“Jasmine, don’t lick Fleet’s face. Bite his balls instead.”

“Matty!” Fleet laughed from the backseat, but he kept petting Matty’s dog anyway. “God, you asshole.”

Matty grinned unrepentantly. “She’s too nice, don’t worry.”

Fleet and his front-seat passenger, Derek, were second-years on his new pro team. When he’d heard they were both heading up to Sudbury, the halfway stop on his route home, Matty jumped at the chance to drive them both home.

It felt like a bit of infiltration, figuring out the team culture so he could join in as soon as their first events began.

“Prospects camp is coming up fast, eh?” Matty commented.

Derek nodded, turning to look back at Fleet so he could hear him. “Sure is. Everyone’s just beat right now, sure. Hoping we all get back in shape in time.”

“It’ll whip us back into shape,” Fleet laughed. “You were doing great at the gym the other day. Someone told me Glenn had you doing sleds.”

Matty almost beamed. “Yeah, he did! I nearly pissed myself when he told me. I’m the only guy—me and Kevin, rather—he told to do that yet.”

“You won’t be able to next year,” Fleet laughed. “Assuming we make the playoffs, of course. Like we will.”

“Duh,” Matty agreed easily, running a hand back through his hair. “I’m ready for it, I think.”

Derek grinned. “Good. Man, it’ll be a trip for your first year, though. You got any autograph-seekers yet?”

“One or two,” Matty admitted. “They caught me at the store, weirdly enough. Not even at the gym or anything.”

“It’ll get weirder,” Fleet promised him. “I mean, we’re not even big names yet, and we’re pretty popular. Especially with fangirls.”

Derek laughed. “God, if I didn’t have my girl back home.”

“I keep telling you, long-distance won’t work out.”

Derek glared at Fleet. “It’s going fine, thanks.”

“Your loss,” Fleet shrugged.

“Anyway, man,” Derek changed the subject. “You gotta make buddies both in the team and not. Just keep yourself grounded, you know? It’s easy to get swept up in half-a-million-plus salaries, and the intensity of the game and the season.”

Matty laughed. “That show, Hockey Girls, or whatever…” It was some crappy reality TV show. He’d watched one episode before quitting.

“It’s not far from the truth,” Derek laughed. “What about you?”

“Nah,” Matty shrugged. “I’ve seen what some of you guys go through.” WAGs were a pain in the ass, from what he heard about. He made it a policy not to give advice, but guys still vented sometimes.

“At least hook up, though, man,” Fleet encouraged. “What good’s the jersey otherwise?”

They all laughed as Matty took the exit. “Where do you guys live, then?”

“You can drop us both off at mine,” Derek told him, brightening up. “Man, those four hours went fast.”

For you two, maybe. Trying not to think about or mention Kevin for four straight hours? Hah, straight. As if. “Yeah,” Matty agreed anyway. He pulled into Derek’s driveway and nodded. “Don’t be too wild for your… wild vacation in Sudbury.”

“We’ll light up the town,” Derek laughed, opening the door to pull his bags out. “Thanks, man.” He reached forward for a fist bump, and so did Fleet.

Matty returned both fist bumps, then waved as they slammed the car doors to haul their stuff inside. Once they were inside, Matty backed down the driveway again, checking both ways before he pulled out onto the street. He rolled the windows down to enjoy a bit of fresh country air once he got to the highway again.

“Just us now, girl,” he told Jasmine, laughing when she crawled through the seats to rest her head between the front seats. He let her get away with that, as long as her paws didn’t touch the front seat. Now and then, he scratched her head, but he always kept a firm hand on the wheel. This far north, anything could be on the road—tractors, moose, porcupines, the works.

Luckily, he only encountered a few semis, tractors, a deer that skittered away from the road, and a few porcupines who’d already unhappily met cars before his.

Matty stopped another hour in to let Jasmine out for a run and stretch his own legs, then climbed back in for the last leg of the journey, fresh and ready to go.

It was lonely apart from her company and his music. Even on a wonderful early summer day with the windows down and the music blasting, the silence grated on Matty after a couple hours. It would be incredible to have a best buddy to bring along with him on trips like this—not just one he walks, but one he could shoot the shit with, talk about all the hockey crap plaguing his brain, and so on.

Kevin was new and in need of a couple hockey buddies. Why not him?

Oh, yeah, that was why: he’d kissed Kevin like a porn star in the middle of a public park.

Matty groaned as he remembered it and rubbed his hand down his face, drumming his fingers on the wheel. Kevin had so much power over him now. He could out him to the press—first out gay major league player, that was bound to be a headline to remember.

But had Matty or Kevin initiated that kiss? It had felt a bit like being pulled into an inescapable orbit around him, gravity itself shifting towards Kevin.

He replayed the moment over and over in his head, trying to see it from different angles. It was possible Kevin was just as into Matty. He hardly dared to hope for it, but they had had fun hanging out that day.

Just before he reached Timmins, his tiny hometown, he got a text and pulled over to read it.

Careful, I heard there’s a truck accident on the road up.

It was from Kevin.

Matty smiled, rubbing his face as he read the text a few times. Unless it was really bad, it wouldn’t make news compared to 400-series highway accidents closer to the city. That meant Kevin had been specifically searching for news.

How sweet.

Matty answered slowly, thinking through what he wanted to say.

Thanks. Past the accident now nearly home. Ty for hanging out too, was fun yesterday.

Then, to stop himself fretting, he tossed the phone into his cup holder, scratched Jasmine’s head, and pulled back onto the road.

Though he heard his phone go off a few times with reminder notifications, he ignored it until he pulled into his parents’ driveway and finally grabbed his phone again.

You too.

That was it? Shit, was Kevin pissed? Was this something he wanted to talk about?

Matty was lousy at figuring this shit out, but there was nobody else he could go to about it. It would just have to wait a week, until he got back to town and met up with Kevin for their week of buddy training.