Page 118 of First Puck

“But it wasn’t Alex! I was the one that confessed to him!” Brad said.

Then the room really did plunge into silence as all eyes swung to me.

Their gazes bore into me so deeply I hunched my shoulders, cringing away from their judgment as looks of disbelief hit me from all angles.

“You knew all along?” I asked quietly.

“Of course we knew—you’re terrible at hiding things. And Brad is… Well, Brad.” His mom shrugged, the rest of our parents still nodding.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Brad said, totally innocent, not a single clue about what was actually going on, which was to be expected.

His mom smiled kindly at him. “Nothing, darling, you’re just special.” Which is exactly what she said to him whenever he did something dumb.

I trembled as I clutched Brad’s hand, trying to hold it all back. Our parents carried on chatting away like everything was fine, like it didn’t matter to them that their sons were gay. Their grins were wider and their voices were more excited, but they didn’t make any comments or look disappointed or shout at us. They didn’t kick us out or hit us or do anything from the horror stories I read online about kids coming out to their parents. They weren’t even disappointed by how long it took; they just teased us.

“Anyway, now that that’s sorted.” Dad threw me a glare. “We can finally put our bet to rest. I’ve been waiting so long for you two I thought I was going to be an old man before Brad wised up.” He chucked himself back on the floor next to Brad’s dad, resting against the couch. “I heard the Wranglers are playing a home game soon. I can’t wait to see you boys in action.” I opened my mouth to tell them it might be a year or two before we actually played in the big games, but they were babbling too quickly.

Mom cut in. “Oooh, how soon will you get your uniforms? We’ll have to take photos for the albums.”

“And we have to go to your first game, obviously!” Brad’s mom laughed as his dad smiled at her, both of them so clearly Brad’s parents just from their grins.

“We’ll all be cheering you both on.”

“Well, we’ll have to get ourselves more team colors for support.”

“We should make some signs!”

“And why don’t we…”

The four of them went off into their own world, chattering excitedly as I stared at them in shock.

It was just so…easy.

“See?” Brad leaned in to whisper to me, and my gaze snapped back to him. “I told you it would be fine!”

I blinked, not fully registering that we’d just come out to our parents with no struggles at all, or that they had been waiting for us. They’d had years to prepare, just like I had. It seemed like everyone knew before Brad did, and my dumbass boyfriend needed to be hit by a truck just to figure out what was going on.

“I can’t believe you just did it,” I whispered.

“Are you mad at me?”

“A little bit,” I said sheepishly.

“But it was easy, wasn’t it? I told you, I’m going to make it so fucking amazing for you from now on. No matter what it is.”

With our hands still resting on the pillow of the couch, I clenched my fingers around his.

A shuddering breath escaped me, the corners of my eyes pricking. I still didn’t know what to do when I was this happy.

Everything was falling into place just like I had dreamed.

Brad had been drafted, Brad loved me, and our parents accepted us.

All the stuff that had been whirling around in my brain for years, and Brad just threw himself into it without any fear.

We were both good players, but our different styles shone through in the rest of our lives. My calculating plays meant I only went for this when I knew I had a chance. Whereas Brad went for every single play, no matter if he failed or not.

It was why I was drafted first, and why Brad had to wait to be chosen. But it meant Brad was the winner when it came to our relationship.

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