Page 68 of The Home Game

“You’re amazing,” Antoni said, awed.

“Just wait until you taste my pancakes.” Matty turned away.

Antoni grinned and tried not to stare at Matty’s ass.

He’d like to taste something, alright.

“So, how’s the fam?” Felix teased when Matty arrived at the practice rink later that morning.

“They’re good!” Matty beamed.

“You do realize they’re not your family, right?” Dustin asked with a lift of his eyebrows.

“Of course! I’m just helping out.”

Dustin was already gearing up and Matty hustled to get ready too, the routine of it allowing his mind to wander as he stripped off his street clothes and put on his gear.

And maybe he was thinking about kissing Antoni but his teammates didn’t need to know that. Though, now that Matty thought about it, that was probably what they’d all be laughing about yesterday.

He really had just been brushing flour off Antoni’s cheek. But now … oh, now he was thinking of Antoni in other ways.

He’d tried explaining to people what it felt like to be demisexual. How he went through life just thinking about hockey and his friends and fun stuff he wanted to do. He wasn’t … obsessed with sex and dating the way some of the guys he knew were.

But sometimes, when he got closer to someone, when he felt like he was really getting to know them and like them as a person, that switch flipped.

It was like there was a sudden spotlight on them, lighting them up in a dark room.

And then he was thinking about them in those other ways too.

Thinking about touching them, kissing them …

A sharp sting lit up Matty’s ass and he yelped, rubbing it. “What the fuck was that for?” he grumbled, glaring at Dustin who stood next to him, laughing.

“Just checking to see if you’re still alive in there, man.” Dustin grinned.

“Fuck you, I’m alive,” Matty said.

“Well, how about we get started then?” Dustin jerked his head toward the hallway that led out to the ice.

Since these were summer practices, loosely organized by Dustin, Matty, and Dom, they ran them as a group.

“Yeah, yeah,” Matty said.

As he reached the ice, he guiltily realized guys were already starting warmup laps and practice was about to begin. He smiled, anticipating the drills ahead.

Some guys groaned and did them because they had to, but Matty enjoyed this. If he wasn’t having fun practicing, what was he even doing as a hockey player?

After some warmup laps around the ice and a few sprints to get their blood flowing, they transitioned to drills. Sometimes they all worked together or scrimmaged, but with no goalies available, today they broke into two groups.

Dustin and Dom took the forwards while Matty wrangled the defensemen.

“Okay,” Matty hollered. “We’re doing puck protection drills today. I want you to focus on puck retrievals and shoulder checking. Line up in two even groups on the faceoff dots. You should be able to do this in your sleep by now but I’ll remind you in case you’ve forgotten. We’ll start from the right with Jonah. Player one chips the puck into the corner, retrieves it, passes it to player two at the point. Player two, walk the blue line, take a shot, then jump to retrieve the puck in the opposite corner. Player three—Eric from the left—chip it to the corner for player two to retrieve and keep going, alternating sides. Once I make sure you chucklefucks were listening, I’ll hop in too. Go!”

Sadly, no one would give him a whistle, but he was loud enough that when he yelled go, Jonah hopped to.

It was pretty seamless after that. They’d all been doing drills like this since they were kids but it did help to have someone lay out the drills and keep things from turning into a chaotic mess.

Everything ran smoothly until someone glided out onto the ice.

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