Page 31 of Role Model

“Cool. I gotta clean the grill.” Bood grinned and nodded at Troy’s plate of chicken. “Enjoy.”

Troy found a quiet bench seat in one corner. The patio was filled with the happy chatter of a group of people who obviously knew each other well. Before he’d gotten here, Troy had assumed that the Ottawa players must be the most miserable bunch of people in the world. How could you have fun together—or even like each other—when you couldn’t win on the ice? When your arena was only half full most games? How were you not completely embarrassed all the time?

But this group loved each other. Troy hadn’t even been on this team for two weeks yet and he could see it clearly. He just couldn’t see himself being a part of it, even if his teammates had been decent to him so far.

The food was delicious. Troy hadn’t realized how hungry he was until he tore into the jerk chicken, and, yeah, it was spicy, but it was so fucking tasty too. He cooled his mouth with more of the cider.

As if summoned by the cider, Harris was suddenly in front of him. “Hey.” He was holding his own plate of food and a bottle. “Mind if I sit?”

“Go ahead.”

Harris sat next to him. “Having fun?”

“I guess. It’s a nice patio.”

“It’s property porn, is what it is. I’m glad Bood likes to entertain so much.” He picked up a rib and sank his teeth into it.

Troy went back to his own food, eating in silence until Harris asked, “You talk to anyone?”

“Um. Dykstra a bit. Bood.”

“You meet Cassie yet? That’s Bood’s wife.”

“No.”

Harris gestured to a tall blond woman standing near the firepit. “That’s Cassie. She’s supercool.” When she turned, Troy could see that she was pregnant.

“Is this gonna be their first kid?”

“Yup! They’ll be the best parents.” Harris nudged Troy. “Don’t tell any of the other dads I said that.”

“I don’t even know who the other dads are.”

“Dykstra has a daughter, Susie. She just turned one. Chouinard has three kids, Boyle has twins...” He went on to name every dad on the team, and all of their kids’ names and ages. Then he proceeded to list and detail everyone’s pets. Troy tried to retain at least some of it.

“Wow. Do you know all their allergies too?”

Harris laughed. “I like people. And I like my job.”

“What if the player is a fucking dick, but you still have to do promo shit to make him seem great?”

“It’s never happened. This team only ever has good people.”

He seemed awfully sure of himself, considering Troy was sitting right next to him as hard evidence that Ottawa did not only sign good people.

“Did you like being home for a couple of days?” Harris asked. “I’ve only been to Vancouver once. It lives up to the hype.”

“It’s not bad.”

“Wyatt loves the Vancouver trips. His sister lives there with her wife and their son.”

Troy’s attention snagged on one word. “Wife?”

“Yeah. You didn’t know? He talks about them all the time. I assumed he did in Toronto too.”

Even if Wyatt had talked about his family when he’d played for Toronto, he wouldn’t have talked to Troy about his queer sister. Not the way Troy had radiated homophobia. Given the culture of the Toronto team, there was a good chance Wyatt hadn’t talked about his sister to anyone.

Maybe to Ryan Price. Wyatt had been friends with Ryan. Probably because no one else had been.

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