Page 26 of Slew Foot
Rafe was going to fuckingkillhim. Not intentionally of course. Not because he was trying, but because with every second they spent together, Mickey felt more and more fond of him.
He was so big and earnest and sweet and … Mickey took a deep breath to settle himself.Not the place for this, he told himself firmly.
The air was cool and smelled faintly of ozone from the ice resurfacer fluid. The familiarity of itdidsettle a little of the jangly feeling coursing through him all morning.
He could do this. He could be teammates with a guy he was attracted to.
It wasn’t a problem he’d ever had before, but he could handle it. It was fine. He’d help Rafe get settled, then maybe limit their interactions to team stuff …
“Hey, so, I asked Rafe if he wanted to do lunch with us after practice,” Tanner said cheerfully, throwing the words over his shoulder.
“What?” Mickey said hoarsely.
He stopped in his tracks, his stick falling to the floor when Crawford ran right into him. He would have knocked Mickey over if he hadn’t clapped a hand on his shoulder and stopped him from pitching forward.
“Watch where you’re fucking going, dude,” Crawford grumbled. He skirted around Mickey with a roll of his eyes, continuing on, oblivious to Mickey’s current crisis.
That was the problem, wasn’t it? When you were quiet on the outside, no one had any idea how much was going on inside.
“You okay there?” Tanner asked. He’d turned back and was eyeing Mickey with a mix of amusement and concern.
“Uhh, yeah, caught the toe of my skate or something,” Mickey said. He bent down to pick up his stick, grateful for the chances to hide the warmth in his face at the lie.
“Oh. Well, did you hear me? Rafe’s coming to lunch with us.”
“Yeah? Great,” Mickey managed and continued walking. “That’s great. It was, uh, nice of you to invite him.”
Tanner fell into step beside him. “Yeah, he seems like a cool dude. Did you know he games? He said he brought his Switch with him to Boston. We were talking about it while we worked out earlier.”
“I did not know that,” Mickey said faintly.Oh fuck.If he and Tanner hit it off and started gaming, there would be no escaping him.
“Yeah, and like, it would be awesome if he was into hanging out with us more. Like, I love this team but dude, it is so fucking hard to find guys who want to game or go out and do stuff, you know?”
“Un-huh.” Mickey gripped his stick a little tighter.
“Like, I thought it was going to be totally dope to be on a team with Jesse, but he’s all …” Tanner waved his glove vaguely. “Sappy about Connor and the girls.”
“I don’t think that’s how you say that,” Mickey said doubtfully. He occasionally made blunders in English, but he was pretty sure this time, it was Tanner. “Isn’t the term S-A-P-s? Spouses and partners?”
“Well, yeah, no, I know he’s trying to be all gender-inclusive and shit after Toronto and not use WAGs. They call themselves SAPsor whatever. But also, like, Jesse is totally fuckingsappyabout his new little family, you know? All shmoopy and stuff.”
Tanner made a face as he stepped onto the ice.
Following him, Mickey managed a small laugh. Okay, that was true enough, even if he wasn’t quite sure what shmoopy meant. It sounded kind of soft and sticky.
When Jesse had joined the team at the start of the season, Mickey had been prepared for a guy who was wild and outgoing and unable to be tamed.
Hewasoutgoing—friendly and upbeat and constantly trying to lift up the team and give them energy—but he was also one of the most dialed-in goaltenders Mickey had ever met.
He was also incredibly committed to Connor and his daughters. Mickey hadn’t seen that coming at all. Most of the team had known they were hooking up. The way they’d looked at one another for all of October and November had been a dead giveaway.
But Mickey had assumed it was a fling.
Even if the captain didn’t seem like the kind of guy to have a fling—especially with a man—somehow, he and Jesseworkedin a relationship.
Mickey had heard how soft Jesse’s voice went during the nightly video chats he did with Connor’s girls and seen how relaxed and at ease Jesse was around Connor when they thought no one was looking, when they thought there was no one to chirp them about it.
They were a great couple.
