Us

“You’re bumming me out, and you know I'm not happy unless I’m happy.”

“That’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever said.”

“Naw. I’ve said dumber.”

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REVIEW

Would I read this again? Yes No Maybe

Spicy Level Legend How spicy is this book?

Tropes	Trigger Warnings
Friends to lovers, Hockey romance, MM romance, Reconnecting, Forbidden love, Hidden romance	Shitty parents, Homophobia, Depression

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SUMMARY

Want to just skip to the spice? I got you: 2, 5, 12, 22, 29

This is Book 2 - Book 1 can be found here.

Jamie and Wes are living together in Toronto. Jamie is coaching Junior League and Wes is in his rookie year. One of Wes’ teammates, Blake, has recently moved into an apartment above them and he loves to visit. A lot. And stay for a long time. Jamie and Wes are still hiding their relationship from the public, including Wes’ team. The team believes Jamie and Wes to just be roommates and good friends. Wes has told Jamie that he plans to come out when the season is over. He just doesn’t want his rookie year to be overshadowed by his sexuality.

With both of them involved in hockey, they don’t get a lot of time together during the season. Blake stopping by all the time doesn’t help that situation. It feels like every time Wes and Jamie have a free moment to themselves, Blake is there. But neither Wes nor Jamie want to be rude and tell Blake to go away because he’s a really nice guy.

Jamie likes his job as a hockey coach but he is less than thrilled with his co-coach who is homophobic, racist, sexist, and just generally unpleasant. Jamie has mentioned it to his boss but you know - that’s the way hockey is apparently and even though he’s around teenagers, no one really cares.

Blake finds out Wes wasn’t invited to some charity thing so he got him invited. Wes doesn’t want to go but basically has to. While there he sees an old friend from college. He dances with her and then his picture is all over the internet. Jamie sees it, gets pissed off because he’s at home waiting for Wes and Wes is dancing with some hot girl. So he decides he’s going to go see a movie alone but when he gets close to the theater he runs into some other coaches who are going to go grab a beer. Jamie decides to go with them.

He ends up at a bar, drinking, and some girl won’t stop flirting with him. Which he is not enjoying.

Wes also ends up at the bar with some of his teammates, babysitting one of them that’s super drunk. All he wants to do is go home and be with Jamie but doesn’t know how to politely leave. Jamie and Wes see each other and have to act like they are just friendly and not anything more. Which they both hate.

Jamie slowly starts to pull away from Wes even though he doesn’t want to. He’s just so frustrated and upset about their situation and he doesn’t think it will ever get better. Wes knows Jamie is unhappy, he’s unhappy too, but he just needs to get through his rookie season, come out to his team and the world, and then everything will be fine again.

They are both so in their own heads and communicating horribly.

During one of Wes’ home games, Jamie is there. He is excited because Wes wants to go out with him after the game and Jamie is so sick of feeling like he’s hiding all the time. But he ends up leaving the game early because he has a killer headache. The next morning, he gets up and goes into work but feels like shit. He ends up passing out and his boss calls an ambulance and Jamie’s emergency contact - which is Wes.

Wes is at practice, where Blake gets hurt and taken off the ice (he tore his ACL), when he is told he has a phone call. It’s Jamie’s co-coach telling him that about an hour ago an ambulance took Jamie to the hospital. He said he tried to call earlier but he got put on hold, then the ambulance showed up, and tells Wes what hospital he was taken to. He then tells Wes that Jamie was “unresponsive” and Wes basically goes unresponsive. Blake had walked up behind him sensing that something was wrong (even though he is like ALWAYS around and up in their business, he really is a great guy). Wes drops the phone and runs out of the building with Blake following. Blake offers to drive him. When they get to the hospital, the hospital won’t let Wes in until they hear from Jamie’s parents since Wes and him are not married. Blake tries to confront him, letting him know that he knows that Jamie and him are more, but Wes tells him right now is not the time.

Wes is allowed in to see Jamie. They think he has some ‘sheep flu’ (which Blake is terrified of sheep so he is freaked out) so he’s in a quarantine ward. There’s a nursing station in the middle and then patients are in their own rooms but whoever is in the nursing station can see in every room by a window. They tell Wes he can go in but he has to garb up. He puts on all the isolation gear - gown, gloves, mask, goggles - to go in to see Jamie. Jamie starts to wake up and looks freaked out so Wes rips his mask and goggles off so Jamie can see who it is. This makes Wes get put in quarantine also. He tells the nurse that if Jamie has the sheep flu so does he because they share a bed. Then he kisses him on the forehead and lips.

Someone caught this on camera from the nursing station (or maybe from one of the other rooms' windows) and within 6 hours the whole internet knows.

Luckily, Jamie does not have the sheep flu, just a regular flu that’s kicking his ass. Wes’ team released a statement in support of him and after Jamie gets moved out of quarantine, Frank (the PR guy) shows up to the hospital. He tells Wes that he needs to come back to work (he hasn’t left the hospital), he needs to be seen on the ice so the media knows the team really does support him.

When Wes gets to the locker room, his team is all quiet. One of them is like “Well, are you going to tell us?” And Wes immediately gets defensive. But all they want to know is if Jamie is ok. They saw him on the news and he looked pretty sick. They are all fine with him being gay and are supportive.

Jamie gets discharged from the hospital the next day, his parents are going to send his sister out to stay with him while Wes travels. But the next day, he has to fly out for a game. Since Blake tore his ACL and can’t play, he doesn’t have to go, so he stays at their apartment and watches Jamie. Which Jamie hates. He doesn’t like everyone fawning over him and treating him like an invalid. Which I get but he’s still super sick. He got discharged from the hospital with a low grade fever and a developing cough.

Jamie develops a high fever and even though Blake is there and then his sister, Jess, shows up. They end up fighting (and then hooking up) and don’t notice that Jamie has a high fever and is delirious. Jamie ends up back in the hospital with pneumonia for a week. When he gets out, he’s very cranky and depressed. Wes doesn’t know what to do because Jamie is either snapping at Wes or apologizing for snapping at him.

Jamie also can’t go back to work because of how sick he has been. His boss is trying to be nice but Jamie just wants to go back. He decides to go to the rink and watch his team practice. But then he gets even more depressed when they are playing so well without him. He’s leaving when his co-coach confronts him. Wants to know why he didn’t tell him he was gay and he’d stop making homophobic comments? Jamie loses his shit and ends up slamming the guy up against a wall just as his boss is coming around the corner.

He leaves, goes home, and packs a bag. Wes gets home just as Jamie is finishing packing. Jamie says he just needs to go home to California for a bit. Wes is freaking out because he thinks Jamie is breaking up with him. Jamie isn’t very reassuring that he isn’t.

He barely talks to Wes while he’s there. His mom talks to Wes more than Jamie does.

Wes does an interview that is on TV. The reporter asks him a bunch of things - about his childhood, hockey, his partner. He asks if Wes wants to get married and he makes a joke kinda like who would want to marry me with all the media and shit.

Jamie realizes that even though he’s been unhappy, Wes has been too. And now Wes is really unhappy and its Jamie’s fault.

Side note about Blake: Blake makes himself a key and basically makes himself at home when he’s there. He also brought Wes food and a change of clothes for him and Jamie while Jamie was in the hospital. He picked Jamie and Wes up when Jamie was discharged from the hospital. He calls Jamie “J-Bomb”. He tells Wes that they are the 3 amigos and he hopes that Jamie knows he isn’t just friends with him because of Wes. They are his best friends.

Jamie gets on a plane and goes to Dallas - where Wes is currently at. He doesn’t exactly propose but kinda. They start communicating again and Jamie tells Wes a bunch of shit that he hasn’t been talking to him about. The next morning before Wes has to catch his flight, Blake comes in with coffee. Jamie makes a joke about not inviting him to the wedding and Blake starts jumping up and down on the bed yelling - and then he breaks it.

When they get home the next day, they are snuggling on the couch when someone is at the door. They assume it's Blake, but it's not, it's another teammate. Then another one. Then another one. Pretty soon there’s a whole bunch of hockey players and their wives in their apartment as a surprise engagement party. Blake told the whole team and they invited themselves over with food and drinks. Jamie hasn’t gotten to hang out with, or even meet, some of these people, but it turns into a very nice evening. After they leave, Wes says he finally feels like he belongs there.

The next day, Jamie goes into work. His co-coach has filed a complaint against him for shoving him against the wall. Jamie’s boss had emailed him right after Jamie was outed and said he was sorry he didn’t take his complaints about the homophobic slurs seriously and Jamie is welcome to file a complaint. When his co-coach filed his complaint, his boss said Jamie should file a rebuttal. When Jamie goes to talk to him, he tells him he wants to file that complaint. His boss tells him he can add onto the complaint that was already filed.

Jamie’s team heard that he had a complaint against him and they wrote an 8 page paper detailing all the inappropriate and homophobic language. A week later, Jamie finds out that the “committee” is giving him a warning (for the shoving) and that the decision about his co-coach hasn’t been made yet.

The book ends with Jamie and Wes going out with Wes’ teammates for Wes’ birthday. Both of them are happy now that they’re out and everything appears to be going okay.

The next book: Good Boy is about Jess (Jamie’s sister) and Blake. The first chapter opens at Jamie and Wes’ wedding.

There’s also a novella: Epic - summary coming soon.