Page 172 of Goaltender Interference

Connor walked over to the table, unsurprised to see Jesse dancing to the music on the jukebox. Connor hummed along toit as he leaned against the wall, watching Jesse celebrate with the rest of their team.

This kinda felt like the perfect time to announce their relationship.

The guys didn’t seem to be catching on, no matterhowlong Connor let himself look at Jesse in the locker room.

It had been almost unbearable to watch Jesse strip down tonight, pink and sweaty from the game, smiling nonstop because of his goal. Connor had been tempted to follow him into the showers, press him up against the tiles, and kiss him senseless.

“To Jesse!” someone shouted and the guys raised their shot glasses.

Jesse had one in his hand and he hoisted it too, knocking it back, then slamming it down on the table. He let out a happy whoop and without consciously thinking about it, Connor set his pint glass down as well and walked over to join him.

“Dance with me?” Connor asked, refusing to second-guess this.

Jesse’s eyes lit up. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. You’re amazing,” he whispered. “And later, I’m totally gonna blow you in the bathroom here in a little bit.”

Connor took a happy, laughing Jesse into his arms and swayed with him, pressing their lips together in a kiss. He was vaguely aware of the bar going quiet around them except for the music.

When Connor finally pulled away—mostly because he needed oxygen—he glanced around to see the team frozen, drinks halfway to mouths.

“Umm, are we finally talking about this now?” Tanner asked after a moment.

Connor glanced over at Jesse, who looked as baffled as he was.

Crawford rose to his feet with a grunt, making a ‘c’mon’ gesture with his hand. “Okay, everybody pay up now!” he called out.

With groans and grumbles, guys began pulling their wallets out and slapping money into his hand. Crawford counted it, before handing it over to Graham Pennington, who grinned and tucked the wad of cash into his own wallet.

“What?” Connor sputtered.

Graham didn’t answer, just walked off toward the bar, whistling.

“Thefuck?” Connor said.

He still had his arm around Jesse, who shot him a bewildered look.

“Dude,” Crawford said. “You didn’t really think you were hiding anything, did you?”

“Uhh. Kind of?” Connor admitted.

“We’ve known since like, the beginning of the season,” Tanner said with relish. “Took you guys long enough.”

Jesse made a sputtering noise. “But we—but what was the bet?”

“When you’d admit you were dating, obviously,” Crawford said like they were idiots. And okay, maybe they kinda were.

“Graham guessed right?” Connor asked.

“Yeah. It’s weird, he said it would take a goalie goal to get you idiots to fess up.”

“No way!” Jesse protested.

Crawford shrugged. “I dunno either. How he guessed is beyond me, but that’s what he said.”

Connor spent the rest of the evening in a daze as guys congratulated them, bought them drinks, and chirped them mercilessly for either not being subtle at all, or for picking the wrong time to come out.

The holidays had apparently been big. Tanner had put his money on Halloween, Anker Henriksen had picked Christmas, and Kady and Mouse had both gone for New Years.

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