Page 81 of Home Ice

“What do you⁠—”

“I’m bi.” It’s not something I’m ashamed of, but I’ve never had experience with coming out to my own kid.

“Huh.” He pokes at his ice cream. “Google didn’t tell me that.”

“I’m not really out. Like, publicly. I don’t hide it, but I keep my relationships to myself.” Then I really process what he said. “You googled me?”

“Only about a million times.”

“Why?”

“Had to track you down. Had to figure if you were as much of a dick as I thought you were.”

“And am I?”

He looks away over the water. “Google didn’t tell me that either.”

“Well, there’s only one way to answer that question, isn’t there?”

That gets his attention back. “Which is?”

“We have to hang out more.”

He eyes me. “Do we?”

“If you want to find out if I’m a dick or not, it’s the only way.”

He doesn’t respond, and I’m searching my brain for something before the conversation can go dead, when Kasen’s the one who speaks.

“A guy on my team is gay.”

“Wow. Brave. I never could have come out at your age. Even if I’d known.”

“He’s only out to a few of us. Coach Barrett makes sure the locker room passes the vibe check though.”

“I’m glad.”

“Yeah.” He pokes at his ice cream again.

“Is it good?”

Kasen follows my gaze. “Yeah. Fine.”

It’s clearly a lie. “You don’t like it?”

He huffs. “So I didn’t know what boysenberry was. I thought it would be better than the caramel. It tastes like ass.”

I know from experience it doesn’t taste like ass at all, but that’s not a conversation I can have with him. “What do you normally get?”

He shrugs.

“You don’t know what you normally get?”

“Of course I know.”

“Then …”

He huffs and turns away from me.