Page 147 of Hockey Bois
The chairsdidcomplain as they leaned in close, creaking as Nick greedily accepted the kiss. It was short, chaste, only a brief-but-firm press of lips to his. It was a new type of kiss for them, intimately familiar, different from the passionate kisses leading to sex, or the lazy, languid kisses shared while making out during commercials, or the quick pecks shared in stolen moments in the semi-public space of Nick’s foyer with the door half open before they headed out for work. Nick cataloged this one with the others and hoped to learn a hundred others. He wanted every type of kiss Brady Derek Jensen had to offer, especially the ones Brady hadn’t shared yet. He was content with second-hand kisses built from previous relationships, but he wanted new ones, shared by them alone.
It was greedy, and he didn’t care.
“Truth or dare?” Nick asked when they came apart and his brain was functional enough for words. He was fully aware of his lopsided grin and didn’t care one bit.
“It’d be rude to break our streak. Truth.”
Nick sobered, his giddiness giving way to the seriousness the impending topic warranted. He wanted to ask about that night in PA during their first tournament. They’d been so close, dancing around something Brady had just admitted he’d wanted too. What had gone wrong? What had made him believe Nick was suddenly unworthy of his trust?
Hewantedto ask that, but he didn’t. It was too accusatory, too angry, too much like something Nick-from-five-months-ago would have said. They’d gotten here, so what did it matter? Maybe when it was safely behind them, when they’d filled more months with happiness together.
So he settled for another question that had been bugging him for a while, one he felt ran tangential if not parallel to their real issues. “Why did you get upset about being called BJ?”
He’d thought about it, whittled away what he wanted and needed to know until he’d settled on this particular question. It went in a similar vein as his other, more pointed ones, but it absolved both of them of blame.
As soon as the question left Nick’s lips, Brady deflated. He was silent as he stared out to the water long enough that Nick thought he’d fucked up. He was considering how best to take it back when Brady finally answered. “Some stuff happened in high school. I had a reputation for being good at hockey, and that set the field for how people treated me. Then I, uh… I—” He licked his lips and cleared his throat. “Things changed my senior year, and that reputation changed in ways I didn’t like. It got bad. I was miserable through college, and that name, as stupid as it is, brings me back. So I don’t like being called that, and anyone who knew me back then should fucking know that. Whoever told those jackasses that name…”
He shook his head and clenched his fist around the beer bottle.
This was only a brief glimpse into the crux of the matter, a window to the truth; it didn’t show Nick the whole picture. It didn’t sound like a lie, but something—a lot of things, Nick suspected—were omitted. Nick was smart enough to piece together different scenarios, to guess at different ways Brady’s peers had betrayed him. A bi or gay teenage boy with the initials BJ wouldn’t stand a chance if he didn’t have the right friends or mindset to get him through. Brady was good at holding his own, but if he hadn’t had to deal with homophobic bullshit until his senior year, he wouldn’t have known how to handle it.
Nick would’ve preferred that Brady had trusted him enough to share more, but Nick also had wounds from childhood that hadn’t healed. Over a decade later, they were still raw. Brady had taken a step toward trusting him, and that was what he needed.
Nick wondered how badly Aimes had fucked with Brady’s equilibrium back at that tournament, no matter how inadvertently. She’d been a living embodiment of Brady’s shit teenage years and whatever mess had made him leave Pittsburgh in the first place.
“That when you hurt your ankle?” Nick whispered gently.
“Yes,” Brady said and nothing else. Crickets and the distant sounds of kids laughing filled the gap.
“I’m sorry all that happened, but I’m glad you’re here,” Nick said affectionately.
Brady smiled weakly, still not meeting Nick’s eye, and not-so-subtly rubbed his own eyes with the back of his hand. “Truth or dare?” His voice was thick, rough, deeper than usual. Really sexy.
“We don’t have to keep playing—”
“Truth or dare, Nick.”
Nick. Not Nicki.
“Dare.”
“What did you— wait, what?”
“Dare. I’m choosing dare, so take advantage of your one opportunity and dare me to do something.”
Brady narrowed his eyes. It was a huge point to note that Brady was actuallylookingat him again. “And if I dare you to jump in the river?”
“Then I’ll jump, and I’ll splash you as much as I can in the process.”
Brady considered it with a solemn expression. “Dare you to kiss me?”
Nick raised his eyebrows. Their kiss earlier had taken him by surprise because their friends were so close. Sure, they were out of the way and the growing darkness concealed them a little, but they weren’t invisible.
“That a question or your dare?”
“Dare, for sure—”
This time the kiss wasn’t gentle or chaste. It was passionate, a welcome distraction. Everything felt raw, and this was the best way to move forward.
