That’s actually in the works right now!

Alex’s mom (and her whole family 2.0) more or less pretend that Alex doesn’t exist since that’s most convenient for them (less because he’s gay and more because she’d prefer that she never had a wild youth and was the perfect housewife from day 1 with her perfect husband and kids who look just like him).

However, I do have a head-canon that Alex’s baby half-sister Katie (“call me Kat or I will shank you”) comes out as bisexual in high school and her parents had 0 prep and handle it badly, not in a “she’s in danger sort of way” but in a “we’re well-meaning but our response is deeply hurtful” way. And being a strong independent teenager, she’s like well fuck that, I’m out.

So one day Eli opens the door and there’s a furious teenage girl who’s like, “whattup, I’m Alex’s half-sister Kat, I’ve run away from home and I’m not going back and you can’t make me; you have to harbor my fugitive ass because I’m queer and also sort of related to you. Do you have anything to eat?” And Eli is like, “how did you know where we live? how did you even get here?” and she says, with a degree of distain only a teenager can muster, “mom has your address so she can send her stupid Christmas card every year. And I got here on a plane, duh.” And he’s like, “well, you better come inside because the baby is going to wake up any second and also my southern upbringing dictates that I feed anyone who expresses the slightest indication of hunger.”

It turns out she’s crazy for itty bitty sleepy infants and he conveniently has one of those. So he gets her a healthy snack and leaves her cooing over their fresh spawn and franticly calls Alex from the other room (it’s playoffs and he’s on the road, naturally). Alex ends up having to call his mom for the first time in a decade. Long story short, Kat stays with them for a few weeks since summer vacation has just started and she’s, you know, full of riteous fury. But after a couple weeks things simmer down and apologies are made. Because Alex’s mom and her husband realize this isn’t a phase they can talk their kid out of and they’re going to lose her if they don’t act right. So they actually start having productive, meaningful conversations with Alex and Eli and over the next several years their relationship drastically improves. Kat visits often and actually lives with them through college (she goes to the same fictional university Eli did in Houston) to save money on housing and help out with her nieces and they stay super close. So that relationship never fully heals, but it gets better. And it gives them Kat.

I also head-canon that during Kat’s junior year of college, when she’s still living with them, Alex and Eli let a new rookie stay with them for a bit. Naturally, Kat and Rookie end up falling for each other which gives Alex a very fatherly existential crisis and nearly gives Rookie a heart attack when Alex catches Kat sneaking out of Rookie’s bedroom one night.

Uh. Anyway. That was probably more than you were expecting.

Ok I actually have a headcanon for this I just didn’t find a way to include it in the book.

So he finds out he’s going to lose his scholarship in the same conversation in which his very baffled academic counselor informs him that his tuition for the semester has, nonetheless, already been paid by an anonymous donor.

And he goes home to have an argument with Alex about it because he just assumes it was Alex. But Alex is like, no?? I didn’t even think about that. Why didn’t I think about it? Who did?

But it remains a mystery and Eli starts saving his Youtube Money and is like, if that doesn’t cover it maybe I’ll let Alex help, we’ll see. Except next semester rolls around and his tuition is paid for again. And again it wasn’t Alex.

Anyway, it’s several years later that Jeff accidentally slips up on one of the rare occasions that he gets drunk and admits that he and his wife were the first time but Kuzy was the second semester and Rushy was the third and he lost the plot after that but basically, the Hell Hounds roster paid for Eli’s tuition and they were all in cahoots with Eli’s mother who helped them with his account info and stuff because, unlike her son, she had no qualms about letting overpaid athletes take care of her kid’s tuition.

Hiya!

So LRPD was pulled from AO3 because I scrubbed and published it! (2 volumes since it was hella long).

The published versions look like this:

@it-is-ineffable did the cover art and it is PRECIOUS, right?

If you want the original free fic version, you can check the comments of this post for folks who have downloaded copies they can send you.

If you want to purchase the published versions, the first book is here (or at the bookstore of your choice) and the second book can be preordered here or at the bookstore of your choice (it’ll be published on the 14th! Just a few more days!).

Happy reading, whichever form you choose :)

Yeah :)

Yes! I’m only going to do 50 this time, though, so it’ll be a first come first serve situation once I post about it. I’m also attempting to get a release party/signing event set up in Austin so potentially folks could go there and see me/Deacon sign their book in person!