“I’m good. Not going to fly into a bi panic or anything.”
Micah snorted. “All right. Just checking.”
Daniel’s hand went down to the curve of Micah’s ass. He gave one cheek a playful squeeze. “I think we’re going to get a lot of use out of those walkie-talkies.”
“Oh yeah.” Micah licked across one of Daniel’s nipples, teasing, his hazel eyes shining with amusement. “Best Christmas present ever.”
Chapter Eighteen
“All right,” Micah said, giving the hockey player next to him a pat on the shoulders. “You got this.”
“Right.” A nervous, but determined, nod.
“You know your game strategy. You’ve practiced your skating. You’re a legend out there. You’ve got this.”
The hockey player in question turned her small face up at him, blinking wide eyes from beneath her visor. “Micah, it’s my first game. I can’t be a legend yet.”
“Well, uh.” Schooled by the grade schooler. Micah gave it some thought. “Legends gotta start somewhere, kiddo.” He picked up the stuffed dolphin he’d brought and wiggled it. “Silver and I are here to cheer you on to greatness.”
This got him a look not unlike Daniel’s, when Micah tried similar versions of aquatic-themed pep talks. “Micah, dolphins don’t know anything about hockey.”
“That’s why you’re gonna teach ’em, yeah?” He smiled at her. Gretchen was nervous, he was almost certain of it, but with her father assistant coaching and all the other kids just as nervous, Micah figured it would all be okay.
Honestly, giving Gretchen a pep talk about her first game with the Rumbles was a lot easier than giving Daniel a pep talk about any game as of late. Hockey was not being kind to Daniel, and Micah himself was watching the scores with a feeling of dread. He didn’t understand the ins and outs of the game, still, but you really didn’t have to in order to understand commentary like last in the league and mathematically out of playoff contention. Or trade rumors, which were—yeah. Not something Micah wanted to think about right now.
The Rumbles were definitely a better distraction. They were playing against a team called the Sunbeams, in case any of this couldn’t get any cuter, and the Sunbeams were apparently their biggest local rivals. Most of the kids seemed familiar with each other, but this was Gretchen’s debut as a member of the team. Micah was thrilled to be asked to attend, to support her and Daniel in some small way, even if he was apparently failing at this whole motivational speech thing.
Gretchen’s lower lip started wobbling. “Where’s Mommy?”
Uh-oh. Micah glanced around—the parents were all with their kids, except for Daniel, obviously, who was one of the volunteers and, as a Stanley Cup–winning hockey player, was currently being shyly approached by fans and asked to sign any number of things. Micah would never get used to that, having people ask his boyfriend for an autograph. He’d actually looked it up on eBay to see if he could make some extra cash, having Daniel sign some stuff around his house. Sadly, the shipping costs alone would render his plan a profit loss.
“Gretchen!” Tabby came rushing around the corner, looking frazzled but grinning and holding a bottle of Gatorade. “I’m sorry, sweetie, Mommy was stuck in traffic because no one in this town knows how to merge in construction lanes.”
“That’s what you said about Atlanta, Mommy,” Gretchen pointed out.
“No, honey,” Tabby corrected. “In Atlanta, they didn’t know how to drive at all. It’s a subtle difference. You’ll see when you’re older. You look so—” She stopped before saying cute. “So much like a hockey player!”
Gretchen beamed and tottered over to her mother with her arms out for a hug. She had skates on, with those blade guards that allowed her to walk on non-ice surfaces. Micah was pretty sure he’d fall over and bust his face open, even with those. “Mommy, Micah brought the dolphin to cheer, but I said that dolphins didn’t know about hockey.”
“Well, Micah is pretty smart about dolphins, so I’d believe him if he said they could,” Tabby said with a smile.
Micah watched them with a little lingering twinge of sadness, wondering what would happen if Daniel did end up leaving Miami. Would Tabby and the kids go with him? Micah adored Daniel’s kids and Tabby, and it would be even worse if Daniel heading off to greener hockey pastures meant they’d go, too. But even if they didn’t, would they still want to see Micah?
It was too depressing to think about, and there was no need to go down a spiral of worry when nothing was certain except that he was about to watch something super cute involving small children playing hockey. Or, skating around and sometimes falling over.
“I can’t handle how precious this is,” Micah said, from his spot next to Tabby. They were watching the kids line up for a puck drop, and Micah was utterly charmed; both at the kids, and Daniel, who was so good with them, his face all smiles as he helped them into formation. “Daniel’s great with the kids.”
“He is, isn’t he? You know, everyone asks if the kids want to play hockey, but I honestly didn’t think they would until Gretchen asked if she could join. I’m not sure if she wants to just spend time with her dad, which of course is great and I love that, or if she’s really—oh.” Tabby giggled. “She just got in trouble for checking someone. Look, she’s arguing with Daniel. This is hilarious.” Tabby pulled out her phone. “Daniel once got ejected from a game for arguing with the refs. It was really hot, I can’t lie. Too bad it was an away game.”
Micah laughed. He was surprised, a bit, how easily he could hear stuff like that and not get jealous. “Gretchen looks pretty mad. I didn’t know you could stomp in ice skates.”
“I don’t know where she got that temper from,” Tabby said. Micah remembered her words about the drivers and wondered if that mystery would be solved if he were in the car with her, but kept that one to himself.
The game continued to be adorable, with the Rumbles scoring a goal mostly because the Sunbeams’ goalie fell over. He started crying, so that put a bit of a hold on things, and gave Micah the opportunity to watch Daniel. He was patient and kind, and he was smiling. Seeing Daniel smile wasn’t unusual, but seeing him do it at a hockey rink was. It’d been a rough few months. He was doing a lot of laughing, both with the kids, the other coaches and volunteers, and his teammate Demetrius.
“He really seems to like this,” Micah said, to Tabby, once the game was underway. “Has he done this before? Coach?”
“Nope, just some outreach stuff that the Venom had the team do back in Atlanta.” Tabby was quiet for a moment. “Micah, I hope I’m not overstepping but I’m a little worried about him. This is the happiest I’ve seen him around hockey in—well. A long time.”