Hockey Bats on the Beach

Chapter 1

Aries

Cackling, Aries grabbed the shiny red apple that Shawn held out to him.

Ha! Vin thought he was so smart hiding the apples in the apartment before the game.

Aries might ignore sentences that included yucky words like not overindulging but that didn’t mean all the apples needed to be hidden away.

It was a good thing that Aries had true friends. The best of friends.

“Thanks, buddy,” Aries said before taking a big giant bite of his juicy apple.

Apples were life. The best thing in the whole world.

Well, maybe not the best thing. Aries’s boyfriend, teammate, and Daddy was pretty dang awesome.

And so were his friends like Shawn, Bane, Matty, Zany, and Robbs.

Oh! And Aries loved being a little now that he was exploring that side of himself.

And he guessed his brothers were cool even though they were being extra annoying since Aries and the Vegas Vikings were playing in the Iron Cup finals.

Crap! And hockey was the best too! Okay, Aries forget his point.

Not that it mattered. He had a yummy, juicy, and—

The apple was yanked out of his hand.

“Hey!” Aries turned and swiped for his treat. He froze, realizing that Vin had come up behind him and stolen the apple. Damn, his Daddy sure could be quiet when he wanted to be. That was sneaky. And mean!

Vin growled.

Uh-oh. This was totally not Aries’s fault. It was an apple. His very favorite thing. Everyone knew that Aries couldn’t resist a juicy, sweet, shiny apple. And that one bite had been so good too.

“Hey, man.” Shawn held his hands up in front of him as he started to back away. “It wasn’t my idea!”

“I specifically said no one was to sneak him apples,” Vin said, shaking said fruit around.

It really had been yummy. Aries followed the apple with his eyes. Vin was holding it up, way up, but if Aries jumped real high, he might be able to reach it.

“Dude, come on, man, he’s so cute when he gets an apple. We couldn’t resist!” Shawn whined.

“We?” Vin repeated.

“Yeah, see, it wasn’t my idea,” Shawn said. “I lost rock, paper, scissors to Robbs who lost to Bane who lost to Matty. I think it was Matty who brought the bag.”

“A bag?” Vin demanded.

A bag! There were more apples? Aries turned toward the locker room.

Vin’s big hand came to rest on Aries’s shoulder. “No.”

Aries looked up at his Daddy. But apples! A whole bag of them. They were just waiting for him. It would be rude to ignore the apples. Aries was a good boy and never rude!

“Look, man,” Shawn said, drawing their attention. “I don’t know anything. I was just told to sneak that one to Aries before the game.”

“Go.” Vin waved Shawn away.

Aries peered up at his big, wonderful, apple-holding boyfriend. “Apple?”

“You had two this morning,” Vin reminded him.

“Only two.” Aries nodded his head sadly. “I’m hungry.”

“You are not hungry,” Vin argued. “You had two pieces of French toast for breakfast with three sausage links and four pieces of bacon in addition to your two apples.”

“That was hours ago!” Aries complained. “I’m hungry now!”

Vin glanced at the apple in his hand.

“I have to finish it,” Aries pointed out. “I already took a bite. If I don’t eat it now, it will get all brown and yucky. We don’t want to waste food, Daddy.”

“That was a very thoughtful argument,” Vin praised.

“Thank you. Nix helped me come up with it,” Aries confessed.

“That is not the ringing endorsement you think it is,” Vin said.

Hmm, maybe Vin was right. Nix did get him into trouble a lot. “I need the apple to get through pregame.”

“You’ll say the same during first intermission and second and if we go into overtime,” Vin replied.

“What if I promise to score so many goals that we win during regulation time and don’t have to go into overtime? Could I have three apples then?” That sounded like a great idea! He was so smart.

“How’d you go from this apple that you already bit into to two more?” Vin asked.

“I didn’t, Daddy. You did. You said I could have one between periods,” Aries reminded him. “That’s four apples. The one now, one before the game, one before second period, and one before the final. That’s four!”

Vin squinted at him. “I did not say any of that.”

Swinging his arms back and forth, Aries could feel Vin giving in to him.

Truthfully, Vin was a bit of a pushover.

He acted all tough and scary and stern, yet Aries knew the truth.

His Daddy also liked to spoil him. He just didn’t want Aries to get sick from eating too many apples.

And that hadn’t even happened since they started dating. “I think you did.”

“This apple and only this apple,” Vin said, handing over Aries’s treat.

Aries grabbed his fruit and immediately took a second bite. Not that he thought Vin would change his mind or anything. It was just better to be safe than sorry. He’d figure out how to get more apples once he was done with this one. There had to be a way.

“I’m going into the locker room and threatening everyone in there to not give you anymore. And if I see one teammate try to sneak you anything, I will murder them,” Vin warned.

“Okay.” Aries skipped beside Vin as they headed toward the locker room. He wasn’t too worried. His teammates and friends always found a way to sneak him apples. It was like a whole thing now. Tradition. And kind of part of the ritual of winning games.

The Vegas Vikings were the best hockey team in the PAHL. And they were going to prove it when they beat the Dallas Hawks. No way was Aries going to let Dallas win two years in a row.

He might just be a rookie but Aries knew that this was his team’s year. He wasn’t being overconfident. Aries knew in his heart that they were going to win. It just felt right.

“Stop being so happy,” Vin grumbled.

Aries giggled. “Daddy! We are so totally going to win and then we’re going to Hawaii!”

“Baby.” Vin turned before pushing open the locker room door. “You need to take this game serious. One game. We win tonight and it’s all over. We are the Iron Cup champions.”

Patting his Daddy’s chest with the hand not covered with apple juices, Aries smiled at him. “We are going to win. I know it.”

“I love that you believe that,” Vin said. Leaning down, he pecked a kiss to Aries’s lips.

“I love you,” Aries told him.

“I love you too. Now I have to clean out the locker room,” Vin declared. He smashed his palm against the locker room door, slamming it open.

Aries munched the rest of his apple as Vin growled at their teammates.

“No. More. Apples,” Vin bellowed.

Every occupant of the locker room turned toward the enraged vampire.

Aries slipped past Vin, bouncing over to his goalie to take a seat next to Zany. “Hey!” Aries greeted.

Zany grinned at him. “Who gave you the apple this time?”

“Shawn.” Aries finished off his little treat. Sad, he looked down at the core. It was all gone already? How had that happened? He was still so hungry!

“Vin is going to kill everyone,” Zany said.

“Nah,” Aries drawled. “He just likes to threaten them.”

Zany snorted. “Sure.”

Aries eyed his friend. “Do you have anything for me?” Like another apple?

Shawn had said there was a bag somewhere.

If anyone could get away with being sneaky, it was their goalie.

Vin couldn’t actually murder Zany since they needed him to stop pucks.

They should have given the bag of apples to Zany for sure.

“Sorry,” Zany said. “I’m not getting in the middle of this fight.”

Aries sighed. Zany was such a goody-goody.

Vin was walking around, tossing every locker and coming up with so many apples! Aries licked his lips. He really wanted those apples. Maybe he could distract Vin and grab a couple.

Looking around, Aries tried to spot the person most likely to help him.

Most of their teammates had already moved on from the dramatics as Vin collected the apples. Watching his Daddy clean out the entire locker room was just so disappointing. Surely one true friend would have a good hiding space.

Robbs, Vin’s line partner and Aries’s defenseman, turned his head and caught Aries’s eye. He winked and Aries wanted to cheer.

“Why is Robbs winking at you?” Zany whispered.

Aries leaned closer to his friend. “Because he’s awesome?”

Zany snorted. “He’s not that awesome.”

Aries nudged Zany’s arm. Since Aries was pretty sure Robbs was hiding him at least one apple, that made Robbs very awesome. “What’s going on between the two of you? You’ve been acting weird around Robbs for months now.”

“I’m not acting weird. You’re weird.” Zany sniffed and grabbed some tape from his cubby.

“No, really.” Aries placed his fingers over Zany’s.

That was the same response that he always got.

Zany would blush and stammer and change the subject.

Aries knew something was going on. There had to be something, right?

“You know you can talk to me about anything. Is he mean to you? I’ll talk to him! ”

Aries started to rise but Zany grabbed his arm and yanked him back down. Aries fell into his friend but that wasn’t his fault! See! He knew Zany was acting weird about Robbs. And Aries didn’t want anyone being mean to anyone. That was not how the locker room should be.

“Aries!” Zany hissed in his ear.

“Zany,” Aries whispered back. Why they were whispering exactly he didn’t know.

Zany frowned at him but Aries could see his lips start to turn up. Aries grinned at his friend. “Robbs didn’t do anything. He isn’t mean to me.”

“Okay, I won’t yell at him then.” Aries was glad he hadn’t messed that up. He would totally yell at Robbs if he had to. Even if it meant not getting an apple. Aries liked Robbs though. Having friends on the team was amazing!

“Go away. I need to get my head in the game.”

“Don’t worry!” Aries said cheerfully. “We’re going to win tonight!”

“I know. I just need to do my goalie thing,” Zany told him.

Aries squeaked as he was lifted off Zany.

“Time to get ready,” Vin said while tossing Aries over his shoulder.

“I’m ready!” Aries lifted his fist in the air. “Vegas Vikings! Vegas Vikings!”