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Luca loves playing against the New York Admirals.
Okay, maybe he doesn’t really. They were a fantastic team, and therefore a nightmare to play against. Scott Hunter manages to give Wyatt an aneurysm every time the puck ends up on Hunter’s stick.
What Luca really loves is being in New York. A stop for the Centaurs in NYC means a night spent at the Kingfisher in the company of what Luca could only describe as the queer hockey Hall of Fame.
When Ilya had first suggested that Luca should come along to one of these after an Ottawa at New York match last season, Luca had strongly resisted. Luca would be the youngest by a long shot, and everyone else would be there with their boyfriend or husband while Luca remained chronically single.
Plus, Luca wasn’t even publicly “out” yet. To be honest, he doesn’t really get the point of it all. He’s happy to tell anyone who asks that he is gay, but he doesn’t feel the need to disclose that information in any kind of statement until he’s in a relationship that he wants to share with the world.
Nonetheless, Shane and Ilya had assured him that he would feel welcome at the Kingfisher, and that everyone would love to have him. They were right, of course, and now the post-New York match Kingfisher visit had become one of Luca’s favorite parts of roadies.
Now, Luca sits at the bar of the Kingfisher, his mind beginning to swim with the buzz of the beer he had downed and the second one he was now nursing. (Luca barely ever drank, but tonight, he couldn’t help it, okay? They had lost 2-3 to New York in a devastating overtime loss. Even Shane is drinking.)
“Look,” Kip was saying as they all gathered around the bar, an arm around his husband’s shoulder. “All I’m saying is between Hollzy, Hazy, and Haasy, it gets damn confusing! Couldn’t they have come up with better nicknames for you guys?”
Shane huffs out a little laugh at that. “I never thought of that. I guess you’re right, they do all kinda sound the same.”
Ilya frowns. “I like Haasy too much. Did you know it means ‘little bunny’ in German? Seems perfect for our little rook.” An evil, crooked grin spreads across Ilya’s face.
Luca buries his face in his hands. “God, I was really hoping no one would figure that out.”
Scott pats Luca’s shoulder lightly. “Leave the poor kid alone, Roz.”
Ilya flashes another grin at the two of them. “Never. He loves it.”
Ilya is damn right. Not that Luca would ever admit it.
Kyle slides over to Eric with a beer in hand. “Another for you, kind sir,” he purrs, winking.
Eric slides back a bill that was far too large for the drink.
Kyle slides the bill right back. Luca definitely notices how Kyle lets his hand linger on the bar to show off the (frankly obnoxiously large) diamond ring that had recently made its way onto his finger. “Please, it’s on the house.”
Eric’s mouth quirks up into a little smile. “Can’t I leave a nice tip for the handsome bartender?”
Kyle shrugs, smirking and keeping his gaze fixed on Eric’s. “If you insist,” he says, eyes glittering.
“Okay guys, enough foreplay,” Troy chimes in.
“No, please,” Harris says with one of his signature too-loud laughs. “I’m loving the show.”
Luca can’t decide if he should be blushing profusely or grinning just as much. He settles for both.
Troy leans back in his chair then, glancing at Luca. “So, Luc…”
Luca groans, burying his head in his hands again. “I already know where this is going. You guys bring this up every time we’re here!”
Kip laughs. “Sorry, but when you’re in the company of the gay hockey Avengers, we’re gonna want to know about our newest recruit’s dating life.”
“Okay,” Luca begins, sighing. “I’ve met a couple guys in bars, exchanged numbers, taken a few of them home even…”
Ilya gasps, putting a hand over his heart. “Shane, our son is having sex!”
Shane shakes his head with fond annoyance. “Stop calling Luca our son.”
“Anyway,” Luca goes on. “It’s just like, nothing has really clicked yet. I haven’t really felt a spark with anyone that’s gone beyond physical attraction.”
The men around Luca nod at that sympathetically. “It can take a while to grow that connection with someone, or even just to find someone you want to grow that connection with,” Eric offers.
“I don’t know.” Luca runs a hand through his hair. “I don’t really know how this works. My only real boyfriend was in high school, and I don’t even know if that counts. I wouldn’t know how to create that connection if the right guy came up and slapped me in the face.”
He looks around then, considering the number of happy, long-term couples around him. “Don’t you guys know how this works? Like, how did all of you get together?”
The couples around him exchange various odd looks. Ilya smirks while Shane flushes a bright red back at him; Scott and Kip exchange sheepish smiles; and Eric, Kyle, Troy, and Harris all look slightly concerned.
“Look, kid…” Scott says, flushing and scratching the back of his neck. “I don’t know about the rest of these guys, but I’m not entirely sure you want to use our getting together as an example for anything.”
Kip nods, hiding an embarrassed smile behind his drink.
“Yes, do not be like Hunter,” Ilya adds. “His husband is far too young, hot, and cool for him.”
“Fuck off, Rozanov,” Scott grumbles.
“To be honest though…” Shane says. “I don’t think me and Ilya are a great example either.”
“Why not?” Ilya asks, wiggling his eyebrows. “I was very sexy when I found you in—“
Shane slaps a hand over Ilya’s mouth as Shane’s face flushes a bright crimson. “No fucking way,” he says, adding something quietly in Russian that seems to efficiently shut Ilya up. Luca’s sure he doesn’t want to know what any of it meant.
“Okay, um…” Luca says awkwardly. “Troy and Harris? Eric and Kyle? Did you guys get together like, normally?”
“Nope,” all four of them say in unison, all looking slightly grim and embarrassed.
There’s silence between all of them for a moment before Kyle pipes up, slamming his hands on the table.
“Okay, well now I have to know. I’m getting another round for everyone so everyone’s lips feel looser.” He starts collecting any empty glasses and slinking away from the bar. “You all better be ready to spill before I get back in two minutes!”
Shane wipes a hand over his face. “Oh god.” Ilya, for his part, has a hand around his husband’s waist and a feral grin spread across his face.
“What have I gotten myself into,” Scott adds quietly. Luca couldn’t agree more.
Even Eric is starting to flush. “…I guess this means me and Kyle will have to share too.”
Luca’s never been more aware how much Kyle has this guy wrapped around his finger.
Kyle returns with a couple beers, a vodka soda for Ilya, and a Moscow Mule for Shane. He leans his chin on his hand over the bar, looking around at the other men almost giddily. “Who’s starting?”
There’s a long silence then, before everyone bursts into hysterical laughter.
“Damn, is everyone’s really that bad?” Troy asks.
There are several enthusiastic agreements from around the bar.
Troy turns to Luca then. “Rook, what do you think? You asked, which story do you want to hear first?”
Luca goes a bit red at that. “I’m not a rookie,” he grumbles. “I don’t know, maybe since Kip and Scott were together first, they should go first?”
Ilya gives another of his lopsided smirks. “Are you sure about that, Haasy?”
“Now what the hell,” Harris says.
“I think Shane and Ilya should have to go first!” Kip declares.
“Nuh-uh Kip, you’re just trying to get out of talking,” Shane offers, but he’s poorly hiding a grin.
“You know, as curious as I am, I’m with Hollzy on this one,” Troy says. “Luc said you guys have to go first. No wriggling out.”
Scott sighs heavily, and exchanges a look with Kip. Luca has seen Ilya and Shane look at each other like that a million times — there is certainly some kind of telepathic communication going on. Luca guesses it has to be a married thing.
Scott sighs again, and turns back to the rest of the group. “Okay, so one day before a big game, I stopped by a random smoothie shop in the city.”
Eric scoffs. “We all knew that, Hunter. Get to the good part.”
“I’m getting there!” Scott throws his hands in the air. “But the context is equally important.”
“Whatever,” Eric mutters.
“Okay, well there was this really cute guy working at the smoothie shop.” Harris lets out a soft aww at that before Scott goes on. “And I asked him what the best smoothie on the menu was. He said it was the Blue Moon Over Brooklyn, with an extra banana. And he was damn right. It was delicious.”
Kip is looking at him with a little smile and a hand on Scott’s knee. It’s nauseatingly adorable.
“But I was so honored that he had given me his personal smoothie recipe. Especially since he was so damn cute.”
“Kip, what were you thinking through all this?” Harris asks, smiling like he’s being told a great bedtime story. “What were you thinking when Scott Hunter walked into your smoothie shop and started making heart eyes at you?”
Kip chuckles softly. “To be honest, I had no idea who he was before my coworker told me.” Scott smacks him lightly on the arm. “Seriously! I was a gay guy living in New York City. I knew hockey as well as I knew how to speak Ancient Greek.”
Ilya shrugs. “Is true, hockey is not nearly as big of a deal in the States as it is in Canada. I did not get recognized nearly as often when I played in Boston, even though Ottawa was shit when I first moved here. But nobody knows who Hunter is anyway, so I do not blame Kip.”
Scott just groans.
“Okay guys, as adorable as this all is, I was literally there, so I know this isn’t the crazy shit,” Kyle interrupts, feigning frustration.
“Fine,” Kip says, drawing out the word. “This guy kept showing up to the shop on game days, something about needing to perfect his game day routine for peak performance.”
“Yeah,” Scott agrees, smiling. “I always played better when he was a part of my pregame ritual.”
“Okay, that’s actually kind of adorable,” Shane says.
Scott grins. “Kip’s always made me better. In every way.”
Kyle gives a dramatic sigh. “This isn’t a vow renewal. Get to the good shit before I do!”
“Okay, okay,” Kip says sheepishly. “Basically, after I had spent weeks flirting with Scott before his games, I got this job serving food for some gala Scott was at. He asked me out for dinner, but then the place was closed so…”
“They went back to Scott’s apartment and fucked nasty,” Kyle finishes, when Kip won’t. He’s met with a couple groans from Scott, Troy, and Luca. “Sorry! Kip was gonna be a prude about it.”
“Yeah, uh,” Scott continues, awkwardly. “He came home with me. Slept in my bed. And then the next morning, I just kinda went for it.”
“Like, you asked him to be your boyfriend?” Harris asks when Scott doesn’t elaborate. “I don’t know guys, that seems like a pretty normal getting together to me.”
Kyle bursts out laughing while Scott and Kip look on in anguish.
Scott inhales sharply. “I asked him not to leave. Ever.”
Troy’s jaw drops, looking at Kip with shock written all over his expression. “And you said yes?”
Kip nods, wordless.
“So you just…lived with him?!” Troy goes on, incredulously. “After one night together? And you’ve been together ever since?”
Kyle starts laughing hysterically again.
“Um…not quite?” Kip squeaks out.
“Okay, neither of you are going to spit it out, so I’ll just make this easier for all of us,” Kyle starts, and Kip seems grateful despite the fear in Scott’s eyes. “Kip moved in with Scott, and me and all of Kip’s other friends didn’t hear from the guy for months. We all knew he had some secret sugar daddy or something—“
“Hey! You’re one to talk!” Kip interjects.
Eric gives Kip a side-eye, but Kyle just ignores him. “—but Scott wasn’t keen on Kip telling literally anyone. So Kip basically spoke to nobody but Scott for months. Not me, not any of our friends, not even his dad.”
Kip picks up from there. “Then I was my friend Maria’s date to a NHL charity gala that Scott was speaking at. Maria basically cornered Scott and told him he had to either stop hiding me or just leave me.”
Scott squints at the ceiling, a solemn look on his face. “I was so terrible to him in the beginning. And…I may have chosen the wrong option.”
Kip grips his husband’s hand, squeezing it once and smiling softly. “But he made up for it. The next time I spoke to him, he pulled me onto center ice and kissed me on national television.”
The guys start cheering at that.
When they’re done applauding for the romantic drama of it all, Harris says, “Yeah, as beautiful as that is, it’s probably not the best example for Luca’s first non-high school relationship.”
Scott laughs, but when he speaks, he’s deadly serious. “Yeah kid, please don’t move in with a guy after you spend one night with him. Or let him keep you from your friends and family.” He grabs Luca’s arm, meeting his eyes. “If a guy makes you feel worse instead of better, you should just leave him.”
“And especially don’t expect that he’ll make it up to you by sticking his tongue down your throat after he wins a Stanley Cup,” Kip adds. “I can promise you my man is the only guy who will do that. Probably ever.”
“Um,” Luca spits out awkwardly once he realizes everyone is waiting for his response. “No offense to either of you, but I really doubt I would say yes if a guy asked me to live with him after one night.
Ilya hums. “Hunter’s dick must have been very good. Did you have to dust it off beforehand?”
“Fuck off, Rozanov,” Scott fires back, almost automatically.
“Okay!” Kip claps his hands together and gives a dramatic gesture towards Shane and Ilya. “Your turn, lovebirds.”
Ilya’s still giving his evil smirk, but Luca catches the comforting hand he places on Shane’s shoulder.
Shane loudly exhales. “Okay, do you guys wanna know how it started or how it became official? They’re kind of both insane.”
“Once again, guys,” Harris says. “What the hell.”
“I’ll answer that for him,” Troy says. “Both. Definitely both.” There are murmurs of agreement.
“Jeez, okay,” Shane says. “I met him for the first time at World Juniors, in Saskatchewan.”
It’s Luca’s turn for his jaw to drop. “Wasn’t that in 2008?”
Shane looks over at Ilya, his eyes practically pleading Ilya to take over. “He shook my hand and told me I should stop smoking. Because he is such a gentleman,” Ilya says dryly.
Shane rolls his eyes. “After that, Ilya found me in a hotel gym—“
Harris interjects with a quick, “Did you guys fuck for the first time in a hotel gym? In 2008?!”
Shane quickly says “No!” at the same time that Ilya says “Basically.”
“We eye fucked in a hotel gym in 2009,” Ilya clarifies. “Then we sensually shared a water bottle. Shane was hard the whole time.”
Shane flushes, and Troy says, “TMI.”
“Absolutely not TMI,” Harris protests. “I want every detail.” He leans towards Shane and Ilya, eyes glittering.
“I don’t think we want every detail,” Eric offers. “I think Ilya will take that too literally.”
“Touché,” Shane agrees.
“CCM asked me to do a shoot,” Ilya continues. “I told them Shane should come. Good for the rivalry.”
Luca runs a hand through his hair. “Wasn’t that also in 2010?”
“You remember that very well, Haasy. Did you have the poster on your wall?” Ilya chirps. Luca hopes his blush doesn’t reveal that he definitely did have the poster on his wall.
Ilya goes on. “We showered in the locker room after.” He smirks, looking over at Shane with a question in his eyes. Shane nods slowly. “I am hard to resist. When I got in the shower, he was hard.”
“Guys, did you fuck in a locker room shower? In 2010?!” Harris asks incredulously.
“Okay, we didn’t,” Shane answers, looking sheepishly down at the countertop. “But I’ll admit it was closer to that than maybe is appropriate.”
There are various empathic expressions of shock at that. Ilya shrugs. “I asked him for his hotel room number after. He was very happy to give that information. And, because I am not a prude, I will tell you. That night, we did fuck nasty, as Kyle says.”
“That…is deranged,” Harris responds. He took the words right out of Luca’s mouth.
“Okay,” Troy says loudly. “We were promised two stories.”
Ilya throws his head back and laughs. “I think the second one is probably crazier.”
“I don’t know…” Kyle mumbles. “We all just found out you two have been fucking for thirteen years.”
“No… the second part is definitely crazier,” Shane assures, shaking his head.
Ilya smiles. “It started with a tuna melt.”
Troy, Harris, and Luca exchange knowing glances. “So this is where the tuna melt thing came from!” Troy says.
“What do you mean the ‘tuna melt thing’?” Scott asks.
“Ever since Shane got traded to the Centaurs, Ilya brings up a tuna melt whenever he wants to embarrass Shane,” Luca explains. “It started when me, Holmberg, Young, and LaPointe had to stay in their house after our apartment had a gas leak. Ilya offered to make tuna melts for lunch with a huge grin on his face and Shane spit his coffee everywhere.”
Shane’s freckles are dusted pink again. “Yeah… the first time I stayed at Ilya’s house, he also offered to make me a tuna melt.”
“So what, the tuna melt was so delicious you got down on one knee right there?” Kip asks.
“I know you’re kidding,” Shane responds slowly. “But that’s actually pretty close to how dramatic my reaction was.”
“Yes,” Ilya agrees. “He stayed the night, I made him lunch, and then we fucked on my couch. I called him by his first name and it scared him so bad he stood up and left me for Rose Landry.”
“This is a joke, right?” Harris asks. “Ilya, Shane—please tell me this is one of Ilya’s elaborate sarcastic jokes.”
“Um…no?” Shane says, his voice rapidly increasing in pitch.
The table goes wild with shock and laughter at that.
“Okay, wait, I have so many questions,” Luca says through sputtered laughs.
Shane sighs. “Shoot.”
“First of all, Shane, didn’t you and Rose Landry date in 2017?”
“Yep,” Shane responds flatly.
“So you and Ilya were in a long-distance situationship for seven years?!” Harris practically yells, and Luca has never seen his jaw drop so many times in such a short amount of time. Which is really saying something, considering how expressive Harris is.
“I can’t tell what’s crazier,” Kip chimes in. “The fact that you were pretending you were just fuck buddies for seven years, or that you dated Rose Landry to try and convince yourself you weren’t gay.”
“Listen,” Shane says. “I had to make absolutely sure!”
“Yeah, I guess if you don’t want Rose Landry, you must be really fucking gay,” Eric agrees.
“Okay wait, but you said you called Shane by his first name, and that’s what made him freak out,” Scott says to Ilya. “What the hell had you been saying that whole time?”
Ilya points to Troy. “What do you call him?”
“Barrett,” Scott answers carefully. “But that’s different. I haven’t been sleeping with Barrett for seven years!”
“He wishes,” Ilya says under his breath. Harris glares at him in return.
“Listen!” Shane yells. “I was so deep in the closet I was practically in Narnia, and Ilya was still a Russian citizen. He was also like, my sworn rival! The whole thing just felt so weirdly domestic, and up until then we had just been meeting for a couple hours in stairwells and hotel rooms to fuck and then go our separate ways. It was complicated!”
“Listen pal,” Harris says. “I hear you. But it’s still deranged. You left Ilya covered in cum because you ended up on a first-name basis after seven years of being inside each other.”
“No, just me being inside of Shane,” Ilya says quietly with a smirk. Troy smacks him on the arm.
Shane rubs the back of his neck, looking at Harris. “That’s…fair.”
Harris looks over at Troy with an amused glance. “I’m starting to think we’re the normal ones, buddy.”
“No,” Troy responds. “We are definitely not normal.”
“Okay, before we unpack that,” Luca says with a pointed glance towards Harris and Troy. “I have more questions for these two. None of this explains how you guys actually got together.”
Shane is growing impossibly more red. “Rose took me out for dinner one night and sort of…guessed that I was gay.”
“Damn, were you that bad in bed?” Kyle asks, giggling.
“Yes,” Shane answers to snickers around the bar. “But it made me realize I really did have feelings for Ilya. I knew I had to tell him. I practically ran to him.”
“What he actually told me then,” Ilya says, “Was that he was gay. Which was funny considering he had been sucking my dick for seven years by that point.”
“Yeah, I don’t know how he would’ve guessed that one,” Eric says dryly.
“I still didn’t really think we could be together, though,” Shane continues. “That was until…” He gestures towards Scott and Kip, who are both fighting touched smiles at the admission.
Ilya sighs heavily. “I hate to say it, but yes, Hunter made us think maybe it would be okay for the two of us. To be together.”
Kip is fighting back tears as Harris says, “Yeah, beautiful and romantic, but still not a good example for this one.” He ruffles Luca’s hair.
“Is true,” Ilya agrees. “Do not date your sworn rival. Or sleep with him for seven years while trying to pretend you don’t like him.”
Shane nods. “Just don’t hide. It’s not good for you or your partner. You deserve sunshine, Luca.”
Luca hums. “Okay, I want to hear Kyle and Eric next,” he declares.
Kyle grins. “No no, I think Troy and Harris would hate to go last.”
Troy grins back. “The kid has decreed it. You two first.”
“Okay, fine,” Kyle concedes. He turns to Eric, letting him decide what to share.
“It isn’t as recent, or as funny to be honest,” Eric says with a serious edge to his voice. “Not sure I want to go as in depth as you guys.”
“That’s okay man.” Scott gives Eric a kind look. “Share the parts that are fun to look back on. No use in dwelling on the painful stuff.”
Eric sighs. “Well, I had just gotten divorced, and I met this gorgeous bartender at Scott and Kip’s engagement party, like five feet from where we’re sitting right now. I was so embarrassed about the divorce that I was still wearing my wedding ring everywhere, and also completely aware that this gorgeous bartender was a lot younger than me. Figured I shouldn’t get my hopes up or anything.”
Kyle takes Eric’s hand, once again letting the diamond ring glitter in the overhead light. “I had been with older guys before—including older married guys—and gotten burned pretty bad. I thought he was one of them.” Kyle looks over at his fiancé with an adoring smile. “Couldn’t have been more wrong on that one.”
Eric smiles back, then continues. “This guy,” he says, gesturing at Ilya, “gave me the world’s bluntest pep talk. I swear to god he just knows everything.”
Kip nods his agreement. In a terrible imitation of Ilya’s accent, he says, “Kyle is in love with you. You are wearing a wedding ring but you are not married. You should fuck him, Bennett.”
Ilya smirks. “Is what he needed to hear. Nothing would’ve happened otherwise.”
Troy’s eyes widen slightly. “Ilya, first of all, your gaydar is genuinely scary. Especially with hockey players for some reason. Second of all, why are you like, the gay matchmaker of the NHL?” Troy asks. Ilya just shrugs and takes a sip of his drink.
“Anyway, safe to say we were both wrong about each other,” Kyle finishes. “He spoils me rotten. I couldn’t be happier with anyone else.”
“Yeah, we’re pretty cute,” Eric confirms. He then turns to Luca. “But it’s generally not a good idea to date guys fifteen years older than you, kid. Or guys who are wearing a wedding ring. Even I’ll admit that.”
“Now,” Kyle says, slamming his hands down on the bar with growing excitement across his face. “Your turn!” He gives a pointed glance at Troy and Harris.
“Uh,” Troy says awkwardly. “Where do we start?”
Harris claps him on the shoulder. “I think we start by clarifying that you might have beaten Shane for the award of deepest NHL player in the closet.”
Ilya chuckles. “If that was a category, maybe Troy would finally get invited to an award show.”
Troy rolls his eyes. “Yeah uh… Ilya definitely witnessed how dumb I was when I was crushing on Harris.”
Ilya smirks again. “Yes, he was being very obvious. But Harris was being dumb, too. They both thought they were too good for the other one.”
“We basically just pretended we weren’t flirting for several weeks,” Harris says. “I managed to convince myself Troy would never be into me despite him memorizing my coffee order and spending several hours in my office after his practices literally just watching me type on my computer.”
Troy blushes. “I didn’t know you noticed!”
Harris laughs and wraps a hand around his boyfriend’s waist. “You’re far less inconspicuous than you think you are, buddy.”
“Okay well, uh,” Troy goes on, “You all remember the infamous plane incident.”
Shane winces at the memory. “Sure do,” he confirmed.
“Harris and I sorta… grabbed hands while it was happening. And I realized I should stop denying my feelings for nothing. So I showed up at his hotel room.”
Harris grins slightly. “He wouldn’t have admitted that at the time. Even after we slept together, and he spent the night in my hotel room, he told me we both just needed some ‘release’ after the whole plane thing.”
Troy puts his hands in the air in surrender to all of the judgemental glances he receives at that. “I didn’t wanna be with him if it would’ve meant he had to hide. Harris is such a big ball of sunshine, and I didn’t want him to have to dim that for anyone or anything. Especially not me.”
Harris rubs Troy’s arm. “It was pretty considerate and actually kind of mature, I can’t lie. But he should’ve been more honest about it with me.”
Troy nods, looking over at Luca. “There’s a lot of things I would change about how I treated Harris when I first met him. I definitely wouldn’t have approached him for sex while emotions were so high. But above all else, even though I am proud of the way I handled our relationship before I came out, I wish I had been honest about my feelings for him. I should’ve just said to him, ‘hey, I really like you and I want to see where this goes, but I also don’t want you to have to hide parts of yourself when that’s so unlike you.’ I shouldn’t have assumed I knew what was best for him, obviously he’s smart enough to know that best himself.”
Eric huffs from across the bar. “Can’t believe this is the same Troy Barrett who used to yell slurs at me from across the ice.”
Troy winces. “Sorry again.”
Eric’s mouth quirks up on one side. “No worries, man. It’s honestly only more impressive that you’ve become such a stand-up guy after the environment you were in for so long.”
Troy blushes under all the attention, and Harris plants a kiss on his cheek.
“Well rook,” Eric says to Luca, “What have you learned tonight?”
Luca thinks over the conversation for a moment. “Don’t make it up to my boyfriend by kissing him on center ice, don’t make my crush a tuna melt, don’t go after men twice my age, and don’t proposition a guy after you both almost died?”
Everyone looks amused and slightly sheepish.
“On second thought,” Luca says, “Maybe just don’t date NHL players.”
They all laugh at that, properly.
“But seriously,” Luca says through a smile. “You all give good advice. Thanks for telling me all of that.”
“Of course, Luc,” Shane offers, smiling back at him. “We’re always here for you, even if we definitely shouldn’t be your sources for dating advice.”
“And it was pretty damn entertaining,” Kyle adds.
Luca nods, and there’s a few moments of comfortable silence. “And by the way—Shane and Ilya, yours is definitely the craziest.”
Everyone laughs again, and Shane just facepalms.
These men had paved the way for generations of kids like Luca. He is so lucky to have them.