Scoring Position (Hockey Ever After #2)

by Ashlyn Kane

Doc’s pretty great.” “You know him?” Nico blurted. Just because he didn’t want the guy anywhere near him didn’t mean he wasn’t curious. “Yeah, we went to Shattuck together. Well, not quite together. We’ve been texting the past week. Guy’s pretty shook about the last-minute trade.” Reasonable, considering he’d been in Montreal since he’d made it to the NHL. Not that Nico knew much about him beyond that. Well, that, and also that Ryan was gay and already out when he graduated college and signed with the Voyageurs as a free agent. The year Nico was drafted, Ryan made a Twitter splash when he was photographed at a Pride parade with rainbows painted on his cheeks, a rainbow-flag cape, and a loose tank that read Let Me Be Perfectly Queer. “He’s a good guy,” Yorkie went on. “Easy to get along with.” Nico’s mouth twisted bitterly. “So I’ve been told.” “I’m pretty sure he’s just looking to play hockey. Whatever plan management has concocted, Ryan wasn’t in on it.” “Doesn’t change the fact that they—” Nico blew out a long breath. He wasn’t even sure how he wanted to finish that sentence. That they think I need minding? That they don’t think I can handle the pressure? That they probably wish they never drafted me? Maybe he couldn’t handle the pressure. But Nico couldn’t think like that, because… then what? What would his life even look like? He’d been groomed for this since he was a kid. They’d moved back to Germany when his dad retired from the NHL, but by the time he was sixteen, h...