Chapter Nine
Declan
Winter break passes far too quickly and too slow all at once. Ten days at home is enough to remember why I love it. And why staying is dangerous.
Christmas Day was loud in the way it always is. Mine and Cooper’s parents packed into our house, drinks flowing, music looping, our parents getting louder with every game. I didn’t mind the noise or how little space there was to breathe.
The days before coming back to college blurred together.
Extra shifts, Mom dragging me through the Christmas market, insisting on one afternoon of just us before I left.
Cooper and I stole what we could; a kiss in a hallway, a look lingering a second too long, nothing beyond that one night in the storeroom.
By the time the twenty-eighth came, my bag’s already packed, and I hate how desperate I am to leave.
“Look who remembered where the rink is,” Shields croons as I walk into the locker room, bag slung over one shoulder.
“Missed you, too.” I grin, tapping the back of Rodger’s bent head when I pass. “Good break, man?”
“Definitely could have done with a couple more days, that’s for sure.” Pushing to his feet, he pulls me in for a one-armed hug. “Tell me you at least ate a cookie while you were at home.”
“Probably did a squat between each bite,” Levi jokes, holding out his fist before tightening his laces.
“Fuck you.” I snort as I unzip my coat and hang it up in my stall, my pre-practice routine coming to me like second nature.
Toeing off my shoes, I start to strip as my teammates grow louder. Skate guards hit the back of lockers, and someone’s speaker plays low across the room as I tug out my base layer and pull it over my head.
“So… how was it?” Levi asks quietly as I sit next to him, nudging my knee with his when I don’t answer. “Come on, man. Don’t give me that blank look. You and your music boy… How was it being back?”
The memory of Christmas Eve fills my head. Cooper’s beautiful eyes staring up at me from his knees, the thrill of doing something we shouldn’t be in a place we really shouldn’t have been doing it in.
“Cover me, so when I’m singing in front of everyone out there, you’re the only one who knows that your cum is still drying on my skin, that this is why I smell like you when they cheer for me.”
“It was fine,” I say, pulling on my pads.
“Fine?” He gives me that look, the one that says he doesn’t believe me.
“Welcome back,” Coach says, before Levi can ask anything more, the deep voice carrying into the room. “Hope you all enjoyed your time back home with family, but now it’s time to focus. This is your family now. Playoffs are in three months, boys.”
A chorus of “yes, Coach,” rattles off the benches.
“Good. Now, stop talking and get your asses on the ice and prove why you deserve the chance to compete for the national title.”
He turns and disappears down the tunnel without another word, and the whole room moves as one.
“Seriously, though,” Levi murmurs, glancing behind us and checking none of the guys are there. “You good?”
Frowning, I nod. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You know you can talk to me if you need to, right?”
“Yeah, I know, man.” I give him a tight-lipped smile as the assistant coach sticks his head back into the locker room.
“Cohen, Healey. Get out here.”
Slapping Levi’s knee with the back of my hand, I stand. “Come on. We’ve got a championship to win.”
We haul ass, skates biting into the ice like we’ve never left. The cold rink air slips under my gear, the tension I’ve carried all break finally starting to drain.
Back in Taunton Falls, I couldn’t think with him in the stands. Every time I looked up, there he was.
Out here, it’s simple: ice, balance, and speed. The way it’s supposed to be. My body takes over—the scrape of steel, the pop of the puck off my stick, the burn in my legs—it’s everything I need.
I miss home. I miss Cooper more than I should. But this… This is what keeps me sane.