Page 9 of Drop the Gloves
“Love you too, Evan.”
Riley
Riley wasthe master of new teams.
A lot of guys hated changing teams, and Riley got that.It was a huge pain to move, and it was easy for resentment or feelings of inadequacy to build up.Riley knew who he was and what he could do, so he didn’t care.Hockey was a game, yeah, but the NHL was a business.He’d learned early on to make himself a brand.If people were talking about him and he was producing, then he’d be fine.If teams weren’t going to be loyal to him, he didn’t need to be loyal to them, and honestly, that’d been really freeing.
Some guys wouldn’t be able to go from a three-year stint in Philly to Pittsburgh.They’d be thinking too much about the fans and the past, remembering all the times they’d been booed by the place they were moving to.Their memories were too long if they let it dictate their future.Pittsburgh was a damn good team on the rise, and Riley wasn’t going to take less money on a worse team just because it might ruffle some feathers in Philly.
Anything he owed to Philadelphia ended the second his contract was up and they weren’t interested in re-signing him.He expected no less from the team, and he hated the double standard that he should continue to care after they didn’t.Somehowhewas the asshole for moving on, when in reality he was forced to move on because the GM was done with him.Like, what the fuck?
Good thing Riley was comfortable being an asshole.It made things a lot easier most of the time.
He didn’t always get a warm welcome when he joined a new team.Came with the territory of being a pest: there was usually someone he’d pissed off, fought, or hurt.He took it as a challenge to try to turn it around, to get the guys to realize he was only a jackass during games and for the media.Not to toot his own horn or anything, but Riley considered himself a nice, sociable guy.A couple of beers and jokes usually smoothed things over.Occasionally, one grump would continue to hold a grudge, and Riley learned not to push.If they wanted to be cranky, that was their business.Despite his efforts to have fun with his teammates, he wasn’t there to make friends.
The Riveters weren’t standoffish to start, which was nice.He didn’t have to perform too much early on.They seemed to appreciate his talents (especially his intangibles), and his previous team affiliation was a mark in his favor.
“Philly’s gonna hate us even more,” Lawson said with a gleam in his eyes.“It’s gonna be so much fun.”
Riley appreciated that kind of chaotic captain energy, in all honesty.They needed more of that in the league, instead of all the guys being a little too prim and proper.It was boring, and never quite represented how those people acted on the ice or in the locker room.He saw it as dishonest, like they were playing a part.
Though Riley was playing a part too, he supposed.
* * *
It took all of two days for the Riveters to fully accept him as one of their own.One party at Lawson’s place, then a team lunch, and he was golden.It made something in him unclench.As much as he pretended he didn’t mind people hating him, it bothered him a teensy bit.
Just when I gotta see them every day,he decided.It wears on you to have someone be a dick to your face day in and day out.
The only guy he couldn’t get a read of was Abernathy.The guy was huge (huge!), but one of those gentle giant types.Wouldn’t hurt a fly even if that fly were holding his mother at gunpoint.Too nice for Riley’s tastes.
Scratch that.That was exactly Riley’s type.He liked big men, and he liked nice men, but being fucked by them off the ice was usually a lot better experience than getting fucked over by them on it.The last thing he needed was a nice guy linemate who wouldn’t carry his weight.
Abernathy, Mr.Nice Guy, seemed a likely candidate for a linemate.Riley looked him up online, watched some highlights, read over the stats.He was a solid third-liner.A little green still, getting his feet under him in the NHL, but Riley figured they could get stuff done this season.
Except Abernathy seemed to give zero fucks about Riley.Again, he was nice, so he politely engaged in any conversation Riley started, didn’t snub him during practice, and never even hinted at being unhappy that Riley was on the team.It was just…toopolite.Like he was using it as a barrier to keep from actually getting to know Riley or having more than a superficial connection.
Which was fine.Riley wasn’t looking for friends, and he knew not everyone was as loud as him.Some guys were shy, who cared?
Riley, apparently, cared.
He had no idea why it bugged him that Abernathy was a touch formal with him, but it did.Riley wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea for sure, but it didn’t seem like he could do anything to get Abernathy to warm up to him.What did a guy have to do to get a real laugh when he told a joke?Or a real smile when they made eye contact?Or?—
“Oh, fuck,” he said abruptly one evening.He was watching YouTube on the couch with his cat Sophia draped over him, and she shot him an annoyed look at the outburst.“Sorry,” he said and rubbed behind her ear until she purred.“Just realized I might have a crush on my teammate.Fuck, I hate it when this happens.”
‘When-this-happens’ had occurred exactly twice before.Once in Mites, when he was too young to understand he was in love with his goalie, and then again in Pee Wee when he crushed hard on a guy who’d just moved to town specifically for their team.That one he’d been able to chalk up to him being mysterious and having a cute accent that didn’t make him sound like he’d walked right out of a Red Sox game.
That cute accent?Midwest.God, Riley was still embarrassed about that one.
Evan Abernathy was admittedly very worthy of a crush.He was handsome with his sandy brown hair and had big brown puppy dog eyes that he probably didn’t even know he was using whenever the coaches yelled at him.He was obviously in great shape, and he was tall.Maybe it was a jealousy thing, but Riley had always been into tall guys.Big hands, big thighs, big?—
“Sophia,” he whined to the Persian.“What am I gonna do?”
She blinked at him.
“Nothing?Ohhh, smart.Who’s such a smart girl?”he cooed, and Sophia blinked again in agreement.
Flings with teammates were already ill-advised, and Abernathy didn’t ping his gaydar.It was probably just him accidentally reading Abernathy’s distance as him playing hard to get.What hereallyneeded was to get Abernathy to loosen up like the rest of the Riveters, and then Riley would be able to prove to himself that was what was going on.It was a weird, unfortunate feeling of inadequacy, not actual romantic feelings.
