Shy and scholarly, long-distance swimmer Ryan Zwick thinks he’s the only gay member of the college swim team. He keeps his head down in the showers, and his head in the books the rest of the time. But when a sporty new transfer student joins the team, Ryan feels a surge of hope. Sexually inexperienced and looking for love, fellow swimmer Blake Gossens is everything Ryan wants in a boyfriend. But what is Blake’s game, exactly? And just how straight is he? Blake seems to be more interested in Ryan’s best friend, Marissa, leaving Ryan to go back to secretly checking out his teammates in the pool. But Ryan keeps getting mysterious messages in his dating app from a stranger who seems to know a lot about him. Could this messenger be Blake? Or someone else? When bad weather hits unexpectedly, Ryan is forced to confront his real feelings toward Blake, while opening up to the stranger by his side, eventually giving in to his wildest fantasies -- and his heart.

Distant Swimmer

For the sectional meet in Duluth, Chippewa wore their team suits&mdash;unlike the Speedo briefs, these were sleek, thigh-length jammers, black with thin gold stripes on the side, and a big goshawk talon on the hip. The northern goshawk had been the Chippewa mascot since the college was founded in 1896 and the team&rsquo;s swim parkas had an angry-looking goshawk stitched on its back.


One minute before his race began, Ryan unzipped his parka and laid it out on the bleachers, then lifted his T-shirt over his head. He grabbed his goggles and Go Goshawks!swim cap, then walked to the starting blocks, bare-chested, suddenly feeling a new wave of nervousness pass over him. His tight stomach rumbled. What if he swam a slower time than last year? This was his first real race of the season, and this was a line-up of some of the bigger and better teams in the state. Was he ready? Had he done everything he could have done to win this?


Chapter 21