The Rest of the Story

by Tal Bauer

They were peanut butter and jelly: Brody was nuts, Lawson was sweet, and together, they could hallelujah the county.

Dazzling gold light fell across Shea’s face, capturing his laugh in a gauzy meringue and lavender heat haze.

He was a fucking dream. I had to look away to breathe again.

This suit was cut to fit him like a second skin, with the jacket wrapped around his shoulders and the legs as close-fitting as a sigh. The indigo of the fabric looked hand-dyed to match the shine of his eyes.

“The most important day in hockey is tomorrow. Tomorrow, you tackle what went wrong today. Tomorrow, you improve. Every day, every tomorrow, you get better.”

He smiled, and it was like a million sparklers went off at once, a million little flashes of light in the depths of his eyes. The shine of him, the glow. He was incandescent. Wondrous. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. I was so, so fucked.

Finding The One, the guy he was waiting to give his heart to, who could open up all the places inside him that only lovers had keys to, places you didn’t know existed until someone unlocked those doors and showed you what you didn’t know was there all along.

“We can do it your way,” he whispered, cutting me off. “What?” “I can be simple.”

Ohmygod ow bby Shea😭 I cry

“You mean everything to me.” My words hung between us. “You are everything to me. So let’s do this. Let’s really do this.”

I’m yours. I’m yours as long as you want me. You can smash me to pieces, shatter me into smithereens, and it will all be worth it, just for the chance to be part of your life.

“I don’t want the world.” Shea slipped his hand into mine, wove our fingers together. “I want you, Morgan. I just want you.” That was far more terrifying.

If I hadn’t stretched myself and found a new horizon I could traverse within my soul, I wouldn’t be basking in this perfect day, inside all the unbridled joy of these men, men who I was damn proud to call my teammates, my friends, and, more than that, my family.