Page 68 of Body Check

They’d made tentative plans, but Gavin had messaged him a bit ago saying he was stuck in a meeting, and that he’d let him know when he was done but it would probably be very late and he understood if Dakota didn’t want to make the trek into the city tonight.

“Hmm,” Jeff said. “So, I think your theory he’s a trainer has merit, Vi.”

“You two havetheories?” Dakota asked before he realized that was a truly stupid question. Of course they did.

“Hell yeah.” Jeff grinned. “You know the conspiracy theory guy meme? Our bedroom walls look like that now.”

“I honestly wouldn’t put it past either of you,” Dakota said.

“It’s nice to see you looking so happy lately,” Violet said, her tone unusually earnest.

“Do I?” Dakota asked, startled. He hadn’t realized it but he supposed he had been feeling more cheerful lately. Great sex would do that to a guy though.

“Absolutely! You spent the first few months here doingnothingbut work. If it wasn’t your job with the Harriers, it was your job as a trainer on that workout app. You lookedmiserable.”

He shrugged. “Hey, it pays the bills.”

“You know we’d help you with the debt if you’d let us.”

Dakota smiled tightly. “But I won’t. You have the kids’ college funds to consider.”

“We could manage both. The problem is you’re a stubborn fuck,” Violet said.

“Takes one to know one,” he shot back.

“I still can’t believe Bryce bailed and left you with all of that debt,” Jeff said, interrupting their bickering with a sigh. “What a fuckface.”

Dakota scrubbed a hand over his own face. “Me either. But here we are.”

“What the hell do you want, Racine?” Wade Cannon asked later that week.

Gavin threw his head back and laughed at the agent. “Hello to you too, Cannon.”

“Seriously. What do you want? It’s late. You know I like to keep my work during reasonable business hours as much as possible.”

“Yeah, you picked the wrong damn job, buddy,” Gavin teased.

Wade huffed. “Tell me about it.”

Wade owned a small boutique sports agency. He was a former player who’d remained in the closet for the entirety of his hockey career, then come out after. Following a messy scandal within the Evanston River Otters organization, Wade had quit his job working for a big agency and opened his own. It appeared to be thriving, and he now primarily worked with queer players.

Being his own boss gave Wade more opportunities to control the time he put in, but Gavin was desperate right now and had taken a chance and called him during his “off-hours.”

Besides, they went way back. Although Wade was about ten years older than Gavin, they’d played together in the league for a short while. Gavin would never admit it aloud, but he’d had a hell of a crush on Wade growing up.

He’d had a killer slapshot in the era where they were king, and the posters of Wade Cannon posing with his stick, fully dressed in gear from the waist down and bare from the waist up, hadgraced plenty of guys’ walls and had probably led to more than a few sexual awakenings.

Though Gavin and Wade had never really interacted when they were both playing, they’d run into each other years later at a hockey event. By then, Gavin had become general manager for the Harriers’ AHL affiliate and Wade was an agent and out of the closet.

They were both single at the time and after a few drinks and a little careful flirting to feel each other out, they’d nearly hooked up.

Wouldhave hooked up if Gavin hadn’t had a horribly embarrassing case of food poisoning. The night had not ended the way Gavin had hoped and although they’d exchanged numbers and talked about getting together whenever they were single and in the same state, it had never worked out.

In the end, they were probably too much alike, ambitious and driven to the point where work always came first, and their personal lives second. Though, maybe not so much now, at least for Wade.

“So, Gavin, I’d bitch you out for interrupting my time with my son and my boyfriend, but honestly, Brayden is out with friends and Trevor’s in Nashville for a game tonight. Tell me what you want.”

Wade’s partner, Trevor Underhill, played for the Evanston River Otters.

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