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“I’m not freaking out, Marcus, I’m just trying to process.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound condescending. I know we’re both edgy about things.”
“Yeah, we are, and we need to handle this well. Going to a party as your date is a big step. Did you tell anyone on the team about us?”
“Well, no…”
“Then maybe you should so they don’t lose their shit when we walk in together. When is that party? I might be playing.”
“You’re not. I already checked the schedule.” I sat up straighter. “Look, baby, I know it seems like a big step, but maybe it’s time we just did it, you know? The longer we put it off, the more lies we tell, and the harder it will be to come clean. My aunt thinks we just have to dive in and get it over with, and I’m starting to think she’s right.”
He glanced around the bathroom and took a moment to peel off his tee. I could see the steam on the glass doors behind him. It must be sultry in that small bath. Or he was trying to rattle my focus by flashing those sexy pecs of his.
“It’s easy to say just leap in when you’ve got nothing to lose,” he finally replied as he nervously used his fingers to comb his hair, his shirt serving as a phone stand of sorts.
“I get that. And I’m not suggesting we just throw our story out there and to hell with the fallout, but we need to take the initiative here, get a plan, and just do it.”
“You a spokesman for sneakers now?”
Some of the tension eased around his stunning eyes.
“I wish. Look, let’s just start small. We can do this party, right, and then move onto something else while we start informing our teams in our own ways.”
He stared at me openly, his gaze riddled with worry for a very long moment. Then, as if he had found a well of fortitude inside his massive Styrofoam cup, he nodded. Hand to God I nearly fell off the damn bed, I was that shocked. He’d been reluctant to let more people know, other than the handful who already did, and while I hated to push him on it, I really disliked lying all the time to every damn person who meant something to me. And I knew he did as well.
“Okay, yeah, we can do that,” he whispered. “You have to tell your closest friends. I don’t want to walk in and have someone punch me in the face.”
“No one would punch you in the face. I wouldn’t let them. Your face is too pretty to punch.”
“So says you,” he mumbled and took a noisy sip of coffee. “How about this? You tell the guys who will be at that dinner and I’ll tell the rest of my friends. Then we can maybe get some ideas on how to approach our respective teams. I’d like to have some reps with us when we talk to management, union reps…maybe the inclusivity reps as well. What do you think? We could plan it out over the holidays if you want. We have like eight days off between the twenty-first and the twenty-eighth. Maybe you could come up here for a few days? You and Kyleen, even your aunt if she wanted. We can make room. Liam will be with Tarcy, so we’d have his bedroom open and…are you okay? You look concussed.”
Was I okay? Hell yes, I was thrilled. Maybe a little shocked and a whole lot skittish but yeah, I was down for all of it.
“Nope, not concussed, just giddy.”
“Dude, we’re hockey players. We don’t get giddy, but if we did, I’d be giddy too.”
His soft smile undid me. “Good, okay, I can get with that idea. All those ideas. To be honest I thought you were going to fight the invite to the dinner party a lot more than you did.”
He shrugged a shoulder. A very sexy shoulder that was bared to my greedy gaze. “I’m a little scared to let others know, but man, I hate fucking lying.”
I pointed at the screen of my phone. “That. That right there is eating me up. I have no idea what will happen to me when I let the Comets know that we’re dating, but if they waive me, then so be it. I’ll go play somewhere else.”
“They can’t waive you for who you date,” he argued, shifting around to recenter his phone that had slid down. I got a peek at some pubes. Shit, was he totally nude? Now I was finding it hard to concentrate on our conversation.
“Are you naked?” I asked and got the slyest little look. My dick instantly got hard when he picked up his phone and flashed me a glance of his lower half, also bared to the world. “Holy fuck.”
The phone returned to his face. I knew that heavy-lidded look. “You want to watch me jerkoff?”
I mean, duh. What kind of silly question was that? I bobbed my head, reached into my flannel lounge pants, and enjoyed the living hell out of the end of our video chat. Hopefully the talk with my teammates goes as well as that call slash phone sex session had gone.
***
“What do you think of the herring?”
I glanced from the meat display case at Pihla’s Seafood and Vegetable Mart to Ooni staring at me as if I knew good herring from bad herring. I had heard of pickled herring, but other than that my knowledge was nil.
“It looks good?” I replied and got a flat look from my fellow goalie.
