Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Honestly, I don’t think so. The games they’ve lost, it’s been by a narrow margin, and as much as the Comets are crushing it, I think Nevada will be doing everything they can to push this to a seventh and bring the game to a home crowd one last time.
These boys have a fire in their bellies, and I don’t think they’re ready to call it quite just yet. ”
There’s a reason the Washington Comets made it to the cup finals this year.
But the same could be said for Nevada.
It’s a battle, every single second. The checks are harder and the shots are faster and Nick lives for this kind of hockey, dancing his way around the opposing players and speeding across the ice, puck securely on the blade of his stick.
Washington’s not stupid—they know how much Nevada’s strategy revolves around Nick.
They’re on his back constantly, but Nick is the fastest skater in the NHL and he’s happy to prove it any time.
That’s the thing about playoffs; when each round has you playing the same team over and over, travelling back and forth on such a tight schedule, something that during the regular season might have been a minor annoyance can easily become a deep-seated grudge.
In the final round, that energy is intensified tenfold.
They’ve played Washington five times in the last nine days, and Nick’s pretty sure most of the Comets roster would happily murder him if given half the chance.
Anything to gain the advantage that’ll give them that all-important fourth victory.
His team’s a mess: Patts’s torso is more tape than skin and Noodle’s face blanches every time he bends at the waist. Picard blanches too, watching him, because he knows what that means.
They all do. They’re going into the home stretch with their babiest goalie at the helm, and maybe that would terrify any other captain but Nick takes it in his stride, putting his hands on the kid’s shoulders and promising that he can handle it.
He can’t look at the internet right now.
He can’t turn on the TV for fear it’ll end up on some kind of sports channel and he’ll have to hear somebody discussing the odds of Washington winning the cup in game six.
He knows, he knows it’s possible, but he just can’t think it. It’s not over till it’s over.
This is hockey. Anything can happen. Until somebody is lifting the cup into the air, Nick’s not giving up.
For the first time since its inception, Nick starts to regret his grand coming-out plan.
Not because he’s changed his mind—far from it—but because not once in his decision to have Sofia send everything live the second playoffs were over did he factor in the possibility of that happening on his loss, away from home.
She texts him, the day before the game, asking if the plan is still in place. She doesn’t say explicitly why he might want to change it; she knows hockey well enough to know you don’t test the gods that way.
Nick bites back the nausea and texts an affirmative; if it happens, at least it’ll give him something to talk about in pressers other than how absolutely devastated he is.
Some people might think it’s a dick move, overshadowing another team’s cup win like that, but the whole point of it is to let the cup win overshadow the announcement so that the NHL can’t afford to have a full-blown tantrum about the reveal of several active queer players.
Besides, Nick isn’t going to lose. Not today, and not in the inevitable game seven.
But it still stresses him out to contemplate it.
Luckily, he’s got plenty of other things to both distract and distress him—like the fact that Connor is here.
Yeah. That happened. Nick showed up for brunch with his sister only to find her sharing a booth with Connor goddamn LaPorte, milkshake already in front of her and a plate of steaming, syrup-drowned pancakes waiting for Nick.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Nick exclaims, staring at his ex-boyfriend in shock.
“Well there’s this hockey game happening… It’s kind of a big deal. Don’t know if you know about it,” he deadpans, then cracks a smirk. “Thought I’d fly down and root for you. Then afterward I’m booked on the same flight as Amy back to Vegas so she can break my fingers instead of some stranger’s.”
Nick’s sister hates flying—another reason she never visits him. He turns to her, eyes narrowing in accusation. “How long have you known about this?”
“Three days,” she replies cheerfully, sucking at her strawberry milkshake.
“Are you mad?” Connor asks, suddenly hesitant, those brown eyes all hangdog and sad. Nick sighs—he’s too tired to have feelings about this.
“No,” he mutters, shoving pancake in his mouth. “’M glad you’re here, jerk.”
Relieved, Connor smiles, nudging their feet together beneath the table. “I missed your last two cup wins, Nicky. I’m not missing any more of them.”
Jesus. Nick’s going to cry in the middle of a diner in Washington and it’s going to be all their fault.
It helps when Amy shows him her phone, open to a Twitter post. Someone’s taken a photo of her and Connor from before Nick showed up, speculating if the two of them are on a date. Nick laughs so hard he almost chokes on a blueberry.
He doesn’t think about what it means that Connor and Amy are here until he’s on his way back to the rink with them, Amy with her arm linked through his, chattering excitedly about seeing Lindsay again—and his phone buzzes with a text from Matt, letting him know he and Spencer are on their way back from their touristy jaunt around the city.
His boyfriend had insisted on coming with him, not wanting to miss another second of his playoffs journey.
Oh, boy. He did not think this one through.
Amy, nosy younger sibling that she is, leans into his personal space to read his texts. She gasps. “Matt’s here?”
Beside them, Connor freezes. Nick nods. “Yeah, he brought Spence to make it look a little less suspicious. So, uh … surprise! Guess you get to meet him a little earlier than you thought.”
It’s fine. It’ll be fine. He doesn’t need to worry. Right?
It works out that Nick isn’t even present when Matt meets Connor and Amy for the first time.
He shows up at the hotel after a team meeting to find the three of them with Lindsay, Spencer, and Mars in the quieter area of the bar.
Nick curses under his breath, wondering how pissed his boyfriend is at him for not mentioning the unexpected arrival.
“Hey,” he says as he approaches. “I, uh, see that you all found each other.”
“Amy wanted to see Lindsay,” Connor explains.
Nick stands beside his seated boyfriend, as close as he dares in public, leaning his hip gently against Matt’s shoulder. “Cool. And, uh, everything’s good?”
“You can relax, Nicky,” Matt assures him with a playful grin. “Everything’s great. Your sister is a delight, and me and Connor had a good talk.”
There’s a tightness to Matt’s jaw that makes Nick uncomfortably aware that their “good talk” was definitely about his teenage heartbreak.
Another thing to add to the list of things to process after playoffs.
Boy, that list is just stacking up, huh?
Sunny returns from the bar with two Cokes, and Nick squeezes a chair in between Matt and Amy, letting the conversation continue around him.
Connor and Spencer are talking college hockey, and Nick gets the feeling Matt was a much more active participant before he showed up.
Now, the musician knocks his knee against Nick’s, leaning in and lowering his voice.
“How you feeling, stud?” he asks, brown eyes all too knowing.
The tension that’s been coiled within Nick all week twists that little bit tighter.
“Fine. Ready for tomorrow.” At this point Nick just wants to get the game over with and get back home. “You sure you’re good?” His eyes dart to Connor for the briefest moment. Matt smiles at him.
“All good here. I’ll tell you all about it when we’re home. Promise.”
With that assurance, Nick finally lets himself relax. His little family is coming together around him, for him, and all he has to do is win two more hockey games for them.
He can do that, no problem.
The Washington home crowd is absolutely furious when the game ends on a 3–1 Nevada victory. Nick doesn’t blame them; now, even if their team wins the cup, it’ll be halfway across the country where they can’t witness it.
But he can’t feel too bad for them. He grins to himself at the thought of the trophy somewhere in the back halls of the Capital One Arena, ready tonight just in case of a Comets victory, having to be packed away once more and flown all the way to Nevada.
Just as it should be.
But the cup isn’t the only thing that needs to get to Nevada.
The Dragons work quickly through their post-game routine, Nick and Marco offering some meaningless soundbites about pushing through the last hurdle before hurrying to change and get back to the hotel.
They all have overnight flights, and they need to get a move on.
It’s going to be a long day.