Page 42 of Goaltender Interference

On the morning of Matt’s birthday, Aiden stuck with tradition and woke him up with a blowjob. Even after all of these years, he still felt the lurch in his chest when he saw Matt’s face shift from sleep to awareness, the smile that tugged the corner of his mouth up when he realized what Aiden was doing. At the trust in it. At the way Matt buried his face in Aiden’s neck after he’d come, mouth pressed against Aiden’s pulse, and Aiden had moved up to hold him close.

After Aiden finished cleaning himself up and while Matt was in the shower, he went into the kitchen to make breakfast. It was just pancakes, albeit fancy pancakes with the buckwheat flour he found in Matt’s pantry and some strawberries he cut up and tossed in sugar so they started to break down a little.

Matt’s face softened almost imperceptibly when he walked out of the bedroom and found Aiden flipping them in the pan. He came up behind Aiden and slid his arms around Aiden’s waist. His mouth was warm, breath humid against Aiden’s shoulder. “You know, you were making me pancakes when I first realized I was inlovein love with you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Matt said, looking around Aiden’s arm at the stack of pancakes on the plate. “It was that first summer when I came out to visit you in Winnipeg, and you were flipping them shirtless just like this in that shitty apartment we had, and I asked you if you finally learned how to make a new breakfast, and you said someone had to feed me and you were taking one for the team and I just... I just knew. Now that was a mortifying way to figure it out, huh?”

“I dunno about that,” Aiden said. He flipped the last pancake onto the top of the stack. “I’m a pretty great cook, so I understand the impulse.”

Matt groaned, and half-heartedly headbutted him in the shoulder. “So that’s what, like six dishes you can make now?”

It devolved into a mock fight that ended in heated kisses on the kitchen floor, Aiden sticking the tip of his tongue into the space between Matt’s teeth, just to tease a reaction out of him, but they both sobered rapidly when Matt’s phone buzzed.

Matt took his hand away from Aiden’s throat, hitched his hips up so he could pull it out of his pocket without rolling off of Aiden, who was still on his back, shirt rucked up and exposed skin cold against the tile, watching while Matt answered the call.

“Oh, you’re downstairs? Okay, let me come down and let you in.” He hung up, looked down at Aiden. His hand cupped Aiden’s cheek. “Hey, they’re here.”

Aiden had spent years working on controlling his emotions and anxiety, practicing meditation and mindfulness and breathing exercises. It was difficult to manage in situations like this, even with practice, even with breathing exercises. It was one thing to get into the crease in front of a stadium full of twenty thousand people, of fans from opposing teams who hated the insignia on his sweater. Another thing entirely to face one family who had every reason to hate him personally.

He made himself smile, and said, “Okay.”

“Thank you,” Matt said, very seriously. He looked down at Aiden with the same kind of intensity in his voice. “I know it’s not going to be...fun.”

“Yeah, well. It’syourbirthday, so.”

Matt leaned forward and kissed him, quickly, affectionately, before he slid off of Aiden’s hips and stood. “All right. Let me get them before he starts texting me about how old and slow I am.”

Miles Safaryan looked exactly the same as Aiden remembered him, except, if possible, even more pissed off than he usually did. He looked like Matt, but a little skewed: the same dark eyes and thick eyelashes, the same prominent nose and sharp features, a thinner face; taller and slimmer. Where Matt’s face had always seemed inherently kind, Miles looked like an angry hawk.

Miles’ wife and children were new to Aiden, though. The kids came barreling through the door, pushing past their parents to throw themselves at Matt. He immediately crouched down to their level.

“Uncle Matt!” the little girl shrieked, as Matt gathered both of them into a hug.

Miles and his wife both looked at Aiden. Dr. Jessica Zhang cut a striking figure: beautiful, slim and almost as tall as Miles. Her long black hair was pulled back severely from her face. She wore a loose gray linen jumpsuit, a nondescript outfit that nevertheless looked like she had just stepped off a runway. Maybe that was because she had the kind of vibe that would be intimidating, if it weren’t for the smile tugging at the corner of her mouth and the crinkle at the corner of her eye when Miles introduced her.

Miles sounded like he was in the process of scraping a piece of dog shit from the bottom of his shoe. “Jess, this is Aiden Campbell.”

“It’s so nice to finally meet you,” Jessica said, like a completely normal person, and held out her hand to Aiden, who shook it. She had a firm, strong handshake and looked him directly in the eye. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Aiden could feel the heat creeping up the back of his neck as she kept smiling at him, steady and bland. “I’m, uh, I’m sure you have.”

Matt stood up, holding one child in each arm, although they were both technically too big for that and it was only Matt’s size and strength that made it possible. They shrieked with joy—apparently, this was a habit for them. Matt was smiling, too, unguardedly happy in a way that he only looked around Aiden lately when they were in bed together. “It’s really good to see you guys. How was the flight?”

“It was fine,” Miles said, steadfastly ignoring Aiden now that he had done his duty and introduced him. The kids were busy grabbing Matt’s hair and pulling it, talking over each other in their eagerness to tell Matt exactly how the flight had gone. “Theo was getting a little antsy toward the end, but we survived without any major meltdowns.”

“Here, come in,” Matt said, “you guys can use the bathroom and the kids can calm down a little before we head out.”

They made awkward small talk while Ellie and Theo tore around the kitchen until Matt opened the cabinets and gave of them a bag of cookies to share. Once they’d gotten what they wanted, they huddled in the corner, arguing over the fact that there was an odd number in there and Ellie thought she deserved more, because she was older.

Miles cornered Matt at the far end of the apartment, talking to him in a low voice and making some emphatic gestures while he did. Aiden sighed, watching them.

“He’s very protective of Matthew,” Jessica said, from a few inches behind Aiden, startling the shit out of him.

Once he got his heartbeat back under control, he said, “I know. I don’t blame him for it.”

“Of course not. But, you know, if you’re going to be sticking around for a while, do you want my advice?”

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