Gabe took the chair next to him, his knee fitting neatly between Dante’s. “I didn’t think it was a secret,” he said. “What with the babysitting, and the charities….” He shrugged, and one corner of his mouth tilted up. “But I knew something had changed when you didn’t reach for Christian anymore, which I couldn’t figure out until I thought about how much you hated giving him back.”

Fuck. And after a while, people had stopped asking and started handing the kids to Gabe instead, and that was difficult in a different way.

It also sucked a lot to realize that for months Gabe had been going through Retirement Angst on his own, while Dante blithely projected his desire for a family onto him. Talk about missing the mark.

He shoved all that down and tried to crawl back to firmer ground. “Can’t believe we’re going to have to break in a new captain,” he joked weakly. “Who do you think they’ll pick?”

Gabe gave him a flat look. “Really?”

Oh no. Dante wanted to back away, but he was sitting down. “Whoa, no. Everyone is way too into the idea of pinning a letter on my chest. It’s like they’ve never met me.”

Another blank stare. Finally Gabe said, “How so?”

Flustered, Dante threw up his hands. “Do I look like Mr. Responsibility to you?”

For some reason, now Gabe looked like he was going to laugh. “Dante, until recently, who was the most popular babysitter on the team?”

“Hanging out with kids doesn’t count when you’re basically one of them!”

“Don’t make me get out your birth certificate to prove your age,” Gabe said, which was rude. “And who stays late after practice with the rookies?”

An alarm was going off in the back of Dante’s head. He frantically smashed the Snooze button. “I have to wait for you while you’re with the PTs or massage therapists anyway!”

“Who did Gabby call when she was sad and scared and ran away from home?” Gabe pressed. “Who takes Mario to all her vet appointments and renews her license every year? Who installed spyware on Crunch’s phone and then left the hotel to make sure he and Bogsy made curfew?”

“It’s not spyware, it’s abuilt-in feature—oh my God.” The evidence was starting to pile up. Dante could keep denying it, but that wouldn’t make it untrue. “Fuck. Am I the dad friend?”

“Mr. Responsibility,” Gabe teased. He bumped their knees together. “If it’s any consolation, it’s a good look on you.”

Dante sighed, put-upon, and pretended he could be casual about this. “You’re just trying to get me into your sweater.”

“That looks good on you too.” Gabe smiled. “You’ve already been doing half the job for me. You can handle it. But you don’t have to.”

“If they ask me”—they would; they’d tried to put the A on him twice already—“I’ll think about it.” Seriously this time.

Honestly, what even was his life?

He sighed again and indulged himself in one tiny moment of self-pity. “It’s going to be weird getting on the ice without you.”

And then Gabe hit him with the other shoe. “I mean, the timing works out,” he said, tentatively, gently, but also like a guy with an ace up his sleeve. “Someone’s got to stay home with the kids.”

Dante made a noise like a starving kitten, suddenly wide awake and energized. Gabe was smiling but not joking. “You want—?” He couldn’t finish the sentence.

Gabe took his hand and pressed a kiss to his knuckles. Dante was going to swoon. This was just too much emotion for one day. “I told you—I didn’tletmyself want anything like that until you.”

Oh, fuck it, now he really was going to cry. “I hate you. I mean, I love you so much it’s stupid, but… you’re sure this is what you want?” Because there’d be no takebacks. No refunds or exchanges.

“Why do you think I married you?”

“Because you realized your disdain for the heteronormative status quo was less important to you than signing a piece ofpaper proving you love me forever?” Dante was getting a little hysterical now.

“Well, that,” Gabe said. Ugh, he was theworst. “But you know what Kitty said to me?”

Betrayal!“Kittytold you?” Dante’s proposal plans were supposed to have been top secret.

Gabe ignored this. “He said, ‘How you going to get babies if you don’t marry?’” He shrugged. He’d gone pink again. “I knew you wanted kids, so….”

Gabe had been sitting on this forthree years?