The draft took place in a spacious arena in downtown New York, where thousands of enthusiastic fans filled the seats, many of whom were not even supporters of the teams involved. Instead, they came together for the thrilling spectacle of witnessing the futures of young men unfold in real time, name by name, team by team, round by round.
Cole sat in the family section with his father on one side and Reese on the other, his mother two seats down — the four of them together for the first time in over a decade, an unlikely constellation of people who'd once seemed permanently scattered by divorce and distance and years of complicated, conditional love, now sitting shoulder to shoulder in matching nervous silence.
"You don't have to hold my hand this hard," Reese murmured, amused, as the firs
