Page 164 of Cheap Shot

“Aromanticism is a spectrum,” Anker called out.

“That,” Luke said, chucking the second glove after the first. “Don’t usually date or want relationships. Sebastian and I work though.”

“Dude!” Tanner said, slugging him with his fist this time. “What the actual fuck?”

Luke scowled. Jesus, Tanner was bad at throwing punches. He was going to break some bones at this rate. “Would you fuckingquitit?”

“No!” Tanner slugged him again. “How could you keep this from me?”

“Because not everyone needs you up in their business, man,” Tom said with a laugh as he walked by them on the way to the shower.

Luke grabbed Tanner and pinned his arms behind his back, glaring at him. “See? I keep telling you. You’re too damn nosy,” he said.

“Wait, so you and Tanneraren’tdating?” Erik Wyatt said, glancing up and waving a hand. “I thought you two were dating and all this shit was just foreplay.”

Luke shuddered at the idea and dropped Tanner’s hands like they were burning him. “Me and Tanner? God no.”

Tanner made a gagging noise. “Dude, I havestandards. No way am I fucking this guy, even if he is queer, apparently.”

“Standards?” Mickey said, looking amused. “What standards?”

“Youhaveno standards,” Rafe added.

“I have enough to not fuckhim!” Tanner said.

Luke shoved him. “Thanks, asshole.”

Tanner righted himself, then shot him a disgusted look. “I’m just sayin’. Besides, fucking you would be like fucking mybrother. And I don’t even have a brother.”

“Agreed,” Luke said with a shudder.Gross.

“Thisisexciting though,” Tanner said, his mood shifting as quickly as the weather did. “We’ve got another convert to the rainbow side! Welcome to the club, bay-bee!”

He made a stupid little whoop-whoop noise that made Luke want to stuff him in the dirty gear bin.

“I’m not aconvert,” Luke grumbled. “I’ve always been this way. I just didn’t tell you about my private life until I had to.”

“Sorry about that,” Connor said with a sympathetic look. “Didn’t mean to …”

“It was gonna come out eventually anyway,” Luke said with a sigh. “Everyone at the pediatric ER probably figured it out already anyway last night. It’s fine.”

Could he have gone his whole career without anyone making a fuss about him dating someone? Hell yes. Was he ever going to manage that with this crew? Definitely not.

“So,” Jesse said brightly. “The good news is, you’re gonna bring Sebastian to O’Neill’s tonight, yeah?”

Luke looked around at his teammates. “I dunno. Are you all gonna make it weird?”

Tanner and Jesse glanced at each other, then back at him.

Tanner grinned. “Abso-fucking-lutely,”

“I mean, probably,” Jesse said with a small laugh.

Connor scowled at his boyfriend. “Jesse …”

“What?” Jesse said, grinning too. “C’mon. This is going to be fun. Oh, that reminds me, I should add you to the Queer in the NHL group chat, Crawford.”

“No thank you,” Luke said, hooking his thumbs in his base layers and pushing them to the floor. “And will you all clear out and give me some space? I need to go shower. I’m sweating my balls off here.”