Further Review

The card says he can play. Now the government wants to meet his husband.

Declan Revitt kept his place in hockey the only way the law allowed: he married Nick Botelho, the club's equipment manager. Now a card in his wallet lets him work and cross the border with the team, and a new season is his.

He has been sleeping with his husband since March. He has told his agent there will be no divorce, ever. Nick doesn't know he said it.

Nick heard that agent's plan at a party in July (a year, then he divorces the equipment guy) and has asked nothing since. Not asking has become a system. And there's something he has never mentioned: years ago he swore an affidavit for his best friend's marriage, a marriage the government decided was a fake, and his signature is still on it.

Outside a restaurant in October, the agent says another club will pay double after the card. Declan says, "We'll see," to get rid of him.

Nick, at the wheel, is holding the car door open. He hears "We'll see."

An interview in Cleveland. A Thanksgiving table in Fall River where a place has been set, empty, for fifteen years. A playoff run that leads straight to the club the agent wants him at. And a dressing room that is starting to notice where they look.

It isn't paper any more. So what will the room say when somebody asks?

Marriage of convenience turning real · a closeted British defenceman · the husband who loved him before the wedding · a government interview · an agent with other plans · explicit (M/M) · one couple across three books · Book 2 ends on a cliffhanger