Page 47

“He’s going to be,” Gavin said confidently. “And if he doesn’t want us to tell the team, well fuck him.”

Zach laughed. “Alright. Fuck him, then.”

Gavin wondered if he should tell him the rest—that he was pretty sure he loved him, too, because that was the kind of emotion that made you want to take these big wild swings—but he wanted to give it a bit more time. He was sure, but he also wanted to do this right.

Besides, Zach had said he wasn’t going anywhere, and Gavin believed him, as much as he’d believed anything, ever.

Zach couldn’t say this game was going badly, but he also couldn’t say it was going particularly well either .

Ivan had opened the scoring by hitting a sweet rebound shot around the net only a few minutes into the first period, and it had been impossible, even from the bench, not to feel the sheer relief radiating off Elliott and Malcolm that the line had scored.

They’d both gotten an assist on the goal, and the crowd had cheered extra loud as the announcer’s voice had boomed across the ice, listing off their names.

“Let’s go, baby,” Elliott crowed as they settled back on the bench, smacking his gloved hand against Mal’s knee.

Mal rolled his eyes but he looked a fraction more relaxed.

The real test came near the end of the first period, when the Evergreens went on the power play for the first time.

Mal nearly got up and then sat back down, the motion clearly automatic as Elliott and Ivan rose to join Brady and Ramsey on the ice.

Zach reached over, settling a hand on Mal’s shoulder, squeezing him through his pads.

Mal didn’t say anything but he didn’t shake him off either.

It wasn’t the worst power play Zach had ever witnessed, but it did lack the finesse that the first group usually relied on. Still, it would be hard for them to be bad out there, with a man advantage and the amount of talent the Evergreens were putting on the ice.

Gavin had told him before the game he was going to play it by feel, if he’d let the first team take the whole two minute shift.

They had about four good pushes towards the net. The last attempt was by far the best. Ivan set up the great way he always did, calm and steady, Brody and Ramsey on the back end of the zone, and Elliott grabbed the puck after a sweet little back pass and charged in.

In front of him, Zach felt Mal tense, and yell, “Shoot it, Ell,” and then he did, sliding around to the far side of the goalie and flicking the puck right in.

Mal leapt to his feet with the rest of the guys on the bench, celebrating, and if Zach hadn’t watched hundreds of hours of tape and practices and games, he might not have noticed that Mal wasn’t quite as happy as he might’ve been.

Even when they’d been sniping at each other, fighting constantly before they’d gotten together, Zach had never seen Mal be less than thrilled whenever Elliott found the net.

Gavin pulled him aside as they walked to the locker room in the first intermission. “What did you think?” he asked.

Zach didn’t roll his eyes. But he wanted to. “That doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “That was all Ell, and we all know it.”

Gavin didn’t say anything, just made a humming noise, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“Elliott might have done it even better if Mal was out there,” Zach said.

“Sure,” Gavin scoffed. “Better than that beauty of a goal.”

“Don’t tell him that, his ego’s already inflated enough.” Zach hesitated. “And don’t say it in front of Malcolm either.”

Gavin looked up at him, surprised. “Why not?”

“I told you, he feels that the root of this decision is you telling him he’s not good enough.”

“That’s crazy,” Gavin said. “He got moved to the second group so he could make them better . I told him that. Multiple times.”

Zach nodded. He knew. He’d said it too.

But then he remembered the tenseness in Mal’s shoulders.

The way Elliott occasionally made offhand comments in the locker room about Mal’s dad.

He never said straight out that he was an unsupportive shithead, and clearly he wasn’t as bad as Morgan Reynolds either, but there was a pain point there.

Some old wound that had never really closed, and then he and Gavin had gone and started pressing on it.

“What do you want me to do?” Gavin said with a resigned sigh. “I’m not gonna switch things around in the middle of a game.”

“Send them out first next power play.”

Gavin looked at Zach like he was crazy.

“We’re up two to zero, and we’ve got a really solid defense. It won’t kill you to give Mal that.”

“I don’t want to take our foot off the gas,” Gavin said under his breath.

“Then don’t. Send them out there with the motivation to put the pedal to the metal. Mal’s got plenty of fire. He feels like he’s got something to prove, now.”

Gavin looked like he was considering it. “I’ll think about it,” he said.

Zach nodded, knowing he couldn’t push any harder.

It was his responsibility to put the special teams together and plan their execution but Gavin’s job to deploy them.

He’d made his feelings clear enough and part of why he’d known Gavin would be perfect to coach this team was that he was willing to be unconventional at points .

They were up to two to zero, so Gavin only made a handful of comments in the locker room after they walked in. Zach went over and checked in with Finn, who seemed solid and totally locked-in.

Ramsey flagged him down. “How do you think it’s going?” he asked, under his breath.

“Seems like we got some juice tonight,” Zach said.

Ramsey nodded. “You gotta know—anyone could’ve been out there on that power play. That was all Elliott.”

Oh, Zach knew it. Him knowing it wasn’t the problem.

“I’m working on it,” Zach said.

“Are you though?”

Zach shot him a look.

“Just saying. Mal’s tense.”

“I noticed.” Zach wasn’t blind.

“You think Coach’s noticed?”

“I made sure of it.”

“What about your tenseness?” Ramsey teased. “You two still circling each other?”

Zach supposed he shouldn’t be surprised or disappointed that Ramsey had decided between the first and second period was a great time to bring up Zach’s sex life.

“Are you serious?” Zach retorted.

But Ramsey just shrugged innocently, like his question was no big deal.

“Knowing you, I’d imagine you knew what happened before we even did,” Zach muttered.

“Oh, I assumed,” Ramsey said with wide eyes. “But thanks for confirming. ”

“You’re a fucking menace,” Zach said without heat.

Ramsey grinned then, like nothing made him happier than hearing that. “Yeah, probably.”

“When are you gonna chess-master yourself?”

“Never, man, never ,” Ramsey said.

And as Zach walked away, he was pretty sure Ramsey meant that—believed it completely, in fact—but that was the funny thing about life, and even more about love.

It liked to throw curveballs.

Gavin didn’t say anything about the power play until they were nearly through the second. The third line had actually managed to miraculously shoot something into the net, and they were now up three goals.

But then one of their players high-sticked Ivan, and with the first line already out there, maybe halfway through their shift, it was the perfect opportunity to put a set of guys who had mostly fresh legs.

Malcolm obviously wouldn’t be, but Zach had seen him work a four or five minute shift before. He could handle it.

Gavin looked over at Zach. Then at the guys who were milling around the bench, waiting to hear what he wanted.

“McCoy, get your guys out there,” Gavin barked.

Elliott was still Elliott, so Zach half-expected him to make some kind of token protest but instead of arguing, he only lifted himself back over the wall and shot his boyfriend a bright, proud smile, tapping him on the helmet. “Go get ’em, baby,” he said. “Score one for me, huh?”

Mal blushed. “Yeah, yeah,” he said, but he looked pleased. Glowing with it, in fact .

“Damn it,” Gavin said less than ten seconds later, when Ethan won the faceoff, slid the puck to Mal, and he just shot it right in with a flick of the wrist, before the goalie could even dream about blocking it.

Elliott was yelling—something about what he was going to do to Mal later, and Ivan elbowed him, hard. “Shut up,” Ivan said, but Zach didn’t have to see his face to know he was smiling too. “Nobody wants to know what you two get up to.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Brody said.

“Like you’re so innocent,” Ivan grumbled. “I saw you and Dean at Gamma Sigma the other night, practically humping against the side of the house.”

Brody blushed. “That was . . .we thought we were being subtle.”

Ivan rolled his eyes. “You two have never, ever, in your entire fucking lives, been subtle.”

Zach laughed.

“Hey, we’re not Elliott and Mal, at least,” Brody protested.

“Yeah,” Elliott crowed, “you’re not fucking us!”

In the last minute of the game, the opposing team pulled their goalie, even though they were down four goals, and that was the only way they managed to slip one right by Finn.

Still, it was a great game and a great score, and there was plenty worth celebrating about.

Gavin leaned in and said to Zach as they were watching the guys shed their equipment, “Okay. Maybe you were right. Maybe we just had to wait out the slump. Maybe I fucked this up when I tried to switch it up. ”

“Yeah, huh, maybe you did,” Zach said, trying not to grin too broadly.

“Ugh, don’t be smug about it,” Gavin muttered.

“But you like it when I’m smug,” Zach argued, unable to hold back his smile any longer.

“Yeah, yeah. You wanna help me tell Mal?”

“Sure,” Zach said. He stopped by Mal’s stall, let him know he and Coach wanted to see him. Mal just nodded his dark head.

Nobody was surprised that when he showed up at Gavin’s office thirty minutes later, Elliott was also with him.

“Maybe better that you’re both here,” Gavin said. “I told you both this was an experiment we were going to try.”

“Shitty experiment,” Elliott mumbled under his breath and Malcolm elbowed him in the side.

“I said it was something we were gonna try,” Gavin started again, “but I’m thinking that maybe it might be better to go back to our regular power play units.”

“Good,” Elliott said, tilting his chin up.

“No,” Malcolm said bluntly.

Gavin’s eyebrows crept up. “No?”

“With all due respect, sir,” Mal said, proving again just how completely opposite of Elliott he was, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to switch back.”

“Mal!” Elliott exclaimed sharply, shooting him a glare. “What are you saying? Of course you need to come back to our power play unit.”

“No,” Mal repeated firmly. “Those guys have to get better, and nobody’s gonna do it if I don’t.”

“It’s not your job,” Elliott argued .

Zach opened his mouth to say something, but Gavin nudged him hard.

“I’m a leader on this team, and an A, so yeah, it sure is my job. And I get it now, Coach.” Mal slid a look over towards Gavin. “I didn’t at first, but you didn’t move me because I let you down.”

“No,” Gavin agreed.

“You moved me because those guys need someone to force them to get their shit together.”

Gavin nodded.

Mal turned back to Elliott. They were a very touchy-feely couple, despite the many lectures they’d been given about PDA, but Zach realized it was more often Elliott touching Mal than Mal touching Elliott.

But Malcolm touched Elliott now, on the shoulder, sliding his hand across to his neck and squeezing.

“But Ell, you gotta know. We might not always play together, all the time.”

Elliott sulked. “I know.”

“We gotta get used to it in case—”

“Don’t say it,” Elliott warned.

Mal’s lips quirked up. “Okay, I won’t. But honestly I love watching you play. You’re such a star, babe. When I’m on the bench I’ve got the best seat in the house.”

Elliott smiled at him, soft and easy, full of love. “Flatterer.”

“Just telling the truth,” Mal said, shrugging, but he looked pleased.

“So you want to stay on the second power play, then?” Gavin asked.

Mal nodded .

“Alright then,” Gavin said. He looked over at Zach. “Make sure they get plenty of practice this week. They’re still shaky out there.”

“But getting better,” Zach said, maybe more optimistically than he felt. But if Malcolm could commit to this, so could Zach.

After Elliott and Mal were gone, Gavin turned to Zach and put an arm around his waist, tugging him in.

It wasn’t the first PDA they’d ever indulged in at the rink, but it was the most obvious. “Am I supposed to tell you that you were right, now?” Zach asked in a low, teasing voice.

“Nope,” Gavin said. “You were still right, though I maintain I had the right idea.”

“You were trying to go old-school when I only ever wanted you to break all the conventions,” Zach pointed out.

“A little, yeah,” Gavin agreed. “But it’s alright. We’re good.”

Zach pressed his mouth against Gavin’s temple. It was just a graze, barely even a kiss, but it lit him up with happiness and joy.

“Better than good, I’d say,” Gavin said.