Page 5 of Breakaway Goals
“No, you probably didn’t,” Morgan said, barking out a laugh and patting him on the shoulder. “Come on. Team lunch, then we’ve got practice this afternoon.”
"I swear to God, I thought I was going to have a heart attack about ninety-five percent of the morning,” Hayes said as he stepped out of the elevator onto his floor.
His best friend, Zach, on the other end of the call, scoffed.
“He’s just a guy,” Zach said.
“He’s notjusta guy. I can’t believe you’d say that.” But Hayes could believe that Zach would. He wasn’t ever intimidated by anyone on the ice. No matter who their team, the Los Angeles Mavericks, faced, Zach was always level-headed.
During the more surreal parts of the morning—the interviews, the unexpected and humiliating coming out, and then their coffee shop hangout—Hayes had wished he could be more like Zach.
Of course, Zach hadn’t spent his whole life being compared to Morgan.
“Okay, he’s not just a guy. He’s a hockey player.”
Hayes rolled his eyes. “I wish you were here. You’d keep me from exploding out of my skin or sayingI’m sorryone more time and annoying Morgan so much he never talks to me again.”
“I’m sure you haven’t been that bad,” Zach said.
He’d have to be a lot dumber to miss how Zach sort of avoided the subject he’d broached. How Zach was not here. How he hadn’t been picked to play in this tournament.
And really, even though Zach was good,solid, Hayes hadn’t been all that surprised. It was insanely tough to whittle down the US players to just one team’s worth. Canada had a similar problem. It was slightly easier for Sweden and Finland—they had a smaller group to pick from. But lots of good players—including Zach—had been left off the four rosters.
Next time, Hayes had promised Zach, when the list had come out. Zach was two years younger than him, only twenty-three, and had lots of time to improve and make national teams. Even in the four years since he’d been drafted by the Mavs, he’d come a long way, working his way onto the top six, now solidly anchoring the second line.
“I was pretty awkward,” Hayes admitted as he slid his keycard into the lock, pushing the door open. “You’d have been so fucking embarrassed for me.”
“Probably,” Zach said. “But hey, you told me you wanted to ask him to go to coffee, and you actuallydidit. And he actually said yes.”
“You make it sound like a date,” Hayes grumbled. It had been very muchnota date. They’d talked about hockey basically the whole time. Besides, Morgan was one of those guys you justknewwas straight, no question about it whatsoever.
“I mean, you said you were gonna do it and you did it. Give yourself a pat on the back for that one. Now Morgan Reynolds drinking coffee in front of you is gonna be a permanent part of your jerkoff routine.”
Hayes squawked. “I’m notthatbad.”
“You totally fucking are.”
“Well, it got real awkward after I asked him, because he said sure, but only if I stopped falling to my knees around him—”
“Oh, shit,” Zach interrupted.
Hayes flopped down onto his partially made bed. He had ten minutes before he had to be back downstairs for team lunch. “Yeah,yeah.Of course, that wasn’t what he was meaning, but I, like a complete fucking idiot, thought that was exactly what he meant, and I freaked.”
“Please tell me you didn’t come out to Morgan Reynolds today.”
Hayes knew Zach wasn’t saying it like that because Morgan wouldn’t be understanding—more than once he and Zach had discussed how great he was about his son, Finn—but because with every person he told, the chances of it staying under wraps got smaller.
Hayes wasn’t against coming out of the closet. He wouldn’t be the first professional athlete to do that. Not by a long shot. But he wasn’t ready. He still wanted to imprint his legacy in the NHL, before he became known as the “gay one” instead of the “next one.”
“It was practically an accident,” Hayes said.
“You just wanted to see if he was going to fall tohisknees and thank God ’cause he’s been wanting to get up on youforever,” Zach teased.
It was impossible not to smile. “Like that would ever happen.”
“Exactly,” Zach said.
“It didn’t, by the way. He was cool about it, though. Especially considering how embarrassing the whole thing was.”
