[Hot Off the Ice 01.0] City Boy

by A. E. Wasp

  His friends and family were similarly dressed, Dakota realized. A quick glance confirmed his friends had dressed the same way they usually did; like they were either headed for a music festival or a hike in the mountains. Oh well. Welcome to Colorado, Lowerys.

  “…so at the end,” Jake was saying, “it’s Bryce, Charles Barkley, and some ex-supermodel at the bottom. He was like 98 points over par.”

  Bryce saw Dakota standing in the doorway and broke into a such a huge smile, the woman and young guy turned to see who he was looking at.

  “Dakota!” Bryce called, pushing through the small circle of people. “Did you bring me more turkey?”

  “I did.” He couldn’t help smile back. “Just for you.”

  With Bryce right next to him, Dakota smelled the alcohol on his breath and saw the slight glassy sheen to his eyes. Looked like Dakota had some catching up to do.

  “You look amazing,” Dakota said quietly, taking the glass out of Bryce’s hand and giving it a sniff. “Whiskey?”

  Bryce nodded and swept his arm to the strangers. “Jake brought it. Come meet them.” He threw an arm around Dakota’s shoulder and dragged him towards the group.

  Dakota downed a healthy swig of the amber liquid. He had a feeling he might need it.

  Bryce left his arm around Dakota as he introduced him. “Guys, this is my friend Dakota. I’d be dead without him. He saved my life my first day in Colorado. Dakota, this is Jake Donovan, assistant team captain. This youngster is Robbie Rhodes, rookie defender, and this endlessly patient woman is Nikki Preston.” He beamed at them.

  “Ex-wife and current friend,” Nikki added, extending her hand. “So you saved his life? Was it a spider?”

  “Shut up,” Bryce said, dropping his arm off Dakota so he could take his glass back. “Spiders suck. Nothing needs eight eyes. That’s six too many.” He frowned at the glass when he saw it was empty.

  “Sorry,” Dakota gave Bryce a small shrug. “And no,” he said to Nikki. “No spiders and I didn’t save his life. I changed a tire for him.”

  “Yeah, you did,” Bryce said with a heated look Dakota prayed no one else had seen. “I had never,” he swayed a little towards Dakota, “changed a tire before.”

  Dakota bit the inside of his cheek to keep his face neutral at the infinitesimal pause Bryce gave after ‘never.’ Turning away from Bryce, he checked on his teammates.

  Unlike Bryce, his two friends were normal human-sized. Robbie, the youngest of the group, looked like he was barely out of high school. With auburn hair and hazel eyes, he was a few inches shorter than Dakota and lean. Dakota wouldn’t have pegged him as a professional athlete.

  He did peg him as gay though, when he quickly but thoroughly checked Dakota out. Robbie blushed when Dakota grinned at him as his eyes came back to Dakota’s face. Busted. The guy was a cutie, alright.

  Jake was closer to Bryce’s age, with a few stray grays glinting in his black hair. His nose looked like it had been broken a few times, and a scar cut through the thick brow over his right eye.

  But it was Nikki who took up most of Dakota’s attention. The ex-wife. The one who had hinted to Bryce that he might be gay. He tried not to stare outright, taking her in with sideways glances as he shook hands and greeted the newcomers.

  “Nice to meet you,” he said, shaking Nikki’s hand. She looked intelligent, polished, and intimidating as hell. Dakota had a feeling she didn’t miss much. “So do you live around here?”

  “I live on the property. You drove past my house at the end of the driveway,” Dakota explained, giving the simplest answer he could think of.

  “I’m helping Bryce and Connie get settled. And the people here not related to Bryce are my friends. We’ve always had Thanksgiving in the big house, and Bryce and Connie were kind enough to let us combine celebrations this year.”

  “Oh, cool,” Jake answered.

  “Well, it was nice meeting you all. I’m going to go mingle.” Dakota tried to back away from the group, and Bryce reached out, grabbing his belt loop without taking his eyes off Jake. Dakota let himself be stopped.

  “So when are you coming back?” Jake asked Bryce. “You look good, knee looks all better. I hear there’s a lot of money on the table with the new contract.”

  “Jake,” Bryce said with a glare.

  Jake held up his hands. “Yeah, I know. No business talk on holidays. The team misses you, that’s all.”

  Dakota had heard Bryce complaining enough about the team’s performance since he’d left to know that Jake wasn’t lying. Dakota felt Bryce deliberately not looking at him. Bryce’s return to the ice was number one on the ‘do not discuss’ list.

  Sunday, Bryce had said. Three days and Dakota would know if Bryce was leaving him. Which he probably would. Dakota reminded himself once again to live in the moment. Enjoy what they had and not get attached.

  Attachment was the root of suffering.

  “I don’t know when I’ll be back. Not before Christmas anyway,” Bryce said, squinting into his glass again as if it might have refilled itself.

  Julie yelled from the kitchen. “Bryce, Donovan, new kid, get your asses in here. Time to get the food on the table.”

  “What about Nikki?” Jake yelled back. “Doesn’t she have to work?”

  “Just get in here.”

  “Yes, ma’am!” Jake called. “Glad to see she hasn’t changed.” He slapped Robbie on the back. “C’mon Rookie, you don’t want to keep Julie waiting.”

  In the chaos of greeting arriving guests, getting food sorted and on the table, and making sure everyone had their beverage of choice, there was no time for Dakota and Bryce to be alone.

  Bryce hip-checked Dakota as he poured new drinks for both of them. He settled for a toast instead of the kiss he really wanted.

  “Happy Thanksgiving,” Bryce said over the cheerful roar of conversation.

  “Happy Thanksgiving.” He clinked their glasses together, and they drank. “We should go mingle. Talk to our guests.” Heat rose in his cheeks as he realized what he’d said.

  Bryce smiled. “I like the way that sounds.”

  Dakota did, too. He liked the way their friends and family fit together. Conversation flowed smoothly, and the two groups intermingled and got to know each other.

  At one point, Mason Fielding, a friend of his parents and an agricultural professor from the University caught up with Dakota to tell him that his department wanted to talk to him some more about his proposal for the orchard. They made plans to meet over the winter break.

  Even the kids were included in the conversation and the organization. Julie’s baby got passed around like a tray of hors d'oeuvres, but she seemed fairly content with the attention, and her parents didn’t complain.

  The whole thing felt like something he could easily get much too attached to.

  Julie announced dinner was ready to eat, and everyone migrated to the tables. Dusk had fallen, and the white lights strung from the porch ceiling twinkled, their light echoed by mason jar candle holders hanging from the trees in the yard.

  Dakota found himself with Amy on one side of him and Lori on the other. As he looked down the length of the tables, seeing his oldest friends and newest friends reach out to hold each other’s hands in preparation for singing grace, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so happy. A day he had dreaded since Tommy’s death had turned into the best Friendsgiving ever.

  Twenty-Nine

  Bryce

  “Best Thanksgiving ever,” Bryce said to his mother as she handed him a cup of hot cider. “Thanks.”

  She toasted him with her own cup. “It is pretty fabulous.”

  “Is this from our apples, too?” he asked.

  “It is. How amazing is that?”

  “Completely. It’s crazy that everything was homemade. Even the alcohol!” Bryce had never seen so much homebrewed beer, and there had been fruit wine made from last summer’s blackberries, plums, and cherries. He had even tried the dandelion wi
ne, finding it surprisingly delicious. Even the whiskey was from a distillery in town.

  Bryce may have sampled more of the homemade spirits than necessary, but he sure felt great. He loved everybody here. Some more than others.

  Dakota laughed from where he sat on a hay bale around the bonfire they had fired up after dinner had been cleared away. “Okay, fine,” he said to a question Bryce hadn’t heard.

  Someone handed Dakota a guitar, and he bent forward to tune it. The fire threw red and yellow highlights onto his hair and turned his cheeks pink with the heat.

  He closed his eyes and smiled as he listened to the guitar. When he opened them, he looked right over at Bryce and smiled.

  Bryce inhaled through his teeth, as the joy in Dakota’s face took his breath away. No one had ever looked at him like that before.

  “Oh, honey,” Connie said softly from beside him.

  Shit. He’d forgotten she was there. Fuck it. There was no point in trying to hided it from her anymore.

  “Yeah,” he said, an admission of something she hadn’t needed to ask. “I know. I wanted to tell you before. I just didn’t know how. I didn’t even know where to start.”

  “He’s pretty amazing,” Connie said.

  Bryce crossed his arms and looked down at her. Unblinking, she held his gaze.

  “You’re taking this huge revelation scarily well,” he accused. “There was supposed to be more questions, possibly some crying and at least one or two ‘are you sure’s? I had it planned out.”

  Connie quirked her lips. “You two are about as subtle as an elephant in a tutu. I may be old, but know goo-goo eyes when I see them.”

  Bryce huffed a protest.

  “Please,” Connie said. “You practically had little cartoon hearts floating around your head just now. And I doubt you’ve spent more than one night in your own bed since I got here.”

  “Mom!” Bryce’s face flamed, and he looked away.

  Connie laughed. “I’ve had a couple of weeks to get used to the idea. I was just waiting for you to tell me.”

  They were quiet for a minute, listening to Dakota and the bonfire crowd trying to sing Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl.” Voices faded out and joined in as people forgot and then remembered the lyrics.

  “Are you okay?” Connie asked. “It’s a pretty big thing.”

  Bryce barked a laugh. “Realizing I’m gay?”

  “Are you sure?” Connie asked. “How’s that?”

  How do you know for sure? he’d asked Dakota a few weeks ago; a lifetime ago.

  “Yeah. I’m sure.” As much as it would have been romantic to say it was just something about Dakota, he was honest enough to recognize his attraction to men had always been there.

  “I always had my suspicions.” Connie rubbed his back and leaned into him.

  He put his arm around his mother, the person who had always been his biggest supporter and fan. The person who would always be there for him. “I didn’t. I felt like I got back-checked by Sidney Crosby. I did not see this coming.”

  “You never do,” Connie said.

  “Do you believe in love at first sight?” he asked her.

  She hugged him, and leaned her head against his side. “It’s the only kind of love I do believe in.”

  Jake and Nikki showing up had thrown him for a major loop. They’d wanted to surprise him, and that they had. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see them. It was just that they were from, as Dakota would put it, the real world.

  They represented a lot of things he didn’t want to think about but knew he had to. He could feel his time in this little private space coming to an end. There were decisions he had to make, and responsibilities he had to face.

  “Everyone is still here on Sunday, right?” he asked his mother.

  “I think Amy and Andy are leaving fairly early. They have a long drive. And Julie and David are flying out around noon. Why?”

  “I want to have a family meeting and talk about some stuff.” He’d have to get everything figured out by Saturday night then. He’d put the idea of him retiring on the table and see what they thought.

  “Including Dakota?” Connie asked.

  “Include him in the meeting?” That had never occurred to him.

  “No. I mean are you going to tell your sisters and brother about you and him.”

  “Yeah. I have to. Should I break it up? Say, I’ve realized I’m gay, and let that settle, and then bring up Dakota? Or just throw it all out there at once?”

  “They’re pretty smart, Bryce. I think they’re going to make the connection.”

  He could tell his mother was trying not to laugh at him.

  The group around the fire burst into laughter, and Bryce ached to be over there, but something kept him apart. He wouldn’t be able to look at Dakota like he wanted to if he did. So for now, he’d get his fill of looking before he joined them on the hay bales. Just like he would put off facing the real world until Saturday.

  Why couldn’t time stop for a while?

  Connie reached up and turned his face to hers. “Why do you look so sad, honey?”

  Bryce sighed. “Because going back to the real world is going to suck. I don’t know how to make this work. Leaving aside the whole coming out nightmare, even if that were no big deal, could you see Dakota in Seattle hanging out with the wives and girlfriends?”

  “No.”

  “Me, neither.”

  “I have to tell Nikki.” Over by the fire, Nikki was leaning against Jake. She saw Bryce looking at her and waved. “Maybe not about Dakota specifically, since god only knows what’s going to happen with that. But the whole ‘gay now’ thing.”

  “I think you should,” Connie agreed.

  He had a feeling he was facing a big ‘I told you so,’ but it would be a relief for both of them, in a way.

  All these years later and they still both felt guilty for not being able to make it work. It should have worked. He’d never had a better friend than Nikki.

  But if he was gay, had been gay his whole life, then the divorce wasn’t anybody’s fault. Absolution for all.

  Lori jogged up to them, slamming into Bryce. He barely moved.

  “You’re like a mountain.” She grabbed his arm. “Hey, Connie. Come on you two. You have to sing. It’s the rules. First timers have to sing at least one song.”

  She tried to drag him forward, but he held his ground with almost no effort.

  “Ugh, you suck.” She butted her head into his arm. “Listen, Gigantor, don’t make me take you down. I might bruise you, and my brother would be pissed if I put a scratch on that gorgeous face of yours.”

  She froze, darting her eyes at Connie.

  “Don’t worry, she knows,” Bryce reassured her. He let her pull him a few steps forward.

  “Yeah, well if you two don’t stop making goo-goo eyes at each other, people on other planets will know it.”

  Connie burst out laughing. “That’s what I told him!”

  “Listen to your mother. She’s very smart.”

  Bryce put his arms around both of them. “All the women in my family are too smart. It’s a burden we men have to bear.”

  They both punched him at the same time. “Ow.” They were close enough to the fire that Bryce could see his brother and sister sitting on a hay bale. Kelly sipped something from a coffee mug, and Keith chomped on a brownie.

  “Keith! Girls are hitting me,” he complained.

  Keith just laughed and waved him over. “You probably deserved it. Come on in. I’ve been told we have to sing.”

  People shuffled over, making room for the three of them. Lori sat next to Dustin. Bryce made sure to sit out of Dakota’s direct line of sight. He didn’t want to accidentally make ‘goo-goo eyes’ at him, whatever those were.

  The sound of the movie being played against the side of the barn could be heard over the crackling of the fire. It was some musical Bryce almost recognized, and the people watching it were singing along.

>   Someone passed him a plate with pies, cakes, and brownies on it, and a handful of paper plates. Everything looked delicious. He’d already had dessert, but one more couldn’t hurt. Much.

  Man, he was going to pay for this when he started training again. His workouts had been minimal at best since moving to Colorado, and his injury was only partly to blame.

  “How are the brownies?” he asked Keith. “I can’t remember the last time I saw you eat something unhealthy.”

  Keith laughed. “The brownies are awesome. Special Colorado recipe. Not for the kids.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah,” answered one of Dakota’s friends. “But they’re super potent, so just take like a little piece at first. Edibles will sneak up on you, man.”

  Bryce really wanted to ask Dakota’s opinion, but there was no way he was going to look at the other man right now. “I better not,” he said finally. “I think I’ve had too much to drink.”

  “Right on,” the guy said. “Then try the rhubarb pie. It’s insane. I made it myself.”

  “Don’t mind if I do.” Bryce helped himself.

  “Okay, so what are we going to sing?” Rainbow asked. “You guys can pick. Whatever it is, someone here can probably play it.”

  “I really can’t sing,” Bryce warned them. “I’m not just saying that.”

  “He really isn’t,” Kelly added.

  “Just pick a song, Lowery.” Nikki’s voice startled Bryce. He hadn’t seen her standing behind Kelly.

  “I don’t know any songs.”

  “I do,” Connie said. “Do you know Puff the Magic Dragon? I used to sing that to the kids when they were little. They should know the words.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Keith said. “That’s right. You did.”

  “Excellent.” Dakota strummed a few chords, looking for an easy key. “Okay, everyone ready?”

  There were nods and murmurs of assent.

  Dakota leaned forward to look at Bryce. “You ready?”

  Looking at his smile, Bryce knew whatever happened after this, it was worth it. This moment was worth all the heartbreak to come.

  “Yeah. I’m ready. Bring it on.”