Page 52 of Goaltender Interference

“Tomorrow. Today I have to finish helping Aino unpack all of our shit for the season, but I wanna catch up before camp.”

“Yeah, sure,” Matt said, and then hesitated.

Saari immediately knew something was up. “Safy?”

“So...there’s something I have to tell you.” There was a long silence, as Saari let him figure out how to say what he was trying to say. “Aiden’s been staying with me this summer.”

The answer was quick and decisive, exactly the thing Matt had predicted he’d say. “Safy, the fuck youdoing?”

“I know. I know, it sounds bad. But it’s different this time. We’ve been—we’ve been reconnecting, and it’s been really, really nice.”

Saari was silent a long time. “You’re a big boy, Safy. And I trust you know what you’re doing. You’ve probably heard it from everyone else, anyway.”

“Jesus Christ, have I,” Matt said, and he must have sounded so exasperated that Saari started laughing.

“You know we all just want the best for you. Your family, me, the team. I’ll be here for you no matter what.”

Matt’s throat felt thick, clogged with too much emotion. The two of them had had each other’s backs on and off the ice for years now, and maybe he wouldn’t have Saari at his side next season, if the team didn’t want to re-sign him, or decided to trade him. It was strange to think about, having to start all over again on a different team, with guys who didn’t know him at all.

“So yeah,” he said, instead of what he was thinking. “Wherever you want to meet, tell me the time.”

“And...you know, you can bring him if you want, huh?”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Saari said, and then laughed again. “Haven’t seen that prissy little asshole in years, anyway. Be good to catch up, I guess.”

“Hey,” Matt said, warning.

“Ohh,” Saari drawled, “you got it this bad already?”

Matt hung up on him.

“Saari’s back in town,” Matt said, as he helped Aiden with the dishes after dinner, “he wants to get lunch.”

“Okay,” Aiden said, blinking. He set his dish in the rack and thought,focus on the things you can control. “I mean, I can keep myself busy, it’s not a problem.”

“You should come. I told him you’re here.”

“You...you did? How did he...”

Matt laughed. “Well, first he said, ‘Safy, the fuck youdoing,’ but that’s pretty much everyone, right?”

Saarinen was one of the first teammates Matt had let in on the secret, back during their first go at this thing. It had been McCall first, of course, and then Saarinen and Grenier, all four of them inseparable back then. But McCall was playing in San Jose now and Grenier had retired.

Still, Matt’s closest teammates had been surprisingly chill about the idea of their friend falling in love with a rival goalie and it had been fine when he’d come to Montreal, although Aiden had to assume that after things flamed out, their loyalty to Matt had won out over any positive feelings they may or may not have had toward Aiden. Of course, not everyone could hold a grudge like Miles Safaryan. He hoped.

“Are you sure?” Aiden asked, still skeptical.

“Yeah.”

Which was how Aiden ended up at a crowded bar on Saint-Laurent, seated across from Aatos Saarinen. He still looked exactly the same, huge and broad-shouldered but baby-faced as hell. There were laugh lines at the corners of his eyes and mouth, but that was really the only discernible difference; on the ice, the only discernible difference was that he wore an A.

Matt stood at the bar putting in their drink order.

Saarinen and Aiden looked at each other for brief seconds from the corners of their eyes, and the rest of the time, literally anywhere else.

“Soooo...” Saarinen said, drawing out the word into multiple syllables.

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