SKYLAR
The Northern Lights were lucky to have two away games against the Vegas Spades this year, and while Skylar had always been a mild fan of Las Vegas, now that Grace and her newly minted husband lived there, games against the Spades also meant Adam flew out to spend some time with Grace.
The Spades were quickly becoming his favorite opponent.
“I thought your pregame nap was the most important part of your day,” Adam said, naked and spent beside him in his hotel room, trying to take a post-orgasm nap. Meanwhile, Skylar was too excited to sleep.
“I like having you here. I wish you could travel with us all the time,” Skylar said, his body flopped on top of Adam’s under the sheets. Las Vegas was hot, but their hotel had incredible air-conditioning.
“I think your coach would get pretty annoyed with that, and you’re just getting him on board with you.”
After a tumultuous journey bouncing between the NHL and the AHL, Skylar was finally up for good on a one-way contract.
He’d been bumped up to the second D-pair, and most importantly, he had learned some tactics to keep his cool on the ice instead of letting his hot temper get the best of him.
He was proud of himself, both because of the improvement he’d seen in his game and because he didn’t have those moments of shame after an outburst that made him embarrassed to see Adam after.
Skylar loved having someone to impress. Someone who made him want to be his best. It wasn’t Adam’s responsibility to make sure Skylar was living up to who he wanted to be, of course, but he was the anchor that Skylar reached for to remember why he was doing any of this.
The anchor he wanted to tie himself to for the rest of his life.
“Speaking of no longer being reckless and impulsive on the ice,” Skylar said, thinking about all the things he loved about Vegas.
“Oh no,” Adam joked. Adam was the calm, rational one. Skylar thought of his role in their relationship as being something of an agent of chaos. Reasonable chaos, while still respecting Adam’s limits.
“I was just thinking about how badly I want to marry you.”
“We’re already engaged, love.”
Skylar tipped his head up to look at Adam, the warm, content smile he could hear in his words present on his face. He pecked a kiss on Adam’s lips just to watch his smile grow.
“Sure. But we’re not married yet.”
“True.”
The two of them hadn’t spent much time figuring out a wedding. Skylar was so busy with hockey, and Adam was so busy with Ryan’s nonprofit. It didn’t feel urgent, and neither of them wanted something huge.
“But guess where we are?”
“Oh my God,” Adam said, putting the pieces together. “When exactly do you think we would get Vegas married? You have a game tonight and head to Utah tomorrow afternoon.”
“Did you know that the marriage license bureau is open until midnight?”
“I did not know that.”
“And there are around-the-clock wedding chapels.”
“Why do I feel like I’m listening to an idea Grace planted in your head?”
“She may have told me some details from her own nuptials.” Grace and Michael got married in Vegas on New Year’s Eve with just their two best friends there.
Skylar and Adam were also not the kind of couple who were going to plan a day that cost them tens of thousands of dollars. “Grace is very smart.”
Adam sighed, and it ended in a bit of a laugh. “Grace is very smart,” Adam agreed, sounding some combination of exasperated and fond.
“If you aren’t into this, that’s fine. We can do something back in Minnesota. We can invite our families and make it as big of a deal as you want. Or we could get married tonight, then I’ll go play one game in Utah, and our All-Star break vacation the day after can be our honeymoon.”
He watched Adam consider it. Adam wasn’t the world’s most impulsive person, but he was practical.
Getting married after the game would mean they could get it out of the way.
They wouldn’t have to hand wring over dozens of individual choices.
He let out a breath and gave Skylar the I guess we’re doing this look that Skylar was used to receiving from him when he pitched impulsive shit like this.
“The marriage license bureau is really open until midnight?”
“I think we did okay,” Grace said in the waiting room for the wedding chapel.
Skylar and Adam had called ahead for an appointment, and Grace and Michael met them there.
While Skylar had to have a suit to travel in, Adam didn’t bring anything fancy.
Skylar had given Grace his credit card and told her to help Adam find a nice suit and a couple of rings since Skylar had to be at the arena hours before the game for his pregame routine and warm-ups.
Getting Adam a suit was on their list of things to do regardless, and if Skylar knew how delicious he would look all cleaned up like this, no flannel in sight, he would have prioritized it sooner.
“You did a great job,” Skylar agreed.
“Is it weird that this is shockingly in-character for you?” Brandon asked.
Skylar had convinced Brandon and Walker to come with them so he could have someone standing on his side of the chapel.
It was after eleven, he and Adam had a marriage license with their names on it, and they were going to go out to a big, late dinner afterward.
Skylar told his teammates he’d buy them steak and that was all it took.
He was sure they would have shown up just for friendship, too, but this was a good excuse for a special late-night dinner, regardless.
“Yeah, I would be worried if it was anyone else on the team, but it feels right for you,” Walker said.
Adam’s foot bounced as they waited, sweaty hand tucked into Skylar’s.
“Still on board?” Skylar asked as Grace diverted Brandon’s and Walker’s attention to talk about how crazy the third period of their game that night had been.
Skylar was high on life and had scored twice.
It felt like a good omen. But right now, all that mattered to Skylar was how his future husband felt.
“I’m nervous, but I’m not nervous about you, if that’s what you mean. Your teammates are right. This does feel like the right move.”
“Lark-Coburn for six?” the chapel’s wedding planner prompted, letting them know it was their time.
One of the things Skylar was most excited about was hyphenating their names.
That was one decision they had already made.
They didn’t even have to have a discussion.
It was what they both wanted. Skylar couldn’t wait to see it on the back of his jersey next season.
“That’s us,” Adam said, standing up and raising his hand a bit, like there were dozens of people in the chapel with them. Two other people sat at the end of the waiting room.
The package they picked came with prewritten, standard, nonreligious vows, a video of the ceremony, and a twenty-minute photo session with a photographer. For six hundred bucks—plus the cost of their marriage license—they were making it official.
They made their way down the aisle as a group, confirmed their information with the officiant, and Grace and Michael sat on one side of the aisle as Brandon and Walker sat on the other. And then Skylar was standing in front of his husband, about to make it official.
Skylar couldn’t stop smiling as he repeated his vows, and to his shock, a couple of tears slid down Adam's cheek as they exchanged rings.
If the number of camera flashes were any indication, their first kiss as husbands was well documented.
They signed their marriage license, and the chapel photographer directed them through a series of poses with just the two of them, and then all six of them inside, and then again outside under the city lights in a classic convertible that sat out front of the chapel for this exact purpose.
They had a limo pick them up from the chapel to take them to dinner, and Skylar couldn’t stop looking at the simple white-gold band on his ring finger.
Adam kept telling him that they could pick out something different when they got home if they wanted, but he didn’t want something else.
The one Adam picked for him was perfect.
“The weirdest thing,” Adam said, sitting in the V of Skylar’s legs in the bathtub at their hotel room, drinking the coffee that had come with their late room service breakfast the next morning, “was how I was so nervous until you put my ring on and we finished up the paperwork and it was official. I was flooded with a sense of deep relief.”
Skylar pressed a kiss to his cheek, keeping one eye on Adam’s left hand. He hadn’t realized that seeing Adam wear his ring would be so fucking attractive. He was his husband. Wild.
“Jack told me that the person with the Northern Lights that coordinates all of our work visas and such can help us with immigration stuff.”
“Thank God,” Adam said. “Sorry you have to be American now.”
Skylar laughed. “I’m already American, baby. Canada is in North America.”
“You know what I mean. Bald eagle and all that shit.”
He didn’t have to see Adam’s face to know he was rolling his eyes.
Jackson had screamed that morning when he found out that the two of them got married and then forced them to FaceTime Ryan when they were barely awake. They had stayed out way too late, but the late afternoon flight out of Vegas existed for that exact reason.
Their plan for the morning, after being dragged out of bed by his captain, having married morning sex, ordering breakfast, and taking a bath, involved FaceTiming their families. Skylar would post their wedding photos on Instagram when they were safely on All-Star break.
The bath water was still warm, though, and Skylar’s husband looked like he was about to fall asleep. They were in no rush. They had forever, after all.
Thank you for reading Buzzed on You!