Red Fever

Previously published as RED LINE by Winston Mccoy.

He took a puck to the face and never stayed down. But nothing prepared him for falling for his teammate.

Ash Rosen is the guy nobody remembers. The eternal sub. The warm body they slot in when someone better can’t go. He plays every shift like it’s his last, bleeds on the ice, and goes home to an empty apartment where the only thing waiting is expired yogurt and silence.
Darius Webb is the goalie who never cracks. Steady hands, perfect form, a girlfriend everyone loves, and a secret so deep he’s built his entire life around keeping it buried.
What starts as shared trauma becomes shared mornings at a run-down gym in Ballard. Shared silences that don’t need filling. Shared glances that last a beat too long.
He told himself it was just survival. It wasn’t.
One kiss under a rain-soaked footbridge. One whispered promise on a freezing pier at 3 a.m. One season to decide if love is worth the risk of losing everything.