Page 25 of Friendzone Hockey
“What will you do when he’s ready to start dating again?” he needles, knowing which buttons to press just like he did with Dash.
My veins light with molten fire. I’m not a jealous guy, never even been a super possessive sort of guy, but everything’s different with Dash.
“Dash isn’t ready to date anyone,” I say, but what I almost said was,Dash isn’t dating anyone.
“Not now, but he will someday.”
“I’ll figure it out,” I say through grit teeth.
Casey shrugs. “Okay, then. I trust you, bro.”
Exactly, I can be trusted. I’ll never betray the trust Dash and Travis have put in me.
Travis approaches me before I get to him. The restaurant’s empty, and I’m cleaning up the bar, clearing away the final glasses of the night, and running them through the under-counter dishwasher. The man’s decked in red and black flannel, curling a lock of his chin-length hair behind his ear. Well, well, well, those blond highlights through his brown hair suggest he has gotten outside this summer. It’s hard to picture Travis outside this place. He scratches the thin patch of hair growing around his jaw.
“Heard you had an opening in your house.”
Fucking Casey. It had to have been Casey. “We do.”
He slides his forearms onto the bar top, leaning over without sitting down.
“I hate to ask for your help again, but you’re the only one I trust with my son. I mean, Dirk too, but in a different way. Whatever it is you do for him works. I don’t think I’ve seen him this happy, ever. Including before all the extra-shitty stuff.”
Dash’s life wasn’t a bed of roses, even before the stuff with Robin—a time I’m still learning about in bits and pieces during our bar chats and phone calls. We’ve labeled that time the shitty time and the time with Robin extra-shitty.
I hold back the tidbit of information that I was gonna offer anyway. I wish I could say that I didn’t know why I was doing it, but I do. Casey caught onto me in about five seconds, and while Travis doesn’t know me like Casey does, we spend enough timetogether that he’d figure me out if I said too much. Letting him think I’m doing him a favor isn’t the worst thing I could do, is it?
Maybe it is, but I have to do it. I don’t want Travis thinking I’m gonna betray him. I know I won’t, but if there’s even an inkling of doubt, Travis might not let this happen, and Dash needs a place to stretch his legs. I’m committed to doing right by Dash over and above anything else.
Even if it fucking kills me.
“The rent will be a good price,” I tell him. “Only a fourth if Dirk moves in, too.”
“I can manage the rent,” he assures me, though he doesn’t need to. “The restaurant has been thriving so much that I could probably, finally, afford a larger place for us, but …”
I raise a brow.
“I need you to keep this between us, yeah?” he says.
I nod.
“I’m worried about how he’ll do during the hockey season.”
Dirk and Dash were drafted into the AHL. They’re gonna play for the Kelowna Wildcats with us this season. Thank fucking god for that because if I had to go without Dash for another season, I was honestly contemplating quitting hockey.
But point is, Travis won’t be with us. He won’t be able to watch over his little lion cub.
“Is this … a trial run?”
“Something like that. He’ll be with you and Dirk during the season anyway but, fuck. I always said I would never be this parent but looks like I am. I need to see Dash living on his own. As angry as he gets at me, I give him the certainty he needs, and he knows it.”
That’s true. Dash hates that he needs his dad so much, but he does.
“He was my little shadow while you were gone just like before you came into the picture. Don’t think he knew what he was doin’ or why, but he never strayed too far from me.”
“He knows you’ll keep the bad guys away.”
Travis’s chest lifts. He’s got a lot of guilt over not having kept the “bad guys” away from Dash in the first place, so he overcorrects to make up for it.
