I wake with Sam in my arms and think that I haven’t been this happy in a long time. I reach under me and grab his glasses which are poking me in the hip, and realize I had slept on them all night. I rub the indentations as best I can, and slide the glasses onto his face gently. He wakes up at the contact and smiles up at me.

“Morning,” he mutters.

“Morning,” I answer and kiss his forehead. “Come on, time to get up and go get some breakfast. I’m starving.”

I don’t want to let him go, and I don’t want to get up, so we lie there another few moments teasing each other before I look at the clock.

“Ugh, if we don’t get up now, we’ll miss breakfast and I need to eat. The Championship is today.”

I finally let him go and roll out of bed. I pull my clothes on and he sits up slowly, gauging his body’s reactions to last night’s physical exertion.

“You ok?” I ask, looking into his eyes to see if he’s freaked out. He smiles up at me.

“I’ve never felt better, despite being sore.” I lean down and give him a long, deep kiss. When I break away, I hand him his clothes and he dresses quickly. He looks at the door warily, but I walk up to it, opening it and grab his hand, pulling him into the hall.

As we walk to the cafeteria together, hand in hand, people whisper and point at us, or they give us a quick glance then go on about their business.

Sam looks at his usual table where Shawn sits, glaring at the two of us, but I just give him a pleasant smile and wave as I tug Sam after me and we load up a couple of trays in the buffet line. I guide Sam to the table where most of the team is eating and Sam’s face reddens the closer we get to the table.

“You want me to go sit somewhere else? These are your friends, I don’t mind,” he whispers.

“Nope, I don’t.” I state calmly.

When we get to the table, Barry, Clive, and Kasey all call out greetings, and the rest of the team looks on with mild interest.

“Guys, this is Sam, my boyfriend. Sam, this is the team.” I then go around, introducing each one and they all give him a nod or shake his hand. Someone grabs us a couple of chairs from a nearby table and we sit, crowding into the table. Sam doesn’t touch his food, but looks around as if he’s in awe of the whole team who seem to readily accept him. The only one’s looking sour are Chris and Lee who were Stevie’s friends, but I raise an eyebrow and they look away.

After a few moments I glance sideways and ask, “You going to eat?” Sam seems to have forgotten the whole point of going to the cafeteria, and quickly starts shoveling food into his mouth. Another minute later and some of the guys start catcalling and whistling, and we both glance up to see Gretchen standing there, hand on her hip, tray in the other.

“Dudes, cut it out.” I grin at them and they snicker back. Gretchen isn’t a bombshell to some of them, but she isn’t ugly by any means.

“Shawn is an ass.” She looks at Sam. He nods, but doesn’t seem to have anything to say to that statement. “You have room for one more?” She gives a quick glance around the table and someone grabs another chair. They plunk it down next to Sam who just stares between her and his old table, where Shawn and the others look at him like he’s committed treason of some kind.

“Glad to see you’re feeling better,” she gripes, obviously getting irritated with his continued inability to speak. “So are you caught up on Professor Raskin’s Advanced Multivariable Calculus assignments?”

Whatever this means seems to snap him out of his stupor because they launch into a conversation that might as well be Klingon for all I can understand of it.

Barry raises his eyebrows at me, but I shrug and drape an arm over Sam’s shoulder and launch into a discussion about today’s upcoming game and the tactical approach.

Later after breakfast, I kiss Sam who seems surprised I’d do it in front of the whole team, but I leave him with Gretchen and head to the arena, to get ready for the game.

Coach claps each one of us on the shoulder as we enter the locker room, this being the biggest act of encouragement coming from him.

The Bobcats win the Championship with a sweeping victory against the Montreal Cardinals and as I’m being swept up in the celebrating on center ice, I glance at the stands and see not only Sam clapping with the rest of the Bobcat supporters, but Katie, Devin, and even my Mom who hasn’t been to a game since before my Dad died. I hold up the trophy and wave at them, as I hand it off to Clive to circle around the ice.

When we exit the ice, instead of heading straight for the locker room, I skate over to the spectator entrance, just as Sam reaches it through the crowd, and in front of everyone, I pull him to me, kissing him hard and fast, letting everyone know he’s mine and always will be. I catch him when he inadvertently steps onto the ice and slips, falling straight into my arms. I smile to myself as I think of all the times I’ll be able to hold him and stare into those ice blue eyes, anytime I convince him to put some skates on and join me. If the arena and the ice feel like home to me, and my Sam is with me, I know there is nothing that can bring me greater love than that.