CHAPTER ONE
March
“Fuck, it’s nice tofinallysee the sun again,” Thad Racine said as he pushed away his empty plate.
“Yeah, it’s been a long winter.” Graham Pennington stretched, bumping his feet against Thad’s.
He didn’t pull away, too content and lazy after practice, sitting in the sunshine, and a great meal.
“Is there anything else I can get for you gentlemen?” the waitress asked, approaching their table on the restaurant’s patio.
Graham glanced at Thad, who shook his head. But before he could ask for the check, Thad smiled at her. “The bill, please. I’ll take care of it.”
She smiled back. “Of course. I’ll be back in a moment.”
“You don’t have to get my lunch too,” Graham protested.
Thad’s smile widened as he turned it on Graham. “I know I don’t. But I want to. You’ve spent all afternoon listening to me geek out about photography.”
“It’s not a hard duty,” Graham countered with a shrug.
Thad snorted. “Oh, the jokes I could make there.”
Under the table, Graham kicked him.
“What?” Thad widened his eyes. “You’re a hockey player, you can’t be mad about a little innuendo.”
“I’m not mad,” Graham said with a laugh. “But you’re incorrigible.”
“Ooh, big word for a hockey player. Must be because you were a fancy college boy …”
Graham kicked him again, but this time Thad trapped his foot between his own.
“Damn it. You’re a hockey player too,” Graham countered, trying to wrestle his foot back.
“I was a hockeyprospect,” Thad shot back, bumping the table with his knee and making the leftover ice rattle in their glasses. “Prison kinda put a dent in that one. Never exactly got my shot, you know?”
Graham winced, stilling, feeling guilty for bringing up what was probably a sore subject.
It had been a youthful mistake on Thad’s part when he took part in a robbery the summer between his draft and training camp in LA. No one had been hurt, and Thad had certainly turned his life around since. It was admirable, really. He hadn’t meant to remind Thad of his loss. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to?—”
“It’s fine.”
Thad certainlylookedand sounded calm enough. There wasn’t a hint of unease on his handsome face or in his hazel eyes.
But somehow Graham had a feeling the calm was a front. He had a feelinga lotof what Thad did was a front. Ever since he’d seen him sitting in the halls of the Harriers Community Ice Complex, knees drawn up, hands clasped, staring at absolutely nothing on the floor, Graham had wondered about that.
Thad put on a great show, laughing, teasing,flirtingwith everyone. But when he thought people weren’t looking, the mask slipped a little sometimes, his expression going distant like he was thinking about something else.
That day had been the start of their friendship.
Graham had sat beside him on the floor, offered him a sports drink, asked him what was wrong, and for a few moments, he’d caught a glimpse of a guy who was lonely. A guy who wanted connection and didn’t have a fucking clue how to find it. A guy who was struggling with his relationship to his brother, the general manager of the organization.
And then the walls had gone up.
So Graham had invited Thad to lunch at his favorite place in Boston, trying to draw him out.
One lunch had turned into another, then they started to meet up regularly at sports bars to watch the game and eat and shoot the shit. They talked about Thad’s role in the social media department for the Harriers, and how Graham was doing as a top line winger and alternate captain this season.
