The ride back to the airport was almost depressing, if Kevin really thought about it. He wasn’t sure when he’d have another chance to come out. He was hoping to get out after a few camps. If he could catch another week with his parents before the weird road schedule of games, he’d be glad of that.

“Thanks for the ride, man,” Kevin told Ryan. They hadn’t really chatted even over the last couple days. It felt a little like he was drifting out of touch with his friends back here, but Kevin told himself that was ridiculous.

“No problem. I mean, everyone else is busy… canoodling with their boyfriends…”

Kevin snorted with laughter and grinned. “Jealous?”

“Nahhh,” Ryan drawled, but he glanced sideways at Kevin. “Are you?”

He totally was, then.

“Yeah,” Kevin chuckled. “It’s kind of nice to see, of course… but I also hate them. It’s so easy for the rest of them, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess it would be,” Ryan nodded. From what Kevin knew, Ryan wasn’t fully out to his relatives, but he at least commanded respect professionally. He wouldn’t lose carpentry jobs—probably—if he did come out. “Maybe a little jealous, then.”

Kevin sighed. “It’s not a big deal. I like focusing on work. It’d just be nice to have someone to come home to sometimes.”

“Right,” Ryan agreed. “I keep figuring I’ll meet someone through my business, but so far, no dice. You never know, though.”

“Ever consider moving out to Toronto or somewhere?” Ryan’s brother was out there, so Kevin kind of figured he was hoping to.

To his surprise, Ryan shook his head. “I like it there. I mean, all the others—Cam and Noah, Jackson and Chase, Thomas and Alex, Chase and Greyson—Jesus, there’s a lot of couples!” he laughed. “All the others proved it can be done.”

“What can be? Living at home and meeting someone?” When Ryan nodded, Kevin nodded, too. “Ah, yeah. But there’s just more to choose from out where I am. Don’t write it off.”

“Oh, I’m not. I’m coming to Toronto Thursday to visit my brother, maybe see the city a little,” Ryan admitted.

“Really? You never said until now! Shit, man, you should crash with me.” It was kind of short notice, but having a buddy out would be awesome. Everyone had promised to visit Kevin, but somehow they’d never gotten around to it yet. He figured they probably wouldn’t. People were all talk and no action about that kind of stuff.

“My bro offered me an air mattress at his place, but I wanna see you for sure,” Ryan told him, then punched his shoulder. “We can be the sad singles at the bar, huh?”

“Yeah,” Kevin agreed with a broad smile. “That’d be nice.”

Once they pulled into the airport, Ryan helped him unload his rolling suitcase and backpack, then crushed him in a quick, strong hug. “Take care of yourself, man. See you Thursday, eh? Or Friday?”

“At least one of those should work for me. You take care of yourself too.” Kevin took a moment to look closely at him—he looked a little older, and though he was smiling, it wasn’t hard to tell he’d been more emotional than he’d let on in the car.

Kevin felt kind of bad. He did sort of have someone now that Matty was around, it was just… so tentative. And from their texts, it sounded like they were meeting up tomorrow.

He might be a lot closer to dating than he was letting on to Ryan. He just didn’t want to count his chickens before they hatched. He’d tell Ryan later—maybe Thursday, if everything went really well.

“See you, man,” Kevin waved, shouldering his backpack and rolling the suitcase into the little place.

Security was almost a joke—a single lineup snaking between glass waiting rooms. He was through before he knew it, choosing from the plentiful waiting room options. He opted to go right and pick up a coffee before his plane got there.

While he did, he browsed Matty’s Facebook profile. Matty had found his profile and sent a friend request yesterday—from an account with no photo and a slightly different name, no doubt to keep fans away. There wasn’t a lot on his profile, but Kevin recognized a few players’ names in the likes and comments on what he did have on his wall—some vacation photos, a couple action shots, and some statuses about food.

Then he came across a pro photo of Matty and paused in his scrolling, his index and middle fingers hovering over the trackpad while he took in the details: the wisps of hair across his forehead, the flush in his cheeks of a good game, his stick in his hands, one skate just slightly off the ice as he prepared to step off. And his lips slightly parted… they looked so kissable.

God, his eyes were gorgeous. The photographer had focused perfectly on them, giving the photo so much depth.

Kevin realized he was staring like a fool and closed his laptop to drink deeply from his coffee.

No ogling him until you talk, he told himself, as much as that idea made his stomach sink.

* * *

“Morning!”

“Hey,” Kevin grunted back at Hans and raised his hand, finishing his text message to Matty.

Ready to work out when you are.

Then he sent it and put his phone face-down on the table before rising for a quick back-slapping hug in passing on his way to the kitchen. “Hey, man. How’s it been?”

“Quiet without you around here,” Hans told him.

“Still not going home this summer?” Kevin felt bad for the foreign players, with family further away. Many came from families that had resettled to Canada, but not Hans. His family had moved back to Germany a couple years ago, and he wasn’t sure Hans had seen them more than a couple times since.

“Nah,” Hans shrugged it off.

Kevin’s phone went off and he headed back to the table with another portion of his smoothie to check it out.

Meet at the bus stop in 30?

Perfect. He answered quickly.

Yep.

“What’s up?” Hans asked, and Kevin quickly glanced at him.

“Sorry. Just arranging to meet up with Matty. We’re training together this week. Glenn wanted us to.” He said the last bit almost apologetically. Hans probably dreamed of working with Glenn.

“Ah,” Hans nodded. There was a moment of something like jealousy on his face, but he shrugged it off. “He seems to be taking you under his wing. It’s good to have friends in high places. And on your own team, of course.”

“Yeah,” Kevin nodded. “I’m pretty lucky. Okay, I gotta finish this and then get dressed. What’re you doing?”

“Nothing much. I have Final Fantasy,” Hans shrugged.

“Okay. Have fun with that,” Kevin laughed as he headed off to his room.

He left the house in a brisk stride, bringing his spare gym bag since most of his gear was still at Glenn’s gym. Once he caught sight of Matty lingering by the bus stop, all his nervousness about seeing him again was gone.

A grin spread across Kevin’s face and he raised a hand to wave while Matty waved back.

Matty pulled him in for a quick back-slapping hug. “Hey, bro! How’s it going? You didn’t tan at all.”

“You neither!” Kevin laughed, elbowing him before leaning against the bus shelter. “Man, I saw everyone, I think. Oh, I told Cam hi from you and he said something like hi asshole, get out here and see me.”

Matty burst out laughing. “Oh yeah, I will if I can!” he promised. “I’ll text him later. So, you ready to get ready for this camp?”

“Prospects camp?” Kevin had been trying not to think about it for the last week or more. “Sort of.”

“Don’t look so terrified,” Matty laughed, trying to ruffle his hair. Kevin flipped him off and smacked his hand away. “It’ll go fine. Man, it’s just a lot of drills and people watching and telling you how to get better. They don’t just want the best guys—they want guys who take direction and immediately improve.”

Kevin hummed. That actually made sense. “Right,” he nodded.

“And it’s a great time. All the camps are,” Matty shook his head. “It’s stupid fun.”

Kevin laughed. “Great.” He climbed on the bus when it pulled on, flashing his pass and heading back to stand by the back door.

They hadn’t discussed the kiss yet, but there hadn’t been a good moment. He would soon.

By the time they were off the bus, they were in a friendly shoving match as they talked and tried to rustle each other’s nerves.

They were half-wrestling when Kevin pulled back and held his arms up, laughing so hard he almost couldn’t breathe, to signal peace so he could buzz them into the gym.

Matty grinned and winked at him, then put his own hands up before shoving them into his pockets. “You are such a younger brother.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kevin exclaimed, his voice cracking from surprised offense.

Matty laughed loudly at that. “Nothing.”

Kevin shoved him again before holding the door for him, and they headed into the gym.

This place wasn’t completely filled with hockey guys, so it felt a little more private for a discussion like the one Kevin wanted to have. It occurred to him as they changed into workout gear in the locker room that it still might not be the best place, though.

The workout itself was easy compared to Glenn’s, just warming them up with conventional machine exercises. Then they went through some bicep curls and deadlifts, dead simple stuff.

Then, at last, it was time to cool off again. “Conditioning while we cool off?”

“Sure,” Kevin agreed to Matty’s suggestion and moved over to the elliptical trainer with him, programming his machine to identical settings as Matty’s.

Once they started, Kevin didn’t have a lot of other places to look besides over at Matty or up at the TV. He waited for the commercial break. “Oh man. Reality TV.”

He couldn’t see a remote anywhere to change the channels, either. He had to talk to the gym staff about that sometime.

“Hey, I watch it sometimes,” Matty snorted.

Kevin groaned. “Really?” Then, he shook his head. “Me too, though. I watched that WAG program about Toronto…”

“Okay, that program was all bullshit,” Matty heatedly shook his head. “I mean, I don’t know the guys on this team really well, but I knew a couple of them… we all hang out the same places, you know. And when the crew was there, everyone was acting real different.”

Kevin hummed. He’d suspected as much. “But it’s fun to watch.”

“Yeah, that’s about all it’s got going, but… I’m a sucker for it, too,” Matty laughed. “Especially cooking shows.

Kevin groaned and kept his voice down. “I watch cake shows! How gay is that?”

Matty eyed him for a moment and Kevin winced and held a hand up in a half-apology. But Matty shook his head slightly, telling him it was cool despite Kevin’s burning hot cheeks. Matty told him, “I think any show’s just as bad. It’s all like junk food for the brain.”

“Yeah,” Kevin agreed, relieved to be let off the hook there. Sometimes he didn’t like what he laughed along with, and now and then something slipped out that he privately regretted.

That would be one big advantage of coming out—less expectation to say that kind of stuff.

But he pushed that aside.

“After we’re done, wanna come back to my place? Meet my roommates and Jasmine?”

“I dunno about your roommates,” Kevin grinned. “But I’ll meet any dog who wants to meet me.”

Matty laughed, his eyes sparkling. It was a healthy look along with his glowing cheeks, and it made Kevin smile. “I like the way your head’s screwed on, man.”

They headed back to the locker room, still jostling each other lightly, but they were both a little too worn out to go for a headlock.

The only thing Kevin was certain of going into this discussion was that Matty wasn’t totally uncomfortable with him.

A lot of guys would have backed off and kept two arms-length away from him forever after that kiss. But Matty hadn’t. Either Matty was the coolest, most accepting guy ever, or he’d loved that kiss as much as Kevin had.

And it didn’t help that every time their eyes met, there was that tense crackling second before one of them smiled or made a joke or diffused the tension. Unless Kevin was horribly wrong, his second theory could well be right.

That chemistry would be insanely good in bed.

Please let his roommates not be home and his dog… not be in his room.