Page 70 of Melting the Ice

Brody almost asked,with you?But that would make it sound like a date, when really it was just two bros hanging out. Two bros who’d probably be hooking up after.

“Sure,” he said instead. “Our game’s Saturday afternoon, same as yours, yeah? So sure, I’m free. Might as well.”

Dean gave a sharp nod. “Sounds good,” he said and then gestured towards his room. “I better get going or I’m not gonna want to study at all.”

Brody grinned. “Better do it then.”

“You’re really coming tonight?” Wes asked as he flopped down in the big chair in the football common room.

Their game was in six hours, and even though the team had done their walkthrough the night before, the coaches always wanted their players at the facility long before warmups started.

Some of the guys did homework. Others played the games in the common room—foosball and pool and half a dozen pinball machines against the back wall.

In an hour or so they’d have their team meal, and Coach would give them one last pregame speech before they headed to the locker room to get dressed for warmups.

“I said I was,” Dean said.

He hadn’t seen Brody yesterday—he’d had classes and then a game of his own—but when he’d texted him asking him if he was still coming after his second game of the weekend, Brody had sent him a thumbs-up emoji.

“Yeah, but you’ve been impossible to pin down lately. Even more impossible than normal,” Wes said.

“Don’t know what you mean,” Dean said, but he knew. Even before a few nights ago in the kitchen, he and Brody had been spending a lot of time together. Studying. Working out. Hanging out.

You’re friends. That’s allowed.

’Course he’s also a friend you desperately want to kiss.

“No, you wouldn’t.” Wes chuckled. “But seriously, man, what is going on?”

Dean knew he should be able to tell hisotherfriend, his other friend who also happened to be queer, too, about Brody. But he hadn’t, yet. Didn’t know how to even begin.

If he did, it would probably make things easier, because Wes was always harassing him about being such a lone wolf.

Of course, if he did tell Wes, he’d probably make more of it than there was. Assume they were going somewhere other than the bedroom.

Dean was a realist; maybe Brody had made it past his gay freakout, but they were headed in two very different directions. Dean would, God willing, get drafted to the NFL and Brody would have to decide between the science shit he loved so much and a pro career in hockey.

There wasn’t a future here, no matter how Wes might want to dress it up.

“Nothing much,” Dean said. He didn’t like lying to his friend, but he wasn’t sure what else he could say. But naturally, that didn’t really stop him in the end. Brody’s name was in his mouth before he could even help himself. “Been hanging out with Brody some.”

“Your roommate Brody? Hockey player Brody?”

Dean nodded.

“And that’s good? You like him?”

“Why wouldn’t it be? He’s a good guy. A friend.”

Wes smacked a hand across his heart and exclaimed, “Oh my God, so youcanmake friends.”

Dean rolled his eyes. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“Yes, but I had to practically badger you into it,” Wes said.

And yeah, that was probably true. Two years ago, Dean could admit that he’d been even worse about it, insistent on being painfully focused to the exclusion of just about everything else.

“So did Brody,” Dean said. Though it wasn’t like he’d put up much of a fight, either. He’d liked Brody almost from the very beginning. Even before he’d really begun to let go of his resentment of their very different childhoods.

---