Page 53 of Over the Line

I closed my eyes and swore into the silence of my huge, empty house.

I knew what we should do going forward.

But I was pretty sure I also knew what we would do.

On second thought, maybe we wouldn’t.

It was one thing to tell myself in the heat of the moment that I wasn’t doing anything wrong with Garrett. It was one thing to tell ourselves we’d take some time to figure out what we were doing before we brought it up to his son.

It was another thing entirely to watch Chris skate out onto the ice for practice while I swore I could still feel Garrett’s kiss on my tingling lips.

I grimaced and casually skated in a circle so I could turn my back to Chris and collect my thoughts.

We’re not doing anything wrong. It feels a little weird right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

After all, we were two consenting adults, and it was our private life. We didn’t need Chris’s permission or his blessing. We also didn’t need to be telling him we were hooking up, especially if that was all this ended up being.

But… as Garrett had mentioned… it felt weird.

Really, really weird.

And we’d both felt weird enough about it to back off last night.

I didn’t even know if any of that was rational, or if I was overthinking things, but the feeling wasn’t moving regardless.

It didn’t move as practice went on. Through drills I ran alongside Garrett’s son, through the team meeting I couldn’t concentrate on, through film review that didn’t register in my stupid, whirring brain… all I could think about was last night, and how it really needed to be our last night. The whole morning was a blur because my mind just wasn’t working today. Not on anything besides “you dumbass, what did you think would happen if you hooked up with your teammate’s dad?”

At least we hadn’t actually done much. Making out a little didn’t really count as hooking up, did it? And if I was this much of a wreck over kissing, then it was a damn good thing we hadn’t had sex.

In the training center parking lot, I sat in the driver seat of my car as my mind zipped in a million different directions. I knew what I needed to do. The responsible, grownup, captain-of-the-goddamned-team thing to do.

I knew that.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I swore aloud. If my involvement with Garrett got out, it could throw off the whole locker room dynamic. It could wreck this new top line that Coach was praising night after night. Chris could demand a trade off the team to get away from me and from his dad.

It was also entirely possible no one would care. Chris would shrug it off and say, “Whatever—as long as you’re both happy.” Maybe he’d even give me the “you better not hurt my dad” lecture before chuckling and giving us his blessing. Literally no one might care.

But someone might. Chris might. And if they did, the fallout would hurt more than just me.

Opening my eyes and gazing up at the training center, I sighed into the stillness. It figured—I finally found someone I wanted to connect with, but I couldn’t make it work around my career.

The hockey gods giveth, and the hockey gods taketh away.

Yeah. I knew what I had to do. I was a little worried about Garrett being angry with me for backing off, especially because—unlike the last few men I’d actually slept with—he hadn’t signed an NDA. We hadn’t gotten that far. So what if he decided to run a smear campaign or something?

Though I didn’t imagine that would help with his relationship with his son, so maybe I didn’t need to worry about that. And I didn’t think he was the type to do that anyway, but I hadn’t thought that one guy was the type to blackmail me, so…

Do you have a minute to FaceTime?

I’ve got a meeting in twenty, but sure.

Shouldn’t take long.

We switched apps, and he appeared on-camera, dressed in a shirt and tie in what must have been his office. The Fort Duquesne Bridge was visible through the window behind him with Mount Washington just beyond it. He must’ve had a hell of a view of the city and the rivers.

“Hey,” he said. “What’s up?”

“I, uh…” I shifted in the driver seat. “I just got done with practice.” And team meetings and all that, but this wasn’t about my daily itinerary. I scratched the back of my head, then pressed back into my seat. “Listen, um… I don’t… I don’t know how I feel about doing this.” I exhaled. “With Chris and me being teammates.”