Winning His Vote: An Enemies to Lovers MM Romance by Casey Morales

Author:Casey Morales [Morales, Casey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 3Aussies Press
Published: 2022-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

16

GO VOLS!

DAVID

The home of the Tennessee Volunteers welcomed us in a flurry of orange and white. Most cities hid their construction barrels as soon as roadwork was complete, but not Knoxville. The barrels’ colors happened to match that of the home team, so the city proudly displayed as many of them as possible on either side of the interstate as one entered the city. Billboards normally agnostic to education were framed in Vol colors. A few even had orange-and-white flags flapping in the wind above them.

We didn’t enter gates or a fancy tree line demarking the university’s bounds so much as crossed an imaginary line in the city where student apartments and academic buildings slowly replaced offices and restaurants. The campus where more than twenty-four thousand students matriculated sprawled like spilled milk across a floor.

The bus turned into the section where athletic facilities dominated, then pulled up to the entrance of the Thompson-Boling Arena. This was the building where legendary basketball coach Pat Summitt led teams to win eight national titles. She grew up on a dairy farm and eventually played on the US Olympic team before turning her immense talents to coaching. In 2000, she was declared Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Century. In 2012, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In my mind, she was the greatest coach the sport had ever known, and the void left by her passing would never be filled.

It was surreal to walk into her house.

As I led our pack of politicos into the gymnasium, walls filled with photos of her greeted us. When we entered the court, and an impressive row of National Champion banners looked down, a sense of wonder and history nearly overcame me. I was usually pretty good at keeping my emotions in check, especially before an event, but there was something special about walking through the tunnel and entering the court where Pat had reigned. I made a mental note to ask the campaign photographer to snap a few extra photos for my personal collection.

The sound of thousands of people chatting and laughing jarred me out of my musing.

Students weren’t known for following through on political activity, at least not all the way to casting a ballot, but we hoped to change that—at least enough to move the needle and win the primary. Even in ultra-conservative East Tennessee, the younger generation was more moderate on social issues than their seniors. I knew today could make or break our campaign.

“You ready?” Saul’s grumble turned my head.

“Yeah. Go Vols. Rah-rah. That sort of thing.”

He snorted in the way only a cynical old bastard could. “Let’s not change the speech that much, okay?”

I grinned. “Yes, Dad. Mom already made revisions. I thought his pen was bleeding when I looked at the draft a couple hours ago.”

It took Saul a second to realize I was teasing about Joe. We’d reached backstage, so he turned away and addressed a guy wearing a headset.

The crowd was louder than I’d expected, and the air seemed to crackle around us.

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