Without needing to be asked, Harrison leaned in and kissed him, sweeping his tongue over Jett’s mouth until he relented and stopped biting it.
“I was worried,” said Jett. “I didn’t want to bring it up because this thing between us is so new, but I’m glad you want kids too, because that was…possibly a deal-breaker for me? I was willing to settle for cats if you didn’t like kids, and since you were a hermit, I had a feeling that kids were not in your life plan, so now that I know it is—”
Harrison shut him up with another kiss. Jett whimpered into his mouth, heat pooling in his belly as his mouth was devoured. Harrison kissed like he fucked, domineering and possessive in all the right ways.
When Jett ran out of breath, Harrison pressed their foreheads together. “Win the cup first and we’ll talk kids.”
Jett didn’t even know that was an option. With the promise of family on the line, there was no way he wasn’t walking away without a championship ring this year.
“What about cats?”
Harrison gripped his ass before giving it a gentle smack. “How about breakfast, and then you can show me around the city? I’d like to get to know my new home before we make any life-changing decisions.”
That was fine too. Jett could handle that.
He was sad when Harrison groaned and let go of him, getting out of bed to stretch. The sadness only lasted long enough for Harrison to bend down and scoop him up like he weighed nothing, which was impossible because he was a heavy fucking athlete, thank you.
He complained all the way to the bathroom until Harrison set him down on the bench inside the walk-in shower, ruffling his curls affectionately.
“Get showered and I’ll clean up the mess,” said Harrison. “I’ll try to save breakfast if I can.”
Jett flipped him off, glaring when Harrison laughed. “Stop picking me up. You’re going to hurt your fucking leg.”
“You say that,” said Harrison, grinning. “But I bet if I fucked you against a wall, you wouldn’t be worrying about my leg.”
Jett stammered, unable to get his tongue working well enough to properly respond. He settled for flipping his boyfriend off again, his skin flushing as Harrison’s laughter carried to the kitchen.
Harrison
The walk around Jett’s neighbourhood had been…surprisingly fun. They’d stopped for coffee and bacon at Jett’s usual haunt, since breakfast had been a lost cause, and eventually wandered to a bench by the water, where they sat and talked.
Harrison took the chance to ask Jett all kinds of dumb questions—his favourite colour, movie, and other random little things that popped into his head. They’d never really taken the time to learn those details about each other, not with all the stress constantly circling them. But now it felt good to slow down and get toknoweach other.
Jett nervously asked about Harrison’s early hockey years, and for a while, Harrison was happy to talk—until the conversation edged toward the one subject he’d been avoiding: his family.
He’d done everything he could to keep the topic of his brother off-limits with everyone, burying it deep and locking it down. But if he wanted this relationship to work—really work—then he knew he’d have to open up eventually. And maybe… now was the time.
“Luca was the most important person in my life besides Taylor growing up,” Harrison said, swallowing hard as a sudden pit opened in his chest at the memories. “He was so… gentle compared to me. Everyone loved him. He was charismatic and kind—he had this huge group of friends I couldn’t stand because they were a bunch of weirdos who played Dungeons and Dragons. And to a puckhead like me, that shit was unforgivable…”
Jett laughed and pressed his cheek against Harrison’s arm, offering him support.
“My parents put a lot of pressure on me, no more than anyone else, I guess, but it was their way of disapproving of my choice to aim for playing professional hockey. They had me and Luca when they were older, so they wanted me to find a career that would keep me settled in one place on the offhand chancethat something happened to them and I had to care for my brother.”
Jett scoffed loudly. “Yeah, becausethatmakes sense. If anything, providing for Luca would have been easy on an NHL salary.”
“Luca argued that too,” said Harrison. “He overheard our parents talking about it and defended me. I had no idea. I was only happy because Luca suddenly started coming to watch my games and began travelling with me, even when we travelled out of province. It was his way of showing my parents they were being stupid. He was…he was more stubborn than me sometimes.”
“It must be a Killinger trait,” said Jett. “That was good of him though.”
Harrison shrugged dismissively. He would have preferred it if Luca had spent his time with his friends instead of feeling obligated to follow him around, but the days spent together gave him more time with his brother before he died. Time that he treasured.
“He was a good kid,” was the only thing Harrison could say.
“Yeah,” said Jett. “I remember.”
Harrison looked at Jett, trying not to get caught up in how golden his eyes were in the sunlight. “I suppose you saw him around since we all went to the same schools.”
It was Jett’s turn to shrug.
