Page 70 of The Blame Game

What the fuck? Shea mouthed. “Who was with a man, Dom?”

“My father. He … he was fucking some guy.”

Holy fuck. That—that maybe explained a lot.

“Your father was bisexual?”

“Dunno. Never asked. Haven’t talked to him since. Haven’t talked to my mom either.”

“How old were you?” Shea asked. “When you walked in on them?”

“Nineteen. I told my mom. She got angry. Said it was none of my business. It’sss all my fault. I ruined their marriage and now I’m ruining the team,” he slurred.

“Fuck,” Shea said, swallowing hard. “Dom, baby …”

“Not a baby. I’m tough. I’m like the other boys. No one can tell I want things they don’t. That I’m like him. I won’t—I won’t pretend like he did though. I won’t have a wife I lie to. I promise. I’ll be alone. It’ll all be fine if I’m alone. Then I can’t hurt anyone and they can’t hurt me.”

Shea clenched his jaw against the sob that threatened to burst forth.

Jesus. Dom was … he was so fucking vulnerable right now. So raw and honest and it made Shea’s heart ache to see all of the little pieces that had come together and led to Dom becoming the man he was now.

Dom was hurting so badly inside and Shea hadn’t realized how raw those wounds were. How tightly Dom kept it all bottled up inside.

For one wild second, Shea thought about searching for a flight to Chicago. But no, the team was already in Minnesota. They’d play there tomorrow and then head home to Toronto.

It was tempting to fly to Minnesota but fuck, if Shea was spotted there …

“Dom, are you still awake?” he asked urgently, because yeah, Dom needed someone to be there for him but even more than that, he needed someone to make sure he didn’t accidentally stop breathing.

“Yeah. Jus’ thinkin’ about you.” But Dom sounded even more dozy, his words coming a little slower and thicker.

“What about me?” Shea asked.

“Wishin’ you were here.”

“I wish I could be,” Shea admitted. Falling asleep beside Dom the night of the fire had felt so nice.

“Do you know why I was thinkin’ about you?”

“No, Dom. Why is that?” Shea asked.

“I have that salve you gave me.”

“Salve?” Shea blinked. That was the last thing he’d expected. “What salve?”

“Dunno the name. You gave it to me a while ago. Last off-season, maybe.”

More alarm bells went off in Shea’s head. This time, too loud to ignore.

“The one with the orange label?”

“Yeahhh.”

Shea sat upright. “Dom, did you use that salve before you had the muscle relaxer?”

“Before ‘n’ after.” Dom sounded proud of himself. “I’ve been using it a lot in the past few days.”

“Oh, Jesus Christ,” Shea muttered. “Dom, that salve is CBD based.”

---