Chapter 5
Gabriel
Gabriel watched, a little dumbfounded, as Drew Moreau—who was apparently an NHL star—drove away from Orion’s Belt Hockey Camp. He couldn’t believe what had just happened. Drew had officially asked him out on a date. Who would’ve thought?
He shook his head as he walked back into the Citadel, the main building of the hockey camp. A year ago, when Gabriel had returned to Orion, Michigan, from college at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, there was simply no way he could have expected something like this to happen.
He was constantly on the lookout for a meet-cute, and he had had no luck with something like that, especially during this last year in Orion, because the queer population here was relatively limited. Perhaps, he thought, he’d just had his meet cute.
A lack of meet-cutes was one of the many downsides of living in the same small town where he’d grown up. Everyone had known him since he was born, and they thought that meant they were entitled to opinions about how he behaved.
Gabriel had thought he’d escaped the small-town life of Orion when he’d moved to Ann Arbor for college at the University of Michigan.
He’d graduated a year ago with a degree in business and had even had a nice job lined up at a consulting firm in Chicago.
He’d been more or less out at the U of M, had had a few lovers, and was planning to restart his life as a more openly gay man when he reached Chicago—one of the epicenters of queer midwestern life.
Those plans had changed when, only a week after graduation, while he was still getting day drunk with his friends in Ann Arbor and procrastinating his plans to pack up his apartment, his mother had called him to let him know that his father had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer and things weren’t looking good.
Gabriel hadn’t had to think twice about it. He changed his plans, told the consulting firm he’d have to turn down their attractive offer, said a tearful goodbye to his college friends, and moved back to Orion.
His parents hadn’t asked him to do it. They wouldn’t dare ask something like that of him.
They loved him dearly, and they had always told him and his siblings that they wanted them to go and live whatever life they wanted to live.
For Gabriel’s two older sisters, that had meant moving away from Michigan: Mikayla was in Indianapolis, and Claire was in Cleveland, Ohio.
Gabriel’s younger brother, Jesse, was still in college at Purdue.
His sisters were both married, and though they visited when they could, it would be impractical for them to always be around to support their parents.
Gabriel was unattached, had no college debt, and knew the family business.
He knew he was the natural choice for who could go home, so that’s what he did.
His siblings were thankful for it, and Claire especially had said she knew what he was giving up to go.
She knew he wanted to live in a bigger city.
She said she would visit as often as she could, but now she was pregnant with her second kid, and traveling was hard, especially since her husband, Mike, worked such long hours and had to take so many business trips.
In the year since Gabriel had been home, his father had undergone months of treatment: chemotherapy and surgeries.
The treatment had left him weak and tired.
Don Ackermann was only in his late fifties and had always been an active and healthy man.
The exhaustion from his cancer was frustrating, but he handled it well.
Last summer, he hadn’t been able to run Orion’s Belt Hockey Camp at all because of his illness.
Now that he was in remission, he wanted to helm the camp again, but Gabriel and his mother were reluctant to let Don do too much.
They’d reached a compromise: Gabriel would act as Assistant Director of the camp this year, and Don would be acting Senior Director.
Gabriel had handled everything last year, with some help from his mother, and he appreciated that his father wanted to take control again.
He worried, though, that Don Ackermann wasn’t ready.
But the Ackermanns had never been known for their ability to correctly judge their own limitations. If Don Ackermann wanted to do something, he would.
Gabriel’s parents handled most of the office and administrative work at camp, and he had volunteered to handle most of the manual labor, assisting Hank the Crank. He didn’t much like working with the Crank (he was, after all, cranky), but he did what his father no longer was allowed to do.
There were plenty of last-minute repairs to do around camp, some of which wouldn’t be completed because of their lack of funds. Gabriel had seen the budget, and it wasn’t what it used to be.
He spent several hours outside, shirtless, clearing the trails through the woods and raking leaves and driftwood that cluttered the strip of rocky sand along Three Star Lake, which the camp claimed as their “beach.” It was nothing like the gorgeous beaches along Lake Michigan, but it was nice enough.
It was hard work, but good work, and he was sweating, hungry, and thirsty by the time he broke for lunch. He ate in the mess hall, heating up leftovers from yesterday’s staff dinner, and then went back to work, going down to their boat launch to repair some loose boards.
By the time he was done with all his chores for the day, the sun was drifting low towards the horizon.
This far north in Michigan, the sun didn’t set until after 9:00 p.m. during the summer.
It was after 8:00 p.m. at this point, and Gabriel had done a full day’s work of manual labor.
He wanted to go home, take a long, cold shower, crack open a beer, and rest his sore muscles.
After his first six months back in Orion, his parents had offered him a deal: they recognized that he was now a college graduate, not a kid anymore, and it was reasonable that he would want some more privacy than he was afforded when he lived in their house in the historic Heritage neighborhood of Orion, where the homes were beautiful old Victorians.
They had a second home, a comfortable cottage, on the Lake.
He could stay there without paying rent if he did some odd jobs around the cottage that his father couldn’t do anymore.
It was a good arrangement, and Gabriel was thankful for the privacy.
He hadn’t taken advantage of it, yet, in the way that he wanted to (i.e.
, having a man over and doing things that would disappoint his parents), but he had plans to do so.
Maybe that was even something he could do with Drew—he was still wrapping his head around the fact that Drew Moreau, famous hockey star, was apparently secretly queer.
If Drew wasn’t interested in such activities, there would be other options.
Now that the summer season had started, tourists would flock to Orion.
It was a picturesque town with beautiful dunes, a State Park, and plenty of woods for camping.
There was a winery, multiple orchards, and large cherry farms. Tourists loved Orion, and the town’s population more than doubled in the summer months, when people came up to stay in their cottages.
Gabriel was determined to have a summer romance. He didn’t want anything serious, but he needed something to introduce more excitement into his life. He would be busy with Orion's Belt Hockey Camp soon, but he feared that sort of busyness would leave him bored.
Maybe this summer romance would be with the attractive NHL star he’d now had the fortune of running into twice. It was certainly looking like this might be the case, though he didn’t want to get his hopes up.
He was walking back to his car, his shirt draped over his sweaty shoulders, when he finally checked his phone and saw that he had a text message from Drew.
Drew: It was good running into you at the camp! I promise I’m not stalking you. This might be a bit last-minute, but I don’t know any places to eat in town, and would love to try one out tonight. Would you want to grab dinner tonight?
Gabriel checked the timestamp on the message. Drew had sent it more than an hour ago. He hastily typed a message back.
Gabriel: Sorry, I’m just seeing this! I was doing some manual labor around camp. Does the offer still stand? I understand if you’ve already eaten. But if you’d be down to grab a late dinner, I’d love to! I just need to run home and shower.
Drew’s message came a few minutes later, as Gabriel was waiting for his car’s AC to cool the oven-like interior.
Drew: I haven’t eaten yet! I was just staring at everything in my fridge and debating whether I wanted to cook or not. When works for you?
Gabriel checked the time again. He needed to shower and pick out an outfit, but then he’d be ready.
Gabriel: How does 9:00 p.m. sound? Lakeside Biergarten has some great food, unless you’re vegetarian.
Drew: I hope I don’t give off vegetarian vibes.
Gabriel: Hey now, don’t be rude to vegetarians.
Drew: Are YOU vegetarian?
Gabriel: No, but I try to keep an open mind about them.
Drew: 9:00 p.m. at the Biergarten it is. I’ll see you there!
Gabriel felt a little giddy as he shifted his car into drive and began the short journey to his parents’ cottage.
—
Lakeside Biergarten was not, technically, on the lake.
It was on Orion’s little harbor, which was close enough to the lake that its name wasn’t truly a lie.
It was located in the Fishing District, a collection of gray-weathered wood buildings built on stilts right up at the edge of the harbor.
Sometimes, the odor of fish hung heavy in the air, but at night it was replaced by the heavy aroma of good food.