“Rook!” Half the team yelled.
“What? I have eyes. The man's built.” He shrugged. “Hart has good taste. Questionable judgment timing-wise, but good taste.”
I buried my face in my hands. “Can we please stop talking about my boyfriend's hotness?”
“Boyfriend!” Finn crowed. “He said boyfriend!”
“Kill me now,” I groaned.
“Too late.” Benny was grinning. “You're stuck with us. And we're never letting this go.”
“Ever,” Tate agreed.
“Not even when we're old,” Callahan added.
“I'll be telling my grandkids about this,” Mercer said. “The time Hart admitted Coach Sutherland was a nine.”
Sato was shaking his head, smiling. “You brought this on yourself, you know.”
“I know.” I looked around at all of them—still grinning, still giving me shit, still here. “But you guys are okay with it? Really?”
The joking stopped. The room got quieter.
“Yeah, Hart,” Rook said. “We're really okay with it.”
“We don't care that you're gay,” Benny added. “We don't care that you're with Coach.”
“We care that you're happy,” Mace said. “Even if you have questionable taste in men.”
“He's a nine!” I protested weakly.
“Sure he is, buddy.” Finn patted my shoulder. “Sure he is.”
But he was smiling. They all were.
And I realized this was it. This was the team reaction I'd been terrified of for years. Not rejection. Not disgust. Not the end of my career.
Just my teammates being assholes in the most supportive way possible.
“Okay, okay,” Rook finally called order. “Everyone shut up. We actually need to talk about the serious stuff now.”
The laughter died down. Guys settled back onto benches, still grinning but listening.
“Seriously though, Hart,” Benny said. “We don't care who you're sleeping with. What we care about is that you're our teammate and this situation is complicated as hell.”
I nodded, throat suddenly tight. “I know.”
“So you've actually been together for a while?” Volkov asked. “This wasn't just a cabin thing?”
“A while,” I admitted. “Since before the injury. We tried to keep it professional. Tried to keep distance. It just...” I trailed off.
“It just happened,” Rook finished. “Yeah. We figured.”
Mace cleared his throat. “Look, we don't give a shit who you're sleeping with. But we do give a shit about optics. And right now, the optics are a fucking nightmare.”
“I know.”
“Media's saying you got special treatment,” Mercer said. “That Coach benched you because you two are involved. That the whole injury thing was a cover story.”
