About Competition

by J. Rocci
28 pages / 7100 words
Ebook zipped file contains - html, lit, Adobe and Sony optimized pdf, prc, epub

Officer Joshua Dabbs and his husband, lawyer Garrison Williams, met while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps ten years ago. Their lives are very different now than from when they first started dating: they're out of the Corps and the closet, they're married and own a house, and they're getting ready to adopt two kids through the state. Josh figures their life is pretty much perfect.

When their friends challenge them to run in the annual Marine Corps Marathon, they find themselves back in D.C. and visiting their old stomping grounds around Quantico. Garrison and Josh enter a friendly competition to see who finishes the marathon first.

Sample

Josh likes being a small town cop, but knowing and protecting his neighbors also means he gets to see the ugliest parts of them as well: domestic disputes and DUIs, assaults and child abuse. It's easier and harder when he knows both victim and assailant. Luckily, he spends most of his time writing traffic tickets and responding to minor car accidents, or helping other jurisdictions when their own ugliness hits.

He wouldn't change their quiet life for the world. They're close enough to the city that Garrison's commute isn't horrid, and the place gets enough seasonal traffic with the ski resorts that Garrison -- city boy at heart -- doesn't feel stranded.

The unique gym scent of heavy sweat and industrial cleaner assaults his nose as he enters McAdams. There's only a couple other guys working out on the punching bags to the side, and one lone man on the weights, so Josh's attention is immediately drawn to the two fighters in the ring.

Garrison…

Josh pauses at the edge of the ring to admire his man.

All that coiled up energy and tension that Garrison carries around with him is obviously being bled off as he and E circle each other in the ring and exchange furious blows, the smack of padded leather grappling gloves on skin echoing through the gym.

A criminal attorney, Garrison is the type of guy to wear designer suits and imported shirts even to the grocery store, but here, he's in a T-shirt and loose shorts. The dark brown skin of his arms is shining with sweat in the crappy yellow fluorescent lighting, and his headgear is keeping the sweat from his eyes as his shaved head gleams. His raggedy old USMC T-shirt has darkened at the pits and neck, and Josh has to admire the cut of his muscles, from his calves to the loose movement of his shoulders as he lands a solid punch on E's raised forearms.