Page 25 of Puck My Stepbrother
“Gay? And apparently a couple for most of last season even if they honestly seemed to want to rip each other apart now and then?”
“Uh, yeah. That.”
Detenbeck smiled. “I knew as much as you did. I thought they had some sort of weird love-hate thing going on. You know,like frenemies? I wouldn’t have thought the love part would become so heated. Maybe I should’ve seen it coming, but I didn’t notice enough to realize what was going on.”
Silence settled over us while I thought of what to say next. Deep down, I wanted someone to finally ask something that would open the door to a discussion about our former teammates. Detenbeck had done that without prompting, which I totally appreciated, but…
He’d called them gay. I hadn’t thought of them that way even after their love affair had come out. Even still, I couldn’t cram the toothpaste back into the tube. I had to know his take.
“Why did you bring them up?” Detenbeck asked.
“You brought them up, bro.”
“Okay, fine. Why did you want to know about their relationship?”
“I think of them randomly sometimes and realize I didn’t talk about that stuff with anyone, including teammates. I never really noticed anything about them before the news broke, but I thought maybe others had seen some signs.”
I’d seen no signs but had noticed those two plenty, realizing that they were both fucking hot. Kayden’s height, wavy hair, broad shoulders, and powerful chest had caught my eye, making me lick my lips more than once. Erik De Ruiter boasted a rugged but wholesome farm boy look that I found impossible to resist. Only after the championship game did anyone know something had been going on between them. They’d kissed after our championship game, shocking everyone, myself included.
That kiss played on various sports networks for days. Both Preston and De Ruiter were drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the rest, as they say, was history.
In case you were wondering, Ihavenoticed guys other than Quinn. No way could I have missed specimens like Preston and De Ruiter. I stole as many glances as I could of their naked assesin the shower, wishing I could stand there and watch as they soaped themselves up. But I’d never realized I could have their life for myself. The thought of taking a brave next step seemed unthinkable.
My attraction to Quinn felt different from my lust over my teammates. Those feelings had budded and bloomed a long time ago, and I figured they’d always stay bottled up. Quinn Standish had represented an unattainable dream. But Preston and De Ruiter showed me that was utter bullshit. I could have him and fulfill my dreams…if only I took control of the situation.
“You don’t have a problem with that, do you?” Detenbeck asked.
“No, of course not.”
“Because that must’ve been seriously hard for them to do, even if they made it look easy. They took a big risk, but it paid off in the end.”
“I know, bro. I’m telling you, I’ve got no problem with it.”
“Then why did you ask?”
Wasn’t that the fucking million-dollar question? I should’ve prepared for the likelihood of Detenbeck acting stupid before entangling myself in this conversation. I needed a plausible reason for asking, even though I wanted to tell the plain truth in the worst way.
“I was just curious if people knew about them all along and I was in the dark, or…”
“If it was a huge secret from everyone?”
I nodded, reminded of the secret I’d carried around for years.
“I think it was an open secret,” he said. “No…that’s not right. I think it was a secret they must’ve known deep down would come out one day. But they would’ve had no idea how the team would react. And if they’d taken their relationship public right away, they would’ve created a huge distraction while we were chasing after the championship.”
“Makes sense.”
“But more than anything, it was probably fear of rejection. There’s no going back after dropping news like that—especially the way they did it.”
“I hear ya. What did you think of it all?”
He shrugged. “Hey, you do whatever’s best for you. I was surprised and everything, but I wouldn’t say I was shocked. And it honestly didn’t make a difference to me. This isn’t the 1950s, you know.”
“I get you, but I would’ve thought there’d be some sort of sign before they came out.”
“Maybe they weren’t gay.”
I cocked an eyebrow to tell him he’d taken a sharp detour from the claim he’d made earlier.
