“Finish getting geared up and let’s go enjoy this moment. When you’re out there, take a second and breathe it in. You’ve allearned your place out on that ice. And after practice, when the families join us, make sure to thank them for all that they do for us. Never forget about the people off the ice. We play for them, too.”
The room erupted with cheers and hollers. Jamie was jostled from both sides with claps on his shoulder pads, and in that moment, he’d never felt more a part of them–a part of his team.
Jamie let Matty smear eyeblack across his cheeks, and laughed when Ollie managed to get the dark paint on his own nose.
Jamie was walking back from the bathroom when he noticed Carter handing out little slips of paper to all the guys.
“What’s that?” Jamie asked.
“Some of the guys and I were talking,” he started, and there was no sign of the cocky glint in his eyes that Jamie was used to seeing. “And we’re going to put on a coat drive tomorrow at the game. Ask people to bring in any extra gear, and then after we’ll donate them to kids who need them.” Carter looked around the room at the team. “Things were rough for me growing up. It was just me and my ma and I’ll never forget all the ways she supported us. I just…I know I’m new, but I wanted to do something good.”
“That’s amazing, Carts,” Jamie said, and pulled the taller man into a hug.
Carter’s cheeks were pink when Jamie pulled away.
“Is your mom going to make it to the game?”
Carter grinned, revealing his missing tooth. “Yeah. Can’t wait to see her out there.”
“That’s awesome, man. Introduce me, will ya?”
Matty catcalled from the other side of the room. “Sully, you trying to make a move on Carts’ mom?”
“I’m happily taken, asshole,” Jamie shouted back. “Happy, and gay!”
Five minutes later, he and Mitch stood side by side in front of the long bank of mirrors above the sinks.
“We look fucking good,” Mitch said, grinning at their reflections.
Their practice uniforms were a handsome dark green with orange and cream accents. The C was right where it always was, embroidered on his chest, Mitch’s A placed in the same spot. They both wore the beanies they’d been given, striped in the team colors with an orange pom on the top.
“We really do,” Jamie agreed. He combed his fingers through his mustache.
“Leave it alone.” Mitch slapped his hand away. “It looks good.”
Jamie grumbled, but dropped his hand. Their shoulders brushed, Jamie just a bit taller than his best friend. His thoughts suddenly turned to his messy-haired and beautiful boyfriend and his son. Just imagining them out there on the ice was enough to make his breath catch in his chest.Dammit, he wanted them there. “Do you think they’re going to come?”
Mitch nodded. “They’ll be here.”
After they’d finished their light practice, everyone’s attention turned to the people who had gathered just beyond the rink. Guys sped over to grab their kids and partners and ushered them out onto the ice. It was tradition for the WAGs to make some sort of matching jacket for them all to wear for the family skate. Jamie knew Layla had helped design them. This year they were puffy down jackets with the player names stitched on the breast and the Muskie logo on the back.
They looked fuckingamazing.
Henri was, to no one’s surprise, the first of the Muskies kids to hit the ice. In her cream colored jacket withJacksonstitched on the back and box braids streaming behind her, she whipped circles around the outdoor rink, hollering at the top of her lungs.
Jamie watched as Mitch tried to catch up with her, laughing as he skated over to the bench to grab a drink from his water bottle.
What if Tyler had decided to sit this one out? What if it was all too much?
He wouldn’t blame him–no, Jamie couldn’t blame a man who didn’t want to put himself in front of a crowd after all of the articles, after everything people had said online. He’d understand if Tyler kept Rowan home.
But Jamie hoped. He really fucking hoped.
“Jamie!”
Maybe, sometimes, hoping was enough. Because there, hovering at the edge of the rink, were the two people Jamie wanted to see most in the world. A little blue-eyed boy with a stuffed sloth in tow and his beautiful father, both smiling and waving at him.
Jamie skated over to them as fast as he could, his cheeks aching because he couldn’t stop fuckingsmiling. By the time he’d dodged and weaved through everyone on the ice, Tyler was already skating slowly toward him with Rowan in his arms.
