“You goin’ somewhere?” she asked.
“Home.” Noah huffed a laugh. “Or back to where I was born, anyway. This place is home.”
“I hear that,” Coach Williams agreed. “Shame to see you go.”
“Believe me, I don’t want to. Immigration is a bitch.”
“That it is. Do I at least get a hug?” she asked. Noah smiled, rolling over to her and letting her hug him. She gave great hugs. Derby girls always did. The women’s team was extremely cool, and he wished the chance to hang out with them came up more often. The joint end-of-season party was really the only opportunity, since they played on different schedules.
“We’ll miss you. And you’re always welcome back,” she said. “Gotta go through fresh meat training again, though.”
Noah laughed at that. “That’s cruel to the actual fresh meat, Coach.”
Coach Williams shrugged. “Gotta break ‘em before you can make ‘em.”
Noah wanted to laugh again, but the sound caught in his throat. He nodded instead, turning toward the locker rooms and giving the coach a wave as he left. This was the end of an era, and he would have done anything to stop it.
Chapter Two
The more he thought about it, the more sick to his stomach Jace felt at the prospect of Noah leaving. Noah had been the first person to talk to him when he was new to derby, and they’d been inseparable ever since.
Noah was what people called aderby husbandto him. The guy who watched your back during a game, the guy who’d take a penalty or an elbow to the crotch for you, the guy who held your hand if you broke something. Thankfully, in the two and a half years he’d known Noah, a sprained ankle was the worst that had happened to him. But if he’d really injured himself, he knew Noah would be the guy stopping the game and waiting in the hospital for him.
Noah was his best friend, on the track and off. The thought of just losing him over something as dumb as a visa… it was too much. Jace had spent most of his life not caring a whole lot about immigration laws, but they suddenly seemed like his worst enemy. How could they just uproot a guy who’d made a life here, hadn’t caused any trouble, and would be able to support himself without a job until he got a new one? It wasn’t as though Noah was going to end up being some kind of burden. America was lucky to have him.
By the time they’d all gotten to the bar, he wished he’d let Noah have one last victory to go out on. He wished even more that Noah wouldn’t go. If there was anything he could have done to prevent it, he would already have been working on it. But he couldn’t pull a green card out of thin air, or a job offer—the hospital was in the middle of layoffs, so they weren’t about to hire anyone right now.
It sucked, and he couldn’t do anything to fix it. Jace liked to be pointed at a problem and allowed to solve it, and this wasn’t something he could solve.
He ordered his and Noah’s third beer of the evening and looked across the bar at him, laughing with Rafe and Brian. The rest of the people who’d showed up to practice were scattered around, taking up most of the small tables and darkened alcoves the whole place was made up of. Except Diego, who had reminded them that some people had families to go home to and only stayed for the one drink, which was probably smart. Practice sessions were on Wednesdays, so hangovers were on Thursdays.
Thursdays were Jace’s permanent day off from the hospital, though, and Brian only worked a half-day. Besides, he was a doctor, not a nurse. He spent most of his days in his office.
Jace didn’t know much about Rafe, except that he was a damn good pivot. As far as Jace knew, no one really knew a whole lot about him. He seemed to be keeping it that way on purpose.
As long as he showed up for practice and on game days, Jace figured he could do whatever the hell he wanted. Most of them were close enough, and definitely friends outside of the track, with Rafe as one of few exceptions. Jace was closer to Noah than anyone, though. Noah was the guy he texted at 2am on game day when he couldn’t sleep.
Jace knew better than to have three drinks in the space of two hours. He was just a little too old. But Noah was leaving, and Jace really, really didn’t want to see him go. He could add the third drink to his growing list of regrets.
Halfway back to their table, a thought struck Jace. Once it had occurred to him, he couldn’t see why he hadn’t thought of it before.
He could pull a green card out of thin air. Of course he could.
He set Noah’s beer down in front of him, and looked him directly in the eye. “Marry me,” he said.
Noah stared at him.
Jace sat down beside Noah, taking a sip of his own beer. “If the problem is getting a green card, marry me. I don’t have a whole lot to offer, but I do have citizenship. Born and raised. You can stick around for the rest of the season that way, and for the nationals next year. It’s perfect.”
“You’re not gay,” Noah said. He hadn’t said no, though.
“So?”
A fake marriage was a fake marriage. They’d have to live together, sure, but after that? No one was going to ask to watch them consummate it. They were already best friends. None of their other friends were likely to tell on them, if they even realized it wasn’t legit.
“Can we not talk about engaging in fraud in a public bar?” Noah said. “I don’t want to stay here by going to prison.”
Jace’s heart sank. He’d thought it was a good idea. It would have solved all of their problems, and it wasn’t as though he was going to marry anyone else in the foreseeable future. Neither was Noah, unless he’d had a secret boyfriend all this time.
