacoby DeVone again, a few years later that Friday evening waiting for the train in Concourse C, I wasn’t going to let him disappear again.
    As much as I hate to admit it─’cause I promised myself to never love a man─part of me loved him. I don’t think I need to specify which part of me that was. Ok, maybe I only loved being in him. I had pulled him back into the closet with me. I was a successful twenty-six year old man with a roommate. I think some of the women I dated refused to entertain the thought that Jacoby might be finding his way into my bed─or me finding my way into his─when the lights were low and his were the arms I wanted to hold me while I slept.
    “Are you there?” Jacoby asked, snapping me out of my trip with a carry-on filled with memories.
    “I’m here,” I answered, and took a sip from my wine glass. 
    In my mind, I wanted the sophisticate and delicate taste of berry and raspberry to wrap around my tongue and take me to another place, but for now, here with my thoughts was where I was going to be.
    “I know you called for a reason. Something heavy you need to get off your chest?” Jacoby asked, as if he had me figured out.
    “I think if I had been more open with you, we would’ve worked.”
    “You being with Dexter was about as open as we could get, don’t you think? And I don’t think I need to mention the women who played your fools, too.”
    With that statement, I knew there were still feelings of resentment.
    “Ok. I deserved that.”
    “You did,” Jacoby agreed, and for the first time in a long while, I heard him smile. “Where are you?”
    “Atlanta,” I answered as if I were being rushed. “I need to tell you something, Jacoby.”
    “Shit, Patrick. Should I be sitting down for this?”
    “How about I tell you what it is first and then you can decide.”
    But if he was still the same Jacoby, I knew he was already sitting, holding his breath, anticipating my disclosure.
    “My…,” I swallowed before continuing, “my father comes out of jail in the next couple days.”
    “You never told me your father was in jail,” he said almost in a whisper, as if he didn’t want me to hear.
    “I know. It wasn’t something I wanted to brag about. Plus, I didn’t want anyone to think it bothered me that his ass was there.”
    I paused and