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He turned back to his conversation. Tyler bumped his shoulder against mine as we walked away. “That’s Coach-speak for congratulations.”

Laughter bubbled up. “Yeah, I’m getting pretty good at speaking coach.”

We wandered through the backyard, the sounds of kids shrieking with delight mixing with classic rock from unseen speakers.

“Hey guys, thanks for helping me win the pool.” Lawson approached us, all smiles.

We all fist bumped.

“I don’t think you should’ve been allowed to participate,” Tyler said, and I couldn’t imagine why he’d feel that way. “You’ve got an unfair advantage since your boyfriend writes romance novels.”

Lawson laughed. “I do recognize couple energy pretty easily these days.”

“Wait. What?” I was confused.

“Come on, Shawn’s over there.” Lawson pointed to a small gathering across the yard.

“Oh wow, he’s here. It’s been way too long since I’ve seen him.”

“Yeah, he’s not on deadline right now. Plus, it’s the middle of the afternoon, so it turned out to be a perfect day for him to come with me.” Lawson turned to me as we headed over. “Shawn’s not much of a go out person anyway, and he’s gotten in the habit of writing at night. Put those two things together and he doesn’t come to a lot of team events.”

It was also cool to know that someone else on the team had a boyfriend. I guessed I would’ve known that if I had started making friends sooner.

“Tyler,” Shawn said, breaking away from the people he was talking to. He wrapped Tyler in a back slapping hug. “Good to see you.”

“You too. I’m so glad you came.” They released each other. “Shawn, this is Kevin Kogan, our newest player and my...” Tyler gave me a questioning look and I nodded, suspecting what he wanted to say. “My boyfriend.”

“Good to meet you.” He held his arms out and waited for me. I stepped into the embrace. It wasn’t as enthusiastic as the one Tyler got, but it was a good one for our first meeting. “Nick’s told me about you, and I’ve seen you play. You and Tyler make a great pairing. And congrats on your coupledom too.” He turned to Lawson. “Does this mean you won?”

“Yup. They confirmed it earlier with Petrov.”

“I’ve trained him well,” Shawn said. “That, and the fact he reads a lot of romances anyway.”

“My sister told me that our story could be a rom-com when I told her about us the other day.” I looked forward to telling Meg about this conversation. She’d love it.

“You should check out Shawn’s books. They’re fantastic.” Tyler leaned in and lowered his voice. “Plus, Lawson here is the inspiration behind one of the characters.”

“Oh, come on, the new guy doesn’t need to know that.” Lawson covered his face with his hand. “Anyway.” He stretched the word out, clearly looking to change the subject. “I was thinking we should go out for drinks and dinner sometime.” Lawson slipped his arm around Shawn’s waist. “Seems only fair to spend some of my winnings on you guys.”

“That’s a great idea,” Shawn said.

“Sounds fun,” I said as Tyler nodded.

We hung out talking with Lawson and Shawn and learned about how they met, also because of a snowstorm. It seemed an odd coincidence and made me wonder if other Blizzard couples also got together in part because of snow. Was there something magical about the team’s name? I made a mental note to talk to Shawn about that over dinner.

Eventually, we retreated to a quiet spot beneath the sprawling branches of an old oak tree, the late afternoon sunlight filtering through the leaves. The noise of the party was muted a bit here, even though we could still see the crowd. Tyler leaned against the rough bark, pulling me close until my back rested against his chest, his arms circling my waist.

“How are you doing?” he asked softly, his head resting against mine.

I nodded, leaning into him. Overwhelmed, yes, but in the best possible way. “More than okay. I can’t imagine announcing that we were a couple could’ve gone any better. I thought at least someone might bring up the fact that we’re on the same team. That we’re co-workers. What about you?”

He wrapped his arms around me. “I’m good. Though I’m a little offended that our mutual pining was obvious to everyone except us.”

I laughed, tilting my head back to catch a glimpse of his face. “Were we really that transparent?”

“It seems so.” Tyler’s smile softened, his hold tightening slightly. “I wish I’d known sooner. That you were interested, I mean. We could’ve had this weeks ago.”

“Maybe we needed Detroit,” I mused. “Maybe we needed to be stuck together to figure it out.”