Trade Deadline - Avon Gale Page 0,16

try and deny it or pretend to be otherwise. He’d come out in high school, and while his family had flipped out, he was lucky enough to have a tight-knit circle of friends and a truly kick-ass queer youth group. If people had problems with his sexuality, that wasn’t his business.

The game didn’t get much better for the Thunder in the second period, but at least they didn’t give up any goals. By the time the third period rolled around, Micah was a nervous wreck and it had nothing to do with the scoreboard—he couldn’t believe, as he watched the clock count down, that he was really going to see Daniel again for the first time in decades.

The Thunder scored once more, but at the end of the game, they pulled their goalie and the Condors scored in the empty net. Even the Condors bench seemed a little hesitant to celebrate. Jennifer actually apologized to Micah. Hockey was weird. Everyone was so polite, for a sport where, not five minutes before, Micah had watched two guys toss off their gloves and try and beat each other up. After which, he could swear he heard the Thunder player say, “Thanks, man,” to his opponent on the Condors.

There was something about stars after the game, but Micah chatted with Courtney and Jennifer and didn’t really hear what it was. They made their way to the exit, and it was definitely depressing how many more black-and-yellow-clad fans there were than Thunder fans. But after watching that game, Micah couldn’t really say he wanted to come back and watch another one, so maybe he didn’t blame them.

He told Courtney and Jennifer to come to the aquarium and he’d introduce them to Silver, graciously accepted their good-natured grins about enjoy meeting your friend again! and went off to the designated area to meet up with Daniel. It was ridiculous how nervous he was, but he was excited, too. What would he say? He should try and play it cool, right?

Can you even do that?

Micah shook his head and went to the elevators. He could pretend as if he was going to be all, “Hey, man, good game!” but Micah knew himself better than that. He’d never been all that smooth, and like Daniel, he was a pretty bad liar. It hadn’t been a very good game at all.

* * *

The place Micah waited for Daniel was a large room with a mix of people who were probably friends and families of the other players. It was a fairly somber group, and Micah saw a lot of shoulder pats and heard a lot of different versions of “It’s just the first game of the season!”

Someone next to him was muttering angrily in what he thought was French, saying a few words he only knew because of a guy from Marseille who taught them to Micah when he was here for an externship a few years ago. They were not good words. Except when he’d been saying them in bed, which he had, two or three times before he’d gone back to France.

Ah, Pierre. Good memories.

Micah forgot all about it, though, because suddenly there was a familiar face framed by curly brown hair and bright blue eyes, and Daniel Bellamy was right there grinning at him like it had been months, not years, since they’d seen each other last. The rest of the assembled group fell away, and Daniel’s voice—deeper with age, but with that same irrepressible cheer he’d had since they were kids—boomed, “Micah Kelly, I can’t even believe it.”

“Hey, Danny,” Micah said, and then, “Daniel? Oh my God. I can’t believe it’s you!”

“Yup.” Daniel held a hand out, and so did Micah—then they both kind of laughed, and suddenly it didn’t matter that it had been almost two decades since they’d done more than catch a glimpse of each other, because Daniel caught him up in a hug and wow, he was tall and in amazing shape but somehow, after all this time, he still seemed so familiar.

It wasn’t a long hug, but they were both smiling ear to ear when it ended.

“You came to the game,” Daniel said, and then he did look a little abashed. He glanced around, pitched his voice low, and said, “Sorry?” like it was a question.

“Nah.” Micah waved a hand. “I appreciated not having to jump up and down and cheer. I’m getting old, you know.”

“Uh-huh.” Daniel was still grinning. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw you there