Page 4 of Ring Rust

Jasper made himself useful in the meantime—accepting congratulations on Ryan’s behalf, laughing at terrible jokes, answering the same questions he’d answered a hundred times before.

Aren’t you proud?

Are you excited?

What are you going to do next?

The last one was fun to think about. For years, the answer to that question waswait out another tour. Another contract. Another year of the Boston apartment. But now, there was nothing left to wait for. After tonight, Ryan no longer belonged to CWA. He was coming home to Jasper.

“Ryan promised there’s nothing on the horizon right now. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to say that, so I’m pretty excited,” Jasper said to the woman who’d just joined him at his table. Ali, the wife of CWA’s CEO, he was pretty sure.

“Uh huh.” She smiled knowingly and patted his hand. “Well, retirement looks different for everyone.”

Before Jasper was able to respond, Ryan reappeared. “Hey, Ali,” he said, dropping a kiss to her cheek.

“We’re sure going to miss you around here. Don’t forget about us,” she said.

“Oh, I won’t,” Ryan said. “I have a lot of ideas.”

“I knew you would,” she said, grinning. She said her goodbyes and wandered off into the dwindling crowd.

“You ready to go?” Ryan asked.

“Yeah. Are we staying here, or did you want to go home?”

“Home. I’ll come back next weekend to deal with everything. I’m ready for a few days of rest.”

“Well, you earned it.” Jasper took one last look at the ballroom and smiled, then followed Ryan to the car.

The drive from Boston to their house in Pelham was nearly two hours. Ryan had managed the commute in the earlier days of his CWA career, but eventually he became popular enough that he spent more time in Boston than at home, so he got himself an apartment. Jasper hadn’t minded that at first—he had a life and teaching career in Amherst, and a professional wrestling career wouldn’t last forever. Tonight was proof of that.

“You’re hyped,” Jasper said, buckling his seat belt. “Did they put something in your champagne?”

“I barely had any. I just can’t believe how much freedom I’m about to have. It feels weird, you know?”

Jasper didn’t really know, because his life wasn’t going to change much. In fact, he would have less freedom with Ryan being around more, but he got Ryan’s point, so he nodded anyway. “I can imagine.”

“I’ve actually been thinking a lot about it. What comes next, I mean,” Ryan said, settling into the driver’s seat. “I don’t think I’ll be able to just sit around.”

Jasper smiled faintly, pushing aside the apprehension tickling his chest. “No, that’s not your style.”

“Obviously the wrestling is done.”

That should have provided some relief. But Ryan didn’t look done, so instead, Jasper braced himself for what was coming.

“I talked to Garrett a bit tonight. Nothing serious, nothing set in stone. But he thinks I’d be good at commentary. Big events to start, but then who knows. Tours? Even just small ones.”

Jasper looked out the front windshield and bit the inside of his cheek. “That would be fun. You’d be good at that.”

Ryan’s smile spread wide, creasing the corners of his eyes. “Thanks. And yeah, it would. Or I don’t know, what if I took up photography?” He laughed. “I could do behind-the-scenes stuff, or tour stuff. Document the next big things at CWA. There are just so many options.”

Jasper nodded but felt his gut sink. Even in retirement, Ryan was searching for a way to stay close enough to the ring that he could still feel the lights on his skin.

“Coaching at the development level, even! They’ve got that program here in Boston.”

Jasper watched the dark road stretch in front of them as they pulled onto the freeway. Ryan could spend the next two hours listing off ideas of what to do in retirement, and Jasper couldn’t be sure a single one of them would take place in the town they called home.

“You’d be a great coach. I just thought… Well, I guess I hoped I might get to see you a little more.”