Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
RYAN
M onday morning came around, and I was sitting at a long table in a conference room with all the coaches. We’d gone over game footage and strategized what drills we were going to work on this week in preparation for our away games at Robert Morris in Pittsburgh. They had a strong offensive game, so we’d focused on my D-men. I’d decided to keep playing Carlson with Hodge. They were gelling nicely as a team. I had no idea why Hammett hadn’t put them together before.
Patterson, sitting at the head of the table, straightened his shoulders. “Okay, now we need to talk NHL scouting. I’ve been approached by several teams, one being the Maple Leafs.” His gaze cut to mine.
My pulse quickened, and I held my spine straight. “Yeah? Who?” Hockey was a small family, and being a juniors coach up there meant I knew a lot of these guys.
“Frank Shannon. He’s looking at our forwards. I referred him to Boehm and Nowak.” He tapped on his laptop. “Boehm’s got some good stats this year. His goals per game are better than average.”
I swallowed hard. How ironic if Jonah ended up in my hometown of Toronto while I stayed here. I brushed my finger up the side of my open laptop. I needed to stay out of this unless asked for an opinion. But Frank was an acquaintance. “Yeah, Frank’s tough to impress. Is he coming to a game?”
“He’ll be at the games this weekend in PA.” Patterson focused on Finley. “You got time to pull together data for him if he needs it?”
“I do.” Finley glanced at me. “Maybe since you know him, Gibson, we can have a little chat about it.”
“Yeah, sure.” I nodded and breathed in deeply. Okay, now I was involved in Jonah’s possible future in the NHL. I didn’t like it, but what choice did I have?
Later that day, I skated onto the ice toward my defensive line, waiting for my instruction. The ibuprofen I’d taken earlier was doing its job, and I was almost pain-free. Everyone should already be warmed up, so I’d just get to it.
Carlson skated toward me, holding his stick in both hands. “Hey, how’s the knee, Coach?”
“Fine.” Shit, hopefully, word hadn’t spread too far among my players about the incident with Owen on Saturday night. I glanced at the rest of them, all lined up on the blue line.
“Good, glad to hear it.” He lifted his chin at me, then skated a circle back to Hodge. They mumbled to each other.
“Okay, we’re starting off working on your escapes and deception with an off-the-wall neutral zone exchange drill.” I pointed at Carlson and Hodge. “We’ll start with you two. Line up over here.” My gaze caught on Jonah, skating fast across the ice on the other end of the rink, swiping the puck back and forth with his stick.
He drew his stick back, then slapped the puck at Ace. The puck took flight.
Dropping to his knees, Ace grabbed it out of the air and held it up, shaking it .
Jonah hung his head and shook it, then snapped his gaze to mine.
Was I too distracting for him? Shit, with a scout coming this weekend, he had to be on it. Maybe I should have sent him home instead of?—
“Hey, uh, Coach? What do you want us to do?” Hodge shifted his weight on his skates, watching me.
“Oh.” Shit, I was the distracted one. I explained the drill, pointing to where I wanted to see specific actions taken.
They nodded and started the drill, skating in sync with each other. I studied their movements, cupping my chin in my hand. The more I saw those two skate together, the more I was certain they were going to be my starters this weekend. And with Carlson going into camp with the Coyotes, he was going to need this experience. Hodge still had another year with us, but he was certain to get a contract after next season.
After practice, I sat at my desk and waved goodbye to Patterson as he left, then turned my attention to my laptop and the rankings for the NCAA players. Jonah was just shy of the middle. Toronto might be looking at him for a later round of the draft, but he was definitely in the running if he could keep playing as well as he had. Fuck, there were things I could work with him on. But I wasn’t his coach, and I wasn’t sure how Finley would react to me stepping on his toes.
My phone, sitting next to my laptop, dinged with a text, and I picked it up, my code name for Jonah scrawled across the top of my screen. This felt like cheating, but we had to be careful.
Janet
Can we meet up?
I tapped on the keyboard of my phone.
Ryan
Don’t you have classwork to do?
I rubbed my forehead. I had to be the adult in this relationship and keep him from neglecting the important things, even though I was dying to spend more time with him.
Janet
I do have a paper due on Wednesday. How about Wednesday night?
With a raise of my brows, I smirked. I’d been right. He’d been planning to blow off his studying to see me.
Ryan
Yes, that works. Maybe we can have dinner together?
Janet
Yes, see you then. heart emoji
I chuckled, warmth blooming in my chest. “Oh brother.” He was a sweet guy for a hockey player. I focused back on my work.
Wednesday night, we’d made plans to meet up at my place and I’d picked out a restaurant not too far away in downtown Phoenix. I’d figured it was best not to be seen together in the places around campus. Was I being too cautious? Maybe, but I hadn’t figured out what the punishment would be if we were discovered. The school policy specifically talked about direct coaches and not much else. We were in a gray zone, but my instincts told me it was still a problem.
I sat on a sofa in the empty lobby area of my apartment complex, waiting to shuffle Jonah into the parkade and my car.
He strolled up to the glass doors, all dressed up in a green button-down shirt with a standing collar and white jeans, holding a jacket, and swung the door open.
As I hopped from the sofa with my own jacket in hand, I ran my gaze over him, my heart pattering in my chest. “You look nice.” I strolled to him.
“Thanks, so do you.” He took me in, fixing the collar on my gray button-down.
I’d gone with the basics tonight, gray shirt and black jeans. “Come on.” I angled my head toward the hallway leading into the parkade, then looked around us. Still no one around. I slipped my hand into his and led him out the back and to my car.
“So, where are we going?” He stepped into the passenger side.
“I heard about this great sushi place in Phoenix. It’s not too far.” I started the car and drove us onto the boulevard, the sun already setting behind the mountains beyond the high-rises. Students strolled along the sidewalk with backpacks. It seemed Mill Avenue never quieted.
“What’s it called?” He grabbed my hand from the steering wheel and kissed the back of it. “I missed you.”
As a grin tugged at my mouth, I glanced at him. “You saw me pretty much every day.” He was something else, so eager to take me and this situation on. He hadn’t been heartbroken yet, and it showed.
“The place is called Sake Haus. There’s a brewery attached to it.” It sounded like a fun place and there were bars in the area too, in case we wanted to check them out after. But of course, we’d probably end up back at my place in my bed. After our discussion on Sunday, I couldn’t wait to let him have me.
With a nod, he said, “Perfect.”
After parking, I strolled hand and hand with Jonah down a sidewalk. It was almost spring, and the chill was out of the air, but I knew it would be cold later. This was an interesting part of town, with a mixture of older buildings next to modern apartments like my own in Tempe, with a few open dirt lots thrown in among houses. “Looks like they’re fixing this area up.”
“Yeah, maybe. I don’t know. I’ve never been down here.” He stopped at a one-story building with a lattice fence in honey-colored wood. The building was wrapped up in the same color wood siding and large round windows rested next to the door where a koi fish had been etched in the glass.
“Well, certainly looks interesting.” I opened the fence and guided him to the front door, past two patio tables with open umbrellas, one in red and the other in black.
As he opened the door, he said, “Funny, I didn’t think exposed wood did well here. The summer sun tends to ruin it pretty quickly.” He looked up at the building.
“Yeah?” I stepped inside and led him in behind me. If I were lucky, I’d get out of here when the big heat of summer hit and head home. Shit, would Jonah be there for camp with the Leafs? It never occurred to me. My gaze flicked to his.
“What?” With a lopsided grin, he arched a brow.
“Oh, nothing.” I skimmed the dark restaurant and a sign telling us it was open seating, then guided him to an open booth with deep-blue tufted seats in front of a round window. The restaurant was almost full already. I wanted to tell him about the scout coming this weekend, but it wasn’t my place.
He slid in opposite me. “Wow, this restaurant is really cool.” He pointed down the narrow room. “It goes all the way back.”
I looked past the hanging rice paper lanterns, some red and others in cream, and a long bar along one wall, then the square tables all lined up with people eating colorful rolls and drinking.
“Yeah, it’s a lot bigger than it looks from the outside.” I picked up a paper napkin from a black rectangular plate and unfolded it in my lap. “Are you drinking tonight?” It was a school night, after all, for both of us.
He held a menu. “I’m going to have one beer. I mean, I sort of have to. The place is connected to a brewery.”
With a quick chuckle, I said, “Yes, I get your point.” One couldn’t hurt.
A waitress stopped by our table, and we ordered beers and a few interesting rolls to share, along with some sashimi and miso soup.
“So.” He unwrapped his chopsticks and laid them across a plate, then unfolded his napkin in his lap.
“So.” I scanned around us a moment, the information about the scout on the tip of my tongue. No, I’d leave it to Finley to talk to him.
“Tell me about your mom.” He grabbed my hands, resting them on the table. “I mean, if you want. It sounds like you’re close with her.” He creased his forehead.
My breath caught. “Yeah, I am very close with her.” I rubbed my thumb over the back of his hand. “She’s a fighter.” I tensed my mouth. “She taught me to be a fighter too.” My gaze snapped to his. “She’s always worked retail, like in department stores. She had worked her way up to store manager for Hudson’s Bay.” I nodded over the image of her smiling at me while taking me clothes shopping there with her employee discount. “She’s going back to work in a few weeks.” I shrugged. “She had to take time off with her cancer treatments.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that.” He squeezed my hands. “Uh, what’s Hudson’s Bay?”
I chuckled. Of course he wouldn’t have heard about it in the States. “It’s a high-end department store. I think down here they own Sak’s Fifth Avenue.”
His eyes grew wide. “Damn, I’ve seen one of those in Scottsdale but never went in it. I figured I wouldn’t be able to afford anything in there. ”
“Yeah, Mom was paid pretty well there.” I leaned back and freed his hands as the waitress dropped off our beers and miso soup.”
“So, what does your dad do?” He scooped soup into his spoon and blew over it.
“My dad, believe it or not, owns a physical therapy office. He’s a physical therapist himself.” I sipped my soup, then followed it with a gulp of beer. “Dad got me the best orthopedic surgeon in Ontario when I injured my knee. He knew all of them.” Tightness wound through my gut. “Then I had to go and fuck it all up by falling without my brace on.” I stared at my miso.
“Hey, it was an accident.” He wrapped his fingers around my forearm. “I’m sure you were tired of the brace?—”
“He’s the one who was pushing me to be in the NHL.” Might as well tell him the ugly truth. “We didn’t speak for a while after it was certain my career was over.” I clenched my jaw.
“Fuck.” He exhaled a quick breath. “I’m sorry, Ryan.” He tapped my forearm with his index finger. “Did he have a hard time accepting you were gay?”
With a slow nod, I said, “Yep. Like I said, I think coming out started a lot of bad things in my life.” I lifted my gaze to his. “Mom was fine with it, but Dad didn’t say anything, just turned and walked out of the house.” I bit my lower lip. “He didn’t come home until late, and boy, was he pissed.”
“He didn’t, like, hit you or something, did he?” He knitted his brows.
“Hit me?” I cocked my head. Where had that come from? “No…”
“What did he do? Call you names? You said he came home pissed.” His gaze searched my face.
“Oh.” I freed a sharp laugh. “No, I meant he was drunk.” Pinching the bridge of my nose, I chuckled. “I keep forgetting the American slang. We say pissed for drunk up in?— ”
“The Great White North?” He giggled, holding the back of his hand to his mouth. “Sorry, but I had to say it. I should know better. Sometimes Myles says pissed for drunk too.”
“Anyway, yeah, he went out and got shitfaced .” I snorted. “Is that better? Then he got into a huge argument with my mom about me.” The memories came flooding back of me lying in my bed, holding a pillow over my head so I couldn’t hear the horrible things they were saying to each other, the horrible things I was sure he was saying about me.
He sipped more of his drink. “How are you now?”
“We’re okay. Dad remarried a much younger wife and has two girls now. They’re six and eight.” I picked up my soup bowl and tilted it to my mouth, slurping it down. There was so much we didn’t know about each other.
“So, you have two half-sisters. Any other siblings?” He spooned soup into his mouth.
Setting my empty bowl down, I said, “Nope. I was the only one.” The golden child, the one meant for greatness in the NHL. I chuckled softly.
“What are their names?” He sipped soup from the side of the bowl.
“Miranda and Jess, short for Jessica.” I eyed the waitress walking toward us with our food, then pushed plates aside to make room. “How about you? Tell me about your parents?”
The waitress set down our rolls and sashimi. “Enjoy.” She sauntered off.
“Okay, so…” He poured soy sauce into a small bowl and added a heaped scoop of wasabi, then stirred.
“Holy shit, Jonah. You like it hot, eh?” I pointed at his soy sauce mixture. I didn’t think I’d ever seen anyone use so much wasabi.
Wagging his brows, he said, “I do like it hot.” He snickered.
“Anyway, tell me about your family.” I dunked a roll into my soy sauce and popped it into my mouth, a sweet and salty mixture flooding my tongue. This would be interesting. Who would have been the one who pushed him in his hockey career? It almost always came down to a parent. Playing hockey at his level was a commitment for a family at some point.
“I came out to my parents when I was in high school, and they literally didn’t care. I had hooked up with a guy and decided I wanted to do it again, which meant I was going to tell someone. So, I told them.” He huffed a chuckle. “It was over the dinner table, and for whatever reason, I thought it would be a good time to do it.” With a smile, he rubbed his forehead. “My younger brother, Jason, was in the middle of drinking his milk and spat it across the table.”
“Seriously?” I sniggered. No wonder he was so self-confident with his sexuality. Well, and in general. Yeah, and he was driven. Like, what sort of guy gets a full ride to college on a hockey scholarship and then decides to go pre-med?
“Yeah, it was awesome. Mom and Dad just sat there like I’d told them it was going to snow tomorrow.” A broad smile swept over his mouth, and he tapped his chin. “In fact, I think my mom’s exact words were, Oh, that’s nice, dear .” He tilted his head. “And I think Dad just agreed with her.”
“What did your brother do, well, besides clean up his milk?” I ate more sushi. It was nice hearing there were parents like his. And like my mom.
“He stared at me a moment, then he said, Good, more women for me . The little fucker.” With a wide grin, he shook his head and dipped a roll into his sauce. “He’s sort of a lady’s man. Always has a woman or two texting him and trying to get time with him.”
“Does he look like you?” I held a roll to my mouth. I was pretty sure Jonah had never had a hard time finding women…or men. Shit, he’d held my complete attention the first day I’d seen him in the locker room.
“Yeah, some. But he has brown eyes, and he doesn’t play hockey, so he’s not as built.” He lifted an arm and bent it, showing off the bulge of his bicep through his shirt.
“So, Jonah and Jason. Did your parents have a thing for names starting with J ?” I slipped a slice of sashimi into my soy sauce, then ate it. I’d heard of families doing that before.
“Yes. My grandmother did it, so my mom had to do it.” He dipped his gaze to his plate, then focused on me. “My grandparents are from Germany. Munich, actually.”
“Oh, have you ever been?” I sipped my beer. His family sounded so nice. Would I be able to meet them someday?
“Yeah, I’ve been over there twice when I was little. It was fun. Got to meet some second cousins and stuff.” He plucked a slice of sashimi from the plate. “My German is not good, by the way, so don’t ask me to speak it.”
“Okay. Then don’t ask me to speak French. Being Canadian doesn’t mean I speak fluent French.” I freed a soft snort. “Even if my ex was Quebecois.”
“Oh, Laurent is a Frenchie?” The edge of his lip flared. “Figures.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I gave him an open-mouthed smirk. I had a feeling he didn’t like Laurent much. But who could blame him after what I’d told him?
Shaking his head, he said, “Nothing.” He swirled a slice of fish through his sauce. “Anyway, getting back to parents. Mom raised us and made sure I was at all my games and practices, and now she’s doing real estate.” He snuck the fish into his mouth and chewed, then swallowed it down. “My dad works for the Mayo Clinic. He’s high up in the administrative shit.” He flashed his eyes at me. “I don’t actually know what he does.”
With a nod, I bit the end of my chopsticks, sweeping my gaze over him. It was funny how getting to know someone’s upbringing changed how you saw them. And his story only made me want him more.
He swiped a roll through his sauce. “You think I picked a hard major. My brother is studying pre-veterinary medicine over at U of M.” He snuck the roll into his mouth, chewed, then swallowed. “If I can’t make it in hockey, maybe we’ll open a boutique medical clinic where I’ll see the humans and he’ll take care of their pets.” He snickered.
“You know? That’s not a bad idea.” I chuckled with him. “But I have a feeling you might be headed for the NHL.” I popped my eyes open. Shit, I wasn’t supposed to say anything.
“Yeah? And why do you say that?” He sipped his beer.
I scratched the back of my head. “I, uh, you’re playing so well, that’s why. Keep it up.” I glanced out the window at the darkening sky. I needed to change the subject before something else slipped out. “What do you want to do after this?”
He leaned in, offering me a coy grin. “Go back to your place?” He waggled his brows. “We had the talk. Now it’s time to do the walk. You get what I’m saying?”
My cock tingled with warmth. Hell yeah, I liked that idea. “I do. Let’s eat up then.”
After parking in my apartment’s garage, I shut off the engine on my car, then turned to Jonah.
Cupping my cheek, he captured my mouth in a searing kiss, his tongue sliding against mine, then broke it. “Can’t wait for more of that.” With a grin, he climbed out of my car.
After stepping out, I shut the door and movement caught the corner of my eye. I chased it and my breath snagged. A man stood at the entrance to the parkade. A man looking a lot like Owen, same hair, same build.
“What?” Jonah twisted around, peering off in the direction of the man. “Who the hell is that? Do you know him?”
The man darted off.
“I-I don’t know. Probably no one.” I squeezed the button on my key fob and my doors locked. “Come on, let’s go inside.” Meeting him at the front of my car, I snatched his hand and led him toward the entrance to my building. If Jonah hadn’t recognized him, maybe I was seeing things? Or maybe he’d seen the man too late to make him out.
Unlocking my door with my keycard, I led him inside the hallway to the elevator. I didn’t want to ruin our night talking about someone who might not have even been there.