Page 126 of Two for Roughing

“Oh, right.” Lissy subsided sheepishly.

The mention of crowds let Jax segue into moving the group for their midnight venue—a nightclub. When they got to the doors, Kilian laughed, recognizing the logo.

“What’s up?” Ketchup asked.

“This is the place I got photographed,” Kilian told him. “The last night I was in San Francisco.”

“Oh, shit. Is it, like, a bad memory? Can you go in?”

“Do you want us to pretend to be too drunk—to get you out of it?” Fulls added.

A rush of fondness for his new team swept through Kilian. As clumsy as their show of support could be, they were honest. Looking around at the Sea Lions, much as he loved them, Kilian knew none of them would have suggested acting sick; they’d have wanted an open and honest conversation. Kilian had done a lot of growing recently, but he wasn’t ready to be that mature all the time. He wanted to fuck up sometimes. And he wanted to have Damir around to let him know when he did, to comfort him through it, and then make him act like the grown-up he was.

Buoyed by his teammates’ idiocy, Kilian could face anything.

“Nah, I’m good,” he said.

They went into the club.

Before the night ended, Breezy started a limbo competition under a nonexistent pole. Mooney and Matheson forced everyone to drink something neon blue which made Rocky suddenly able to dance. Lissy and Vanderbilt got high and made it everyone else’s problem until only Damir’s exasperated intervention stopped them from getting thrown out.

At 2:30 a.m., eyes bleary from alcohol, the smoke machine, and more late nights than he was used to after a month of taking his job seriously, Kilian left the dance floor to get a bottle of water from the bar. From the corner of his eye, he spotted a slim man wearing eyeliner and a crop top, dancing between two tall, muscular guys. But when Kilian turned to look at him more directly, he ducked away.

Kilian abandoned his search for hydration to follow.

Liam headed for the bathroom, the most predictable boy-at-the-club-in-an-awkward-social-situation move he could have made. It was a shame to follow him there—Kilian had some fond and formative memories of that bathroom.

“Liam!” he called into the crowded bathroom. Three guys turned around at the urinals, but none of them were Liam. Kilian smiled tightly.

Liam pushed out of one of the stalls, head held high. The top of his styled hair reached up to Kilian’s nose. “Fuck you,” he said.

Kilian’s eyebrows shot up.

“You never told me you were, like, legit famous.”

“I’m not.” Kilian hadn’t been famous, not even in hockey circles, before Olivia Starling’s article. He was moderately well-known in Canada and had slowly gained popularity in Chicago throughout December, but the only reason people knew his name now was due to his outing.

Which was all Liam’s fault.

Liam huffed. “Well, you should have told me. That reporter chick was fucking all up in my business the minute you ditched me in the club last month.”

“Sorry,” Kilian said. He blinked. “No, wait, I’m not sorry! I had to leave. I got traded to fucking Chicago. Which you would know if you actually gave a shit. Why did you sell her those pictures?”

In the bright lights of the bathroom, Liam looked less ethereal than Kilian remembered him. His nose and jaw jutted out sharply, and his makeup was smudgy and inexpert. He crossed his arms and pushed out his chin. “I don’t know. I didn’t think it was a big deal.”

Before Kilian could so much as summon a shocked gasp at the blatant lie, Liam continued. “Anyway, I have to go. Unlike you, I have some game, and I’m not spending New Year’s Day alone.” He stalked out of the bathroom, the door slamming shut behind him.

One of the guys at the urinals said, “Brutal, dude.”

Kilian didn’t follow him. Liam might have fucked him over, but that was his guilt to live with.

And though he’d never intended or wanted what had come of Liam selling those pictures, when he rejoined his teammates and Damir brushed a quick kiss across his temple, so fast nearly no one saw, Kilian couldn’t argue with the results.

He was right where he wanted to be.

Epilogue

“Going into this year’s Stanley Cup Finals, we have the team of the year, the San Francisco Sea Lions, facing off against a wildcard team: The New York Liberties. After an easy win in game one, the Sea Lions slacked off in game two with starting goalie Dmitriyev replaced by backup Henderson. Dmitriyev started again in game three, and since then it’s been smooth sailing. If the Sea Lions win tonight, they will be your 2026 Stanley Cup Champions.”