Jett took his hand, holding it tightly before leaning up to brush their lips together. “That’s an amazing idea. You’re a great guy, Harrison.”
“There’s nothing great about what I did.” Harrison couldn’t stop himself from twisting his finger into one of Jett’s blond curls. “I love Arlo. Changing his name to Killinger not only feels right, but it’s also a great way to crush his parents like they crushed him when he was a kid. They deserve every second of misery that’s coming to them.”
Jett frowned with disappointment. “They’rethatbad?”
Harrison’s laugh was the furthest thing from amused.
“They saw a picture of him standing next to his teammate’s wife and called to thank him for finally getting over his homosexual phase.”
“Oh, fuck them,” Jett growled. “Does Arlo want to add Fraser to his name too? I don’t even care, I’ll legally adopt him. They’re not going anywhere near him ever again.”
Harrison found himself smiling as the tension slowly lifted. Jett’s viciousness was becoming one of his new favourite things.
“When we go back to Nova Scotia, I think we should pay them a visit,” Jett continued, ignoring Harrison as he tugged him close enough tobarrage him with kisses on the top of his head. “If they open the door and we’re there dry humping on their front porch, it will scar them for life.”
“Or we could do what everyone else does and send them a bag of dog shit in the mail,” said Harrison. “Showing up will get the cops called on us. You have a career to think about.”
“What are the cops going to do? Arrest us for public indecency?”
Harrison chuckled and gave up on kissing Jett until he was in a better mood. “That, or trespassing.”
“Dicks.”
Harrison couldn’t agree more. He thought the topic might be dropped, but then Jett began chuckling darkly. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know, but he asked anyway.
“What?”
Jett gave him an innocent smile that was a little unnerving.
“I was just thinking—I might buy some hockey cards and signatures from the players to send them. But you know, only all the gay players.”
“Jesus fucking Christ.” Harrison relaxed against the couch and grinned. “You’re devious as hell, Fraser.”
“They fucking started it,” said Jett, snarling. “You come for one of us, you come for all of us.”
And wasn’t that the truth.
If there was one place that Harrison had always felt accepted, it was on the ice with a group of guys that he knew would have his back. The Townsends had no idea what hornet nest they were disturbing by fucking with Arlo, and that was just from the Sunbursts, let alone every gay person in the league.
“Fuck it,” said Harrison. “Let’s go to the store. We have hockey cards to buy.”
It wasn’t enough. It would never be enough to quell the anger wriggling around in his insides when he thought of Arlo’s parents, but doing this one tiny thing was a start. Death by a thousand cuts still ended in death. The Townsends were about to find that out.
Jett
“Really? You guys are sending your rookie after me?” Park called out with a smirk, his voice carrying over the hum of the crowd. “Way to break the kid in hard.”
Jett said nothing. He skated to center ice with an air of cool arrogance, keeping his gaze fixed and unreadable. He lined up across from Park, lowering into position as the official approached with the puck.
“Let’s keep it a clean game, fellas,” said the ref. “Especially you, Park.”
Jett made the mistake of looking into number 57’s eyes, catching the wink just in time.
“If I wanted to keep clean on the ice, ref, I would have stayed a figure skater.”
“Yeah, yeah.” The ref dropped the puck, and Jett smacked it behind him, straight to Bracken’s position.
They broke apart, and Jett fell into his place on Bracken’s right, ready to take charge of the game momentum immediately. He felt good tonight, and he knew they were taking home the win for sure.
