“You just got back today? Dude, you both look trashed.”

Matty swapped looks with CJ and scoffed. “Thanks, man,” he laughed at Fleet. “You look like shit yourself.”

Fleet had an excuse, though—he was coming down from a Saturday night hangover with a little hair of the dog this Sunday evening. Matty’s only excuse was packing up and taking the drive back from the cabin, and even that had flown by with such good company.

“You gonna be sober enough for your medical tomorrow?” Matty added, jerking his thumb at Fleet’s pint glass.

Fleet laughed. “I’m taking it easy, man. So, what’s up with bringing Kevin along?”

Matty frowned in confusion and tilted his head. What did Fleet mean? It wasn’t like anyone around here hated him. “Huh?”

“I mean, apparently he’s got someone back in New Brunswick…” Fleet scooted his stool closer to CJ and Matty and leaned in, keeping his voice low. “A guy.”

Matty quirked a brow. For his sake, he really fucking hoped that wasn’t true, but the gist of it could well be.

“He really gay, you think?” Fleet asked them.

CJ shrugged and looked at Matty. “I dunno, man. I didn’t hear him talk about New Brunswick much.”

“Yeah,” Matty shook his head. “I don’t know if he is, but that’s a pretty big rumor to spread.”

“Oh, I’m not trying to be mean,” Fleet instantly assured them, raising his hands.

Matty’s heart clenched with worry nonetheless. “Are people talking about him?” Fleet might not mean ill, but others could. Kevin was big, but he wasn’t an enforcer. Someone could do him a lot of damage—accidentally or on purpose—if word got out. He’d be a liability on the team, and that was the last thing any new guy wanted to be.

“A couple,” Fleet murmured, his voice even lower now. “I’m not spreading the gossip around or anything, but you know.”

“It’s probably bullshit,” CJ dismissed with a wave of his hand. “We go through this every year after the draft. All the rumors, and they’re never true. And nobody ends up caring anyway. I mean, this is Canada.”

He was originally American, even if he had dual citizenship now. He had a couple odd beliefs about Canada—including that it was somehow magically more tolerant of the gays, especially getting all up in their sports.

Yeah, most guys knew better than to openly bash the gay hockey player. Didn’t mean some didn’t want to know better. And outside sports, people were often homophobic, too—they were just too polite to say it to their faces. Even closeted, Matty had figured that shit out awfully fast. Probably because he heard a lot of from his buddies who assumed he was straight, but wouldn’t have said half that shit to a gay guy if they’d known.

Matty bit back his sarcastic comment and just took another sip.

Fleet chuckled. “Yeah. But if it’s true, hypothetically…”

Okay, that was enough. Matty set down his glass of Coke a little too sharply. “It’s not good to gossip about shit like that,” he told Fleet. “If it winds up being true, it’d have serious consequences on him. And if it’s not, it would anyway.”

Don’t be obvious, though. Shit. The weirdness of talking about Kevin being gay, desperately hoping they didn’t see the personal stake he had in it—both himself, and in his relationship with Kevin…

“Yeah,” CJ chimed in, and even Fleet nodded, which made Matty relax slightly.

“Yeah, I was just wondering. I’m buddies with Jack,” Fleet explained. Jack was one of their bigger guys on the minor league team—almost two-fifty even on his bad days, and built like a brick outhouse. They called him a moose some days, because when he charged someone, he was just as dangerous.

For a moment, Matty was confused. Did he think Kevin was in danger from Jack? Enforcer or not, Matty would fuck him up…

“If it does wind up being true, we’ll protect him,” Fleet added simply and clapped Matty’s arm. “Don’t worry about him.”

That eased the tension a little, and Matty blinked, then sat back. “Oh. Yeah.”

“Don’t worry, man. For Cam’s sake, if nothing else,” CJ added. “He’d come punch us all if we didn’t.”

Matty laughed. “Yeah, he would. Yeah, we’ll keep an eye on him. If the rumors get nasty… doesn’t matter if they’re true or not, the other guys will act like it is.”

“But in our locker room, he’ll be all right,” Fleet added firmly. “It hasn’t changed that much since I got called up, I’m positive.”

CJ shook his head. “It definitely hasn’t.”

Deep in his chest, Matty was glowing. His buddies were all right, and so were the other guys.

“Whoever the first guy to come out is—major or minor leagues—in our city, he’s gonna be safe,” Fleet added firmly. It was a hypothetical conversation they had about once or twice a year, but year after year, nobody did. That wasn’t to say nobody was gay… They definitely were.

They just didn’t talk about it.

For Kevin’s sake and his own, Matty hoped that Fleet’s faith in their team was well-placed. If they kept going at the rate they already were, he couldn’t see them staying secret forever.

And he didn’t want to be, either.