Out in Spring (Out in College 6)

Chapman’s players obviously felt the same way. The first period was a fast-paced, passing game, heavy on offense. Colby scored within the first five minutes, but luckily Troy held strong. Nothing got by him…until the second period. We were tied at the beginning of the third. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been so nervous. If this was it for Logan, I wanted him to do well. So far, he’d been kind of quiet. And his coach didn’t put him in the first line. That was strange. Maybe it wasn’t. I didn’t know. I just had to get through the next twenty minutes without chewing the inside of my mouth raw.

“Sky is sitting with Colby’s mom and Harry.” Kendra tapped my shoulder and pointed meaningfully toward the opposite side of the aisle.

I glanced over with an absent nod but did a double take when I saw Kelly heading my way. She noticed me at the same time and waved excitedly.

“Hey there, Nedster. Sorry. That’s what Logan calls you, isn’t it?” She flipped her long hair over her shoulder and motioned for me to scoot aside on the bench. She didn’t wait for me to move. She sidled between me and the guy to my left, letting out a dainty hiccup as she turned to face me. Uh-oh. She was drunk. “I can’t stay. My friends are somewhere…over there. I just wanted to wish you luck.”

“Oh? Um, thank you,” I replied carefully.

“Logan told me you got a great job up north. So exciting. I love the Bay Area. We’ll come visit you sometime.”

“Uh…” I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean?”

“No hidden meaning, silly. If you’re Logan’s friend, you’re my friend too. And”—she paused to let out a ladylike hiccup—“once he starts working at my dad’s firm, I think we’ll be back on track.”

“How so?”

“I dunno. I don’t want to rush anything. Being together is a good start. I’ve missed my friend, you know? I think he’ll be happy working nearby.”

“Um, I didn’t think he took that job,” I said lamely.

“He did. He just confirmed with my dad this afternoon. And I am so fucking over the moon. Pardon my French.” Hiccup. Kelly hopped to her feet a moment later and threw her hands in the air. “Woohoo! Go, Logan, go!”

I think he looked. No, I know he did. It was as though the action on the ice was frozen into a photograph or a slow-moving video. I saw Logan glance our way and noted twenty different expressions cross his face at once. Joy, confusion, frustration…I didn’t know what any of it meant. But I had a feeling if I put it all together, I might not like where this was going.

Logan was staying in Long Beach.

Part of me knew he might. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Of course, taking a job with Kelly’s dad’s firm didn’t mean he wanted to rekindle their relationship. He didn’t. He wanted me. But I was going to be four hundred miles away. I didn’t know if he wanted a long-distance relationship…with a man. We hadn’t talked about it. Maybe the reason he seemed distracted was that he’d been trying to slowly pull away from me, so he could return to the way things used to be.

I stood when Kelly slurred a good-bye and inched out of our row. I kept my eyes on the ice and watched Logan’s every move. He sprinted toward the goal and pulled up behind one of Chapman’s D-men. They jockeyed for position, but Logan didn’t have the puck. I didn’t think he had a good angle to score, but I was no expert. I watched the action with my heart in my throat while a big part of me was stuck somewhere else, wondering how much time we had left.

I deftly tuned out the noise in the arena and got lost in a complicated daydream involving a lot of travel on the weekends. If we took turns visiting each other, we might be able to make this work. The flights between Long Beach and San Jose weren’t too pricey. Logan could come up on a Friday and return Sunday, and I’d visit him the next weekend. Of course, he probably wouldn’t be free every weekend. No doubt Kelly would ask her dad to manufacture mandatory weekend work shift for newbies and make sure they were on the same schedule. Why didn’t he tell me he’d taken the job?

A roar from the crowd ripped me back to the present. Kendra said something about a breakaway in between screams. I refocused on the action just as Ramirez passed the puck to Logan who sent it to Colby on the opposite side of the goal. It was just enough to draw the goalie out of position, and Colby knew it. He passed the puck to Logan and bam! The lamp lit up a second later. Goal!