Chapter 29 Skylar
TWENTY-NINE
SKYLAR
“Fuck, just like that,” Skylar moaned, throwing his head back against the mattress as Adam pounded into him. Adam stood at the edge of their bed where he’d tugged Skylar until he felt like he would fall off. But Adam held him up, an arm under his waist, as Skylar’s legs wrapped around Adam’s.
They had moved into their new apartment a week ago and were having fun exploring St. Paul, and of course, enjoying permanently sharing a space with each other.
Adam snapped his hips faster, his eyes focused on Skylar’s.
The way Adam’s gaze moved over his body still made him shiver, and a raw bolt of hunger shot through him.
One of his hands was tangled in their sheets, trying to hold on, the other wrapped around his erection, stroking himself faster and faster in time with Adam’s thrusts.
“I’m gonna come,” Skylar said, arching into his grip as his orgasm crashed through him.
He’d never doubted the power of sustaining a sexual relationship with the same person over many months, but he’d never experienced it.
If this was how good it was after only a few months of getting to know each other’s bodies, Skylar couldn’t wait until they had a few years under their belts.
Adam’s hips slowed but didn’t stop. Skylar knew he couldn’t be far behind. He nudged Adam enough for him to slide out of him, then he scooted back on the bed and flipped over, getting up on his hands and knees.
“Fuck, Sky,” Adam said, crawling onto the bed after him. Skylar shot him a look over his shoulder, trying to look sexy. From the way Adam had to grip the base of his cock and take a deep breath, he figured he was successful.
Adam slid back into him, hands tight on Skylar’s hips as he approached his orgasm.
Skylar felt him come and let Adam collapse over his back, hips grinding into him to ride it out.
“We made the bed so messy,” Skylar bemoaned. They knew when apartment hunting that in-unit laundry was an absolute necessity for the two of them.
“We made our bed so messy,” Adam said, nuzzling the back of Skylar’s neck.
They’d spent a whole week basking in the our of their apartment. Our front door, our couch, our fridge, our shower. Our bed.
They caught their breath and soaked up their post-coital bliss for a handful of minutes before Adam got up to get a washcloth, and Skylar reached for his phone.
“Shit,” Skylar said. “We gotta get a move on. Ryan and Jackson will be here in forty minutes.”
“We’ll be fine,” Adam assured, tossing him the washcloth to clean himself up a bit.
Their bedroom was an open loft above their kitchen and living room, and Adam pulled some boxers on and headed downstairs. Skylar opened the text he had on his phone from Beck.
Beck was being entirely too cagey about what he was up to that summer, but he was on a beach somewhere, per his selfie he sent.
Skylar squinted, then zoomed in a bit on the edge of the photo. He pulled his underwear back on and went to consult Adam.
“Do you think this looks like my old coach?” he asked as Adam started the water for pasta. He held his hand out, and Skylar handed over his phone, watching as Adam did the same pinch and zoom he’d just done.
“Yeah, that makes sense.”
“How does that make sense?” Skylar asked.
“Don’t they hang out?”
“I don’t…think so?” He remembered finding Coach McCoy in Beck’s apartment and Beck calling him Chase.
“They came into Heathens together once. To watch one of your games.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that?”
“It didn’t seem important, I guess. I didn’t realize it was notable. It seemed normal enough.”
Skylar shot off a text back to Beck. Is that Coach????
Since he knew Beck, he knew it would be a while before he got a text back.
Instead, he looked around their apartment.
They were fairly unpacked, considering how recently they’d moved in.
They had spent the week building furniture and coordinating the delivery of already assembled furniture.
There was still a ways to go, but they had a bed and a couch and a TV on the wall, as well as a table with four chairs to eat dinner around.
He folded the throw blanket on the couch and straightened their shoes, then washed his hands so Adam could put him to work in the kitchen.
Italian food was always a good bet with hockey players, and Adam was making a variation of the chicken pasta he’d made Skylar those many months ago—and many times since then.
Skylar was in charge of warming the crusty loaf of bread he’d scored through Brandon’s boyfriend’s old roommate and taking the cake they’d bought at a bakery a short walk from their apartment out of the fridge to come to room temp.
Adam buzzed Jackson and Ryan up and accepted the housewarming flowers they brought.
Skylar and Adam tag-teamed showing them around the first level of the apartment, opting to leave the loft out of the tour since Skylar remembered right when Adam opened the door for Jack and Ryan that it was in the same messy come-covered-sheet state that they’d left it in.
“You two are getting settled in,” Jackson said as they sat down to eat their millionth pasta dinner together.
“I don’t know why everyone talks so much shit about St. Paul,” Skylar said.
“If you’re from here, you have an allegiance.
I feel like a traitor being on this side of town,” Adam said.
“My parents couldn’t believe I picked St. Paul.
” Skylar didn’t get it, but he loved how of-this-place that attitude was.
He loved all the little things that made him feel Minnesotan.
He’d called the casserole they’d made the other night a hot dish, and Adam told him how much relief he felt being back here.
Skylar’s relief was in seeing the evidence that Adam didn’t just leave Iowa for Skylar. He left for himself too.
“You’re also supposed to hate the Mall of America,” Ryan said, “but I like it.”
“Lots of food options,” Jackson agreed. Skylar still hadn’t been, but he grew up going to the West Edmonton Mall, which was even bigger.
“What’s your next move?” Ryan asked Adam, pointing at him with his fork.
“God, I don’t know. I promised Sky I’d take the summer off. Then…I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll get a job bartending for a while.”
“You don’t need to work,” Skylar said. He’d be making plenty of money to support the two of them.
“I need to do something.”
The idea of Adam not having to work made Skylar feel proud. He wanted to take care of him. Not at the expense of his happiness, though. He couldn’t imagine Adam sitting around all day twiddling his thumbs.
“Come work with me,” Ryan said. “Rainbow Hockey Club is getting up and running. We did a few events this year, but we want to do more. There are a couple old NHL guys who help out, but it’s mostly just me locally. I could use all the help I can get.”
Skylar watched Adam’s face carefully. He could tell he was considering it.
“Community outreach stuff, right?”
“Helping queer kids feel safe playing hockey. Stipends for gear and fees. I’m hoping to do clinics next summer. Bring in groups of teens to watch a game from a box. That kind of thing. Expanding as we see fit into the crevices where we’re needed.”
Skylar thought about the youth hockey team Heathens sponsored every year. The coat tree in the corner of the bar for donations. Food drives. The way Adam didn’t dream of having a bar, but he figured out a way to make sure he could care about his community through it.
“Sign me up. That sounds awesome.”
Ryan beamed. The idea of his boyfriend getting along with Ryan made Skylar happy.
Adam was integrated into his life, the way he was integrated into Adam’s.
He’d met Adam’s parents the day before, and it had gone well, especially because he and Adam helped with some projects around the house that needed two people who could lift heavy shit, and Skylar did it with a smile.
In June, they were going to go to Edmonton together to see Skylar’s folks and sisters.
And in between it all, they would come back home to the apartment the two of them shared.
Skylar’s phone buzzed and he checked it under the table. A response from Beck. He’d answered his question. Yes.