Stubborn Puckboy

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>COLBY</strong></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Once upon a time playing for the NHL was my dream. Then Radimir Novicov skated circles around me and made it clear I'd never be good enough. He was smart talented and worst of all-sexy. Every closeted guy knows that you don't hit on your teammate even if his gaze lingers longer than it should.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>All it took was one drunken close call before our friendship was in tatters he was called up to the NHL and I was sent for further conditioning.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Playing in the NHL was off the table so coaching became my new dream.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>And seventeen years later I'm finally heading to the big time.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Video coach. Pro level. The only downside?</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>It's for Novi's team.</span></p><p></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>NOVI</strong></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Radimir Novicov is not scared of anything. I am one of the best. Future Hall of Famer. There are two years left on my contract and I will end my career on the highest high anyone did see.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Then I will slink into the shadows where no one will hear of me again.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Because while I'm playing professionally I cannot come out and be myself. Not with my family still in Russia.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The plan has been set since I first moved to America and I only have two years left to wait. It should be easy to focus on hockey.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Then Colby Kessinger walks back into my life. The teammate with the lopsided smiles and cocky attitude-the one who made my heart want things it can't have.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Now two years feels like a lifetime.</span></p><p></p>