Page 12 of Scoring Destiny
“Shoot.”
“Right now, it’s going to be you, me, Ashton, and Felix living in the house.” He rented a five-bedroom house and we’re all moving in a few days from now. Ashton Knight and Felix Lessard are two of our teammates, people he knows well and I trust his judgment.
“Right.” I glance at him curiously.
“Blaze Villaverde reached out, asking if we would consider letting him move in.”
I arch my brows. “What?”
Blaze was a rookie last season, all of eighteen years old when it began, and despite being a great hockey player, he’s a huge pain in the ass. He was spying on a couple of our teammates for our original head coach, who’s now in prison, and he basically pissed off the whole team.
He’s been chill since Coach Morrison was arrested for embezzling team funds and our new coach had a talk with him. I don’t know what was said, but Blaze has kept his head down and stayed away from everyone outside the rink.
“Yeah.” Simon hesitates. “He told me something I didn’t know, and now I kind of feel for the kid.”
“Yeah?”
He lowers his voice. “This is strictly between us.”
“Of course.”
“Apparently, Blaze is gay. Coach Morrison found out and used it to manipulate him. He was being blackmailed. So as much as what he did was shitty, if this is true, then that sucks. He’s totally in the closet and intends to stay there for now. He only told me because he figured I would never invite him to live with us without explaining himself.”
“You believe him?”
“I can’t imagine making that up.”
“Yeah.”
“He’s just a kid. He’s nineteen, and apparently no one knows he’s gay. Not his family, no one. He doesn’t really have any friends. He’s just…I don’t know, man, if it’s true, I’d like to think we’re better human beings than Coach Morrison.”
“Oh, for sure.” I nod. “Look, I don’t have a problem with him taking the last bedroom, living with us. It’s going to be party central at our place, with five bachelors living it up. As long as he’s cool with that, I’m fine with it.”
“I’m going to talk to Felix and Ashton individually, and if they’re on board, I’ll invite him but I wanted to run it by you first.”
“If Coach Morrison did that to him, well, it explains a lot. He was eighteen, first year in the league, dealing with things I can’t even imagine. I kinda feel bad for him too.”
“There’s just one thing.” He hesitates. “Do we tell him he can’t bring guys home?”
I grimace. “I think that would be kind of unfair. If we bring women home, it’s only right that he can bring home whomever he wants.”
“Well, the deal is, no one-night stands. We don’t need stalkers knowing where we live. Women only come to the house if you’re actually dating. I was planning to bring that up when we move in.”
“Yeah. I wouldn’t bring a one-night stand home anyway. Like you said, we don’t need people knowing where we live.”
“As long as everyone is on board with this, I think we have a plan.”
“It’ll be good to share a house,” I say. “I’ve been renting apartments since the divorce, and it’s fine, but a house is better. Having a garage will be nice.”
“Well, it’s only a four-car, and there will be five of us, so we’re going to have to work that out.”
“I think we draw straws.”
“Well, the four of you can draw straws. My name is on the lease—I get a freakin’ spot in the garage.”
“That’s fair.”
“Everyone will need to leave extra keys, though, because someone is going to have someone parked behind them every night and we need to be able to move cars around.”
