On the Ice (Stick Side, #1)

by Amy Aislin

he emerged to find Yano waiting for him. Everyone else was gone. “Going to stand there and watch me get changed?” Yano grunted. “As if I haven’t seen your bare, gay ass before.” Mitch froze with his underwear half on at the word “gay”, then forced himself to move, to finish getting dressed. He had no idea if Yano was joking or not and didn’t ask, but he must’ve had a look on his face, because Yano asked, “Were you trying to keep it a secret?” Mitch completed his outfit of jeans and a blue T-shirt with his favorite Vermont Flannel and turned slowly to face Yano. “Who else knows?” “I don’t know,” Yano said, shrugging. “It’s not like we sit around talking about it.” “How did you figure it out?” “Dude, my best friend from high school’s gay. You look at guys the same way he does. I might not know how to spell knoll, but I’m not stupid.” No, he certainly wasn’t. Mitch had underestimated his friend’s perceptiveness. “So, the rest of the guys…?” Yano shrugged again. “Oblivious idiots. Not that they’d care, even if they knew.” Mitch wasn’t so sure about that. “Most of them, anyway, but—” Yano waved his hand as if physically tossing aside their previous topic. “—that’s not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to ask about that.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder, indicating the rink, the game, and everything that had gone wrong. “What happened out there? It was like you couldn’t see the other players, never mind the puck.” Mitch sat to put on his shoes and carefully avoided Yan...