Ryan nearly choked. “Wouldyouinvite a man to Kent’s party? If you were me?”
Wyatt grinned. “If it makes Kent uncomfortable? Fuck yeah, I would.”
“That wouldn’t be fair to your date, though,” Ryan pointed out. He wouldneveruse someone like that. And even if he had a boyfriend, he wouldn’t subject them to Dallas Kent’s birthday party. “I’ll be going alone. And leaving as soon as possible.”
“That’s the spirit!”
When they reached the community center, Wyatt hauled a duffle bag out of his trunk and carried it to the building. “Guardians swag,” he explained.
They were greeted by an exhausted, and grateful-looking, woman who was about half Ryan’s height with glasses and graying brown hair.
“Hi, Anne,” Wyatt said cheerfully. “They giving you hell?”
“I’m just glad you guys are here.” She turned to Ryan and extended her hand. “Nice to meet you. I’m Anne.”
“With anE?” Ryan couldn’t help but ask. He’d maybe readAnne of Green Gablestoo many times.
“With anE! That’s right!” She beamed at him.
“I’m Ryan.” He released her hand and waited for instruction.
“I need to make some calls, but you know where to go, Wyatt. It’s pretty much a full house today, so good luck.”
“That’s okay, I brought reinforcement,” Wyatt joked, nodding at Ryan. “Let’s go meet the kids.”
Wyatt led Ryan to a large gymnasium, which seemed to take up most of the building. There were some rough-looking basketball nets at either end, a couple of hockey nets at either end of the short side of the room. There were also about fifteen kids in the room, running in all directions and yelling. A couple of boys were kicking dodge balls as hard as they could without really paying attention to where they were going—or who or what they would hit. It was chaos.
“Hey!” Wyatt yelled. “There are celebrities in the room, so look sharp!”
One girl who looked about twelve scrunched up her face. “Celebrities?”
Wyatt pretended to be affronted, which made her laugh. “Who knows who this guy is?” he asked.
“That’s Ryan Price,” another girl said shyly.
Wyatt pointed at her. “I knewyou’dget it, Nicole. That’s right, this is Ryan Price. He plays for the Guardians with me.”
“He doesn’t play with you,” one of the boys who had been kicking the dodge balls said with a grin. “Heplays andyousit on the bench.”
Ryan laughed. He liked these kids already.
“Uh-huh,” Wyatt said flatly. “Well, get ready to be stonewalled by me today, Xander. I will not be going easy on you.”
Wyatt very quickly split them into two seemingly random teams and asked one of the older girls to get the floor hockey gear out of a storage room. The gear was a bunch of sticks, a couple of soft rubber balls, and some surprisingly nice road hockey goalie gear. Ryan suspected that Wyatt was responsible for that donation.
Wyatt put one of the sets of gear on, and the girl who had retrieved the equipment put the other set on. Ryan picked up one of the sticks, which were all way too short for him. He noticed there were no gloves. They should really have gloves. Maybe he could buy a bunch of gloves and donate them.
“What team am I on?” Ryan asked.
“Whatever team Xander isn’t on,” Wyatt said loudly. Xander booed.
They played for about an hour, and Ryan loved every second of it. It took him back to being a kid himself and playing hockey for hours with the other Ross Harbour kids on the backyard rink his father had made. He’d loved the game so much then, and the force of how much that had changed hit Ryan hard as he joked around with these kids.
It was also nice to be the best player in the game for a change.
Ryan switched teams a few times, because it was only fair. He had fun taking shots on Wyatt, who beat him most of the time. Either way, they both laughed a lot.
When it was time to leave, Anne came to help Wyatt distribute the Guardians merchandise he had brought. It was mostly ball caps and pucks, which Ryan and Wyatt both spent some time signing.
