Risking the Shot (Stick Side #4) - Amy Aislin Page 0,104

to his social media to take care of it himself, but Tay kept reminding him that was what his agent was for.

Three days later, he’d turned his phone back on to dozens of messages. Mason, who’d been visiting at the time for this very reason, had nabbed Tay’s phone and continued to deal with the fallout himself.

Which hadn’t been as bad as Mason had expected. What was one more gay hockey player? They were coming out left and right since Ashton Yager had done so. Further, what was one more gay hockey player on the Toronto team? They already had one that was out publicly, and, according to Tay, three who were out to their team and management—Dean, Grey, and Desie, the latter of whom was undergoing physical therapy for his knee.

In the end, Dakota sat back and let Tay deal with things the way he wanted to even though he was dying to tell the media to stick a fork in it. Tay’s way of handling things was to let Mason take care of everything.

Dakota had kissed him stupid after that, absurdly proud that Tay wasn’t taking something else on. He might have cancelled his class registrations for the summer term—well, indefinitely until he figured out if paramedicine was right for him. Didn’t mean he wasn’t as busy as ever. He spent hours working out each day, keeping in shape for the upcoming season, was furiously working on updating the first book of his comic so his art style matched book three, he’d signed up for an online art course, and he was volunteering with the Foundation on some of their summer camp programs.

“Stanton says he’s coming by soon,” Mason said, Tay’s phone in hand.

They sat in the family room after dinner, Dakota nursing a tumbler of the Dalwhinnie Tay had gifted him on their first date, Mason in work mode, going back and forth between his phone and the laptop on the coffee table, occasionally jotting notes into a notebook. Tay and Andy lay on their stomachs near the fireplace. They’d completed the castle puzzle a couple months back and had moved on to the Enterprise.

Furrow between his eyebrows as he tried to fit a piece into place, Tay said, “’Kay.”

“He’s bringing mail from your organization’s office. Fan mail, I’m assuming. I’ll go through it first. He’s also bringing products from what he says are, and I quote, ‘companies who want you to pimp their stuff so they can generate some LGBTQ-friendly cred.’”

“What’s LGBTQ?” Andy asked, legs kicking behind him.

“Um.” Tay’s panicked gaze met Dakota’s. Dakota shrugged, making Tay stick his tongue out at him. “It’s what me and your dad are.”

Dakota snorted a laugh. It was better than nothing.

Legs pausing, Andy’s little face creased. “I thought you were boyfriends. You live in the same bedroom now.”

“We’re that too,” Tay confirmed.

They were, more or less, sharing the same bedroom. Tay hadn’t moved in exactly. In fact, he’d moved out of Alex Dean and Mitch Greyson’s and back into his own place right after his team had lost the first round of the playoffs in game seven, but he spent most nights with Dakota and Andy, which Andy loved almost as much as Dakota did. Dakota thought it’d be weird having another person in their space. But Tay just fit. Had since their first dinner together when Dakota had still been questioning if he was doing the right thing getting involved with Tay.

He wasn’t questioning anymore.

“I got an email from AITech earlier today,” Mason said. “They’ve sent through the app for you to test.”

Tay grinned. “Sweet.”

Last month, after Mason had given Tay’s sponsors a heads-up about his upcoming coming out article, the two co-founders of AITech had reached out to Tay directly to show their support—which had turned into a two-hour-long video call Dakota had shamelessly eavesdropped on. By the end of the call, the three of them had known each other’s deepest secrets and were newfound best friends. The following day, AITech rescinded the offer for Tay to be the face of their money management app, wanting him instead for a drawing app for tablets they’d had in development for months. First, though, they wanted Tay to test it to ensure it had all of the functionality an artist needed.

“Out in the Field wants to know if you and Stanton want to collaborate on an article about your coming out experiences.” Mason scribbled something in his notebook. “I’m forwarding this email to his agent, but you might want