Page 140 of Time to Shine

Casey kissed his jaw. “No way.”

They held hands in the car while Landon drove. Landon had to keep blinking tears out of his eyes. He tried to focus on the positives: Casey loved him, and they were together. No matter what.

“Are we going to be, um, public?” Landon asked.

“We can kinda halfway it, if you want. We don’t have to make a whole announcement, but I don’t want to hide, if you’re cool with it.”

Landon had no doubt that a lot of hockey fans—and players—would not be cool with him dating Casey. But ultimately, it didn’t matter, because, “I don’t want to hide either.”

Casey smiled. “Cool. We’re going to melt Instagram with our hot summer selfies.”

Landon laughed.

They kissed in the car after Landon parked in the drop-off area at the airport. Maybe people could see them, and recognize them, but Landon didn’t care. He put everything he was feeling into that kiss.

“Jesus,” Casey said when they broke apart. “I’m just supposed to walk away now?”

Landon cradled Casey’s face in one palm. “Listen to me: I’m going to work so hard. I’m going to make Calgary want me.”

Casey looked at him seriously. “You’re the goalie we need. I know it.”

Landon nodded back. “Yeah. I am.”

Casey kissed him quickly, one more time. “I fucking love you,” he said.

“I love you.”

Then, with a parting smile, Casey got out of the car, grabbed his bags from the trunk, waved, and went into the airport.

Landon smiled all the way to practice because he had a fucking boyfriend.

Chapter Forty-One

It was the first week of March, and things were getting real.

Calgary was in a battle with L.A. for the number one ranking in their division, and the playoffs were only five weeks away. Casey was buzzing with adrenaline, pretty much 24/7. Calgary had been a good team last year, but they were a great team this year. They were contenders.

He knew it was only his fourth season, and that it was maybe greedy to be so hungry for his first Cup win when guys like Lee had been waiting for almost fifteen years, but damn, he wanted it. He wanted it bad.

“This is going to be the best game ever,” he told himself as he got ready to charge out of the tunnel in San Jose. It should be an easy win—San Jose was at the very bottom of the entire Western Conference now—but he knew better than to treat any game like a sure thing. They were taking this one seriously. They even had Antton starting.

Landon’s team had been doing well too. Number one in their division, and the favorite to win their championships. Casey had been watching as many of their games as he could, and Landon was a fucking rock star in Saskatoon. It made him wish they’d left the apartment when he’d been there, gone out for dinner maybe, seen how the locals treated their star goalie.

A whole month had gone by since that visit, and even though Casey missed Landon a lot, it had been a good month. They’d called each other almost every day, usually video calls, and usually at bedtime. It helped, being able to talk to Landon when Casey was alone in his big creepy house. He’d been sleeping well.

It was nice, being in love. Casey was into it.

“You ready, Hicks?” Nosey asked, bumping his chest against Casey’s shoulder.

“Fuck yeah.”

They did their usual pregame routine: crosschecking each other’s sticks like they were in a swordfight, then bumping hips, then doing a little shimmy.

“Let’s go shut this crowd up,” Nosey said.

The game was going great. Casey had a goal and an assist by the middle of the second period, Antton hadn’t let any pucks past him, and the score was 3-0. The crowd had been silent for a while.

It was late in the second period—less than three minutes left—that everything changed.

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