CHAPTER FOURTEEN #3
“I thought you were clear about things when you hooked up with people?”
“I am! I dunno, she was talking about friends and stuff, mostly, I think. There are loads of hookups I’ve had who I’m still friends with after, you know?”
“Okay.” Leif frowned, confused.
“Just forget I said anything,” Tanner said with an annoyed-sounding huff. “She was just … worrying or something, I don’t know. Hey, you don’t think your dad would be weird if shit went down between us, right?”
“Uhh,” Leif said. “Weird in what way? And what kind of shit?”
“I dunno. Like … if we kept doing stuff and … fuck, I don’t know. If, like, we were truly pissed at each other again or something.”
“I’m always going to get pissed at you on the ice. You’re an annoying player,” Leif pointed out. “I’d feel like that even if I was in love with you.”
“Right? Exactly,” Tanner said with a laugh. “And I’m gonna call you Ice Princess and try to annoy you because that’s what I do. Although don’t even pretend you aren’t annoying out there too, dude. I still have a bruise from the knob of your stick.”
They squabbled for a few moments about who was more obnoxious—Tanner, obviously—before Tanner changed the subject. “So like, we’ll be fine, right?”
“Of course,” Leif promised.
“And your dad wouldn’t care. Papa Coach Rasmussen seems like a cool dude.”
“I don’t know that he wouldn’t care,” Leif said. “I think he’d question my choices about sleeping with you.”
“He shouldn’t! I’m fucking hot.”
“I’m not sure that’s the part he’d be concerned with,” Leif said drily.
“He’s bi, right? Or pan? I dunno how he identifies.”
“Yeah. How did you know that?” Leif asked, frowning. His dad rarely spoke about the guy he’d been involved with before he’d met Leif’s mom.
“Oh, he’s talked about it a little bit,” Tanner said, sounding totally casual.
“I dunno, I didn’t hear it from him myself, but he talked to Mickey and Rafe about it, I think.
Something about dating a teammate back in the day or something, I can’t fucking remember the details.
No idea who it was. I spent a while trying to figure it out but I was never sure if I was right. ”
“Huh,” Leif said. “Yeah, he did date a teammate. Uhh, can you keep a secret?”
“Not really,” Tanner said cheerfully, like this wasn’t a terrible thing to admit about oneself.
“Uhh, well …” Leif considered his options. “Can you promise you won’t spread it around online or to anyone who would?”
“Sure, I can do that.”
“So, New York’s goalie coach, Langley Hawkins. That’s who Dad dated. They played for Boston together.”
“Woah, really?”
“Really,” Leif said.
“Holy shit. Your dad dated his goalie. Fuck, it’s like Jesse and Connor all over again.”
“I think that would be the other way around,” Leif pointed out. “And Dad was alternate captain at the time. But yes. Alternate captain dating his goalie. Not that it ended well for Dad and Hawke.”
“Well, they had to be closeted then, right?”
“Yeah,” Leif agreed, wincing. “Can’t imagine that.”
“No, me either. So what fucking happened?”
“I don’t know, exactly,” Leif admitted. “But they were involved when they both played for Boston and then something went sideways. Like someone in the head office got wind of it and everything blew up, I think.”
“Ooh that sucks.”
“Yeah.”
“So they just traded your dad to New York to, like, get rid of the problem?”
“Yeah,” Leif said. “I think so. I mean, I’m not sure what they said to him or anything. He doesn’t talk about it a lot. But I think they pressured him to waive his no movement clause and go to New York.”
“Shit, dude. That sucks. What happened to Hawkins?”
“He played for Boston for another season before they got rid of him too.”
“Ouch. And after the trade he and your dad were dunzo, huh?”
“I think Dad wanted to keep going but Hawke thought it was best to have a clean break.”
“Yeah. I guess it’s pretty hard to have, like, a real relationship when you’re both in the closet and trying to stay there and you only see each other a few times a year and in the off-season.”
“It wouldn’t be easy,” Leif agreed. Because trying to maintain a relationship when he was out and dating people who lived in the same city was fucking difficult enough as a pro hockey player.
“So he met your mom after that?”
“Not right away, but yeah. I think the head office in New York was happy about that.”
“Yeah. He didn’t date her because of that, right?”
“No,” Leif scoffed, though he’d essentially asked his dad the same thing years ago.
Aksel had chuckled and said that no, he’d very much been head over heels in love with her.
They’d met at a team event and maybe the head office had been trying to set something up but it hadn’t been a hardship for him to get to know the stunning woman from his home country.
She was brilliant and beautiful and ambitious and they’d quickly fallen in love.
“Dad is bi,” Leif said. “He really loved her and she loved him but he was traveling with the team all the time, she was flying all over the world for her career … I dunno. They both said they just spent more time apart than together and that their careers took priority over the relationship.”
“Is he dating someone now?” Tanner asked. “I always wonder but he’s pretty private. He never brings anyone to events.”
“He’s dated a little but nothing’s come of it.”
“Aww, that’s so sad. It makes me want to, like … find him his person,” Tanner said.
Leif chuckled. “I think he’s fine with focusing on coaching.”
“Yeah, but he’s hot, dude. He should be getting laid.”
“I really don’t want to talk about my dad getting laid.”
“Okay. We can talk about us getting laid,” Tanner said, sounding very amiable about that change of subject.
“With other people?” Leif asked.
“No.” Now Tanner sounded amused. “I mean, not unless you want to. Believe me, I have stories I could tell.”
“Yeah, no, I’m good,” Leif said flatly. “What did you mean then?”
“Well, I’m not far from home now and—”
“How fast did you drive?” Leif asked, appalled.
“I dunno. Fast enough. Anyway, back to what I was talking about. I’m almost home and we can hop on video chat and get off together. You in?”
“Is that getting laid?”
“You aren’t one of those guys that thinks that anal is the only way to do it, right?” Tanner scoffed.
“Of course not!”
“Then I dunno about you, but I can totally get laid on video chat. So, what do you say? You, me, and a couple of dildos tonight?”
“Yeah,” Leif said hoarsely, his pulse picking up as he pictured it. “Yeah, okay.”