“What’s with your rivalry, anyway? It’s not like you’ve slept with his wife or girlfriends or …” He trails off, probably putting two and two together. Anton doesn’t do girlfriends, and he’s never been married because—“Oh.”
“We don’t like each other. End of story. He grates on me, and I’m too awesome for him. It’s the story of my life, Coach. You should feel sorry for me. No one likes me because of how jealous they are.”
“I’m starting to see Hayes’s point,” Coach grumbles. “Just stay away from him, okay? You play on the left. He plays on the right. You should be able to manage that.”
That may be true, but we’re still teammates, and when we’re on the ice together, we’ll have to trust each other. Like that’s possible.
I mock salute Coach anyway because there’s no way to undo this. The decisions he and team management made might have screwed us all, but we’re the ones who have to deal with it.
Coach stands. “Go get suited up, and I’ll see you out there. This trade was supposed to be a steal. Don’t make me regret it.”
“Why’s it automatically my fault if you do? Hayes hates me as much as I hate him.”
He slaps my shoulder on the way past. “Because you’re so awesome. So, so awesome.”
“I don’t appreciate the sarcasm, Coach,” I call after him.
He whistles as he hits the corridor and heads toward the ice.
Okay. Professional time.
Keep my hands to myself, my dick in my pants, and pretend Anton Hayes is just another teammate.
This will not be the team’s downfall. I won’t allow it.
Six
ANTON
It’s a relief when Coach calls Ezra away and I can unload my things into my cubby in peace. I’m unsettled, maybe even resentful, but I know this is part of my job, and I need to suck it up.
Clearly being a good player means nothing when it comes to a trade. Besides, the person I should be feeling bad for is Wagner. He’s only got a year or two left to play, and now he’s having to uproot his whole family because of this deal.
All I left behind was an apartment that I loved.
To be back in Boston.
I have so many mixed feelings about the trade. The first one is feeling disposable. The second is being back here, knowing my childhood home has been sold to another family, and my parents are states away. The food bank I used to volunteer at is gone, and I haven’t kept track of which friends from high school are still around and which have moved on.
I’m alone.
Which isn’t something I’ve felt before, even when I moved away to college, then got drafted to my first team.
These guys are Ezra’s, and fitting into that dynamic will take time.
Diedrich offered for Moreau and me to stay with him until we get settled, but I chose to go with the hotel option. Diedrich has a gaggle of children, and his family will have enough issues with one hockey player, let alone two. This will be Moreau’s first time living out of home since he was lucky enough to be drafted to his home team in Philly. That guy is going to have a lot of adjusting to do.
Kosik joins me at my cubby. “Anton Hayes.” His smile is huge. “You would have been my last guess.”
“You and me both.”
“How are you and Palaszczuk going to handle this?” I swear the locker room goes silent while they wait for my reply. I take it we’re not avoiding the elephant in the room, then.
“There are twenty other people on this team. I’m not going to hold one bad egg against you.” I throw them a wink.
There are some chuckles.
“You don’t need to worry about me though. I’m a professional.” Figure we should get a few things out while I have their attention. “I’m also gay for those of you who don’t know, but I assume that won’t be an issue.”
They hurry to reassure me it’s totally fine.
“Team rule though,” Diedrich adds. “None of us talks about our sex lives, okay? You do you, but we don’t need to hear about it. And you don’t need to hear about what we get up to.”
“Deal.” That’s more than okay with me. “Why do I get the feeling Palaszczuk was the reason for that rule?”
Diedrich rubs his neck. “Might have been, yeah.”
Ezra enters the room at just the right moment and cuts in. “Because I showed you animals how awkward sex talk is when you’re not into the things being talked about.”
“Yep, that.” Diedrich slaps my back. “Better suit up. I grabbed you some practice gear, and I have a feeling with you two joining, today is going to be an intense practice.”
Of course it will. Coming into a new team always presents issues, but a team with Ezra?