Page 41 of Puck My Stepbrother (Pucked and Possessed #2)
QUINN
FIVE YEARS LATER
I can’t say the news didn’t shock my dad. At first, Levi and I kept our relationship a secret, understanding the truth would come out sooner or later. Even with time to prepare, we never cooked up a story.
Dad came home early from work one day while we were having sex in the living room.
No, he didn’t walk in on the act of fucking, but close enough.
Let’s face it, he heard us moaning, if only for a moment.
We’d stopped and dressed quickly enough, but our disheveled state would’ve given us away just the same.
Also, no one could’ve missed the enormous hard-on pitching a tent in Levi’s jeans.
Dad said nothing to us at first, but we understood we’d been found out.
We let a few days pass—a cooling-off period, if you will.
We came clean to Dad first, and then Levi’s mom.
Dad didn’t say much at first, pretending that we weren’t a real couple and he hadn’t really seen what he’d witnessed.
When I came out as gay, Dad was one of my biggest allies.
His reaction to this was…well, different.
Eventually, Dad came around, and so did Levi’s mom, but we still didn’t tell everyone else about who we were. Someday, I wanted to be able to tell the world about us, and that we were in love.
Plus, Levi had his own hopes and dreams to think about, and I would stand by my man through thick and thin. I had no doubt he’d do the same for me.
Being the boyfriend of a Buffalo Sabres star player came with perks, like watching the game from a luxury suite.
I’d told Levi to stick to his dreams and that he’d make it in hockey, even if the Larkin Lions didn’t work out.
And I was right. Though he wasn’t drafted, he was picked up by the Sabres’ farm system.
Sure, he’d had to start at the bottom, but he was playing professional hockey, and that was all that mattered to him. Levi’s happiness meant more than anything in the world to me.
I took a job as a high school teacher here in the city.
Paired with Levi’s career in the minors, we led a pretty comfortable life.
I was still chasing my dream of being a writer, but taking that one step at a time.
We were living together in a house not far from the one near Elmwood Avenue our parents bought when they got married.
The place is nice—but more importantly, private.
In addition to writing, I was still holding onto the dream of marrying Levi Dunn.
Achieving that dream posed challenges. After all, word about us would leak out to the hockey world.
Levi decided that they could probably handle the idea of a gay player in a relationship, but the stepbrother part might prove too much for them.
Guys did ask Levi questions about his love life. You know how hockey players are. If he wasn’t out chasing tail with the single guys (or the married ones, frankly), they were bound to grow curious. Levi brushed them off, often employing humor, and occasionally succeeded.
Again, I knew that one day our relationship would have to come out to the rest of the world.
Like when he was called up to the Sabres, he wanted me to watch from a suite like everyone else close to the players.
He’d told the team that I was “family,” which was true in more ways than one.
No one had asked questions—that we knew of—but we could’ve given ourselves away.
After all, couples act like couples in subtle ways, not obvious ones.
On one December evening, I looked down at the ice, watching Levi show the Sabres why they’d made the best decision of their lives by signing a hometown boy. The Sabres kept the game against St. Louis close, and ultimately pulled out a win during an overtime shootout.
Levi told me to be ready for a late dinner after the game. So far, he’d been recognized in public nearly a dozen times while we were out together, so I prepared myself for that. I wasn’t expecting a fancy dinner, though. After all, I had no reason to think we’d be celebrating anything beyond a win.
He texted, asking me to come down to the locker room for a special announcement. Once inside, I found the players mostly dressed (a shame, I know) and Levi Dunn awaiting me with an enormous smile.
And then my boyfriend did something he’d never done in the locker room before: he opened his arms to me, like he wanted to scoop me right up off the floor. I hesitated at first, unsure how to act, so I did what I found natural.
I ran toward Levi, who closed his arms around me and squeezed so tightly that I almost couldn’t breathe. He lifted me up enough that my feet left the floor. It was over the top, sure, but that was Levi.
When he set me down, I said, “Jesus, Levi, you’re acting like you haven’t seen me in a month.”
“It feels like it sometimes.”
Levi had taken to saying the sweetest things to me once we officially got together. He still made the occasional pig-headed remark, but that was part of being Levi Dunn. He’d even completely quit calling me “Quim,” which was something I’d doubted was even possible before.
“You see the goal I scored?” he asked.
“I sure did. Did you hear me cheering?”
“Over the whole crowd? Of course!”
We both laughed.
“You said there’s going to be a celebration?” I asked.
“That’s right. There definitely will be. The rest of the guys just don’t know it yet.”
I paused, wondering what on Earth he was talking about.
“Okay, everyone, listen up!” Levi called out to the group, and they instantly turned to face him. “I’ve got something to tell you all. We always talk about being family here, a brotherhood, and we know how we feel about keeping secrets from each other.”
A few players chimed in words of agreement.
“Problem is,” he said, “I’ve been keeping a secret from you guys ever since I got here. A big one. I don’t want to keep that secret bottled up anymore.”
Now the room fell totally silent, and I knew Levi had everyone’s attention.
“You should all know the truth,” he said. “And the truth is I’ve spent the last five years in love. Actually, I’ve been in love for a lot longer than that, but I finally decided to hand my heart over to the person it rightfully belongs to five years ago.”
No one in the room spoke. I knew what was coming. I wondered how the room would react, but I felt too swept up in the moment for fear to take hold of me.
“You all know Quinn,” he said, “and you know that his dad married my mom. What you don’t know is that we’re in love—and not afraid to say so.”
That didn’t trigger a chorus of chatter, but I heard a few garbled words muttered. I’d always found Levi brave and strong, but I considered this his boldest move yet.
The players and coaches in the room mostly just stared at us, waiting for Levi’s imminent conclusion. He turned to me, taking my hands in his, offering his warmth.
Head bowed, he said, “I know what the rest of the world might think. To be honest with you, I really don’t give a shit.
I love you, Quinn Standish, and I always will.
I just thought everyone here should be the first to hear about it.
And, because my teammates are family too, I wanted them to see this. ”
And then Levi dropped to one knee. He paused before digging into his pocket and fishing out a ring.
“Quinn, from the moment I first saw you all those years ago, I knew we were meant to be together. It felt like a million things were standing in our way. The universe has been against us. But I’m not going to allow any more roadblocks to stand between us and our destiny.”
Oh my God, was this really happening? It felt surreal.
I stared down at Levi. He never took his eyes off mine.
“Quinn, will you marry me?”
I didn’t know what to say. Correction: I knew exactly what I wanted to say, but I couldn’t make the words come out of my mouth.
People were watching. Levi’s teammates remained silent (or had I simply tuned them out?).
I couldn’t leave the man of my dreams waiting a moment longer. He deserved an answer.
“Of course I will,” I said.
Levi sprang to his feet, slid the ring onto my finger, and locked me in another hug that lifted me off my feet. And then he kissed me deeply in front of applauding hockey players and coaches, as if unconcerned about what any of them thought.
When our lips broke apart, he stared deep into my eyes and said, “You won’t regret this.”
“I know.”