When Jett was ready to play, you needed to look the fuck out.
The minigolf room was on the opposite side of the gym and recreation area. They were currently the only ones there, so Jett had to flick on the lights as they entered. The first section of the room was inside the building, but Harrison could see the glass ceiling at the end, where it opened into glass and blue skies.
“This place is awesome,” said Arlo, his blue eyes bright as he looked at the equipment and the fake turf around them. “I want to live in a placelike this someday. I would never be in my apartment if I had a pool and a fucking gym to use.”
“You live with your captain, right?” Jett asked as he picked out his putter and golf ball. “You mentioned that he’d offered you a room.”
“Étienne offered me a room, yeah. For however long I want.” Arlo shrugged and picked out his putter, swinging it around like a sword until Harrison grabbed it to stop him.
Arlo yanked it out of Harrison’s hands and stuck his tongue out at him.
“Étienne seems protective of you,” said Harrison. “Thank God someone else took up the mantle with me not being around. I love you, Arlo, but you’re one of those people who shouldn’t be left alone.”
Arlo smacked his putter against Harrison’s arm. “One. Fuck you. Two. Étienne doesn’t follow me everywhere like you used to. I don’t speak French, or know how to get a place. I was in a hotel until I made him sad enough to help me. He only wanted me nearby so he could be there if I needed help with anything, and he said the neighbourhood was safe and welcoming. It felt weird to get too settled too fast. Sometimes it doesn’t feel real.”
Harrison looked at him sadly for a second, then nudged him.
“No, he definitely saw something.” Harrison picked out his putter just in case he had to use it to defend himself. “What did you do? Did you leave something plastic inside the oven while it was on when he visited? Or were you hooking a thousand extension cords up to each other to run the millions of fans you need running because you get overheated easily, and one of them caught on fire?”
Jett’s eyes were wide as he looked at Arlo, and then Harrison. “Those were oddly specific scenarios, Harrison.”
“It’s because I lived them.” He jabbed the end of his putter into Arlo’s chest, ignoring his glare. “He called me to his apartment once because he smelled burning rubber and thought the electrical system was faulty. I showed up, and there were extension cords everywhere, and the whole place felt like a wind tunnel. It took me two seconds to find the one cord that was slowly turning black and melting because it was old and overwhelmed by what was going on—which was exactly how I felt seeing the place.”
“It was aheatwave,” said Arlo defensively. “I can’t sleep unless I’m cold, and I didn’t have air conditioning.”
“Holy fuck, Arlo.” Jett was struggling not to laugh. His eyes were filled with tears from the effort it took. “Do you want to like, switch hair colours or something? You should have been blond.”
Arlo’s face was so red he looked ready to explode. “Eat shit and die,” he hissed.
“Now that we’re all mad and ready to fight,” said Harrison. “Let’s play golf.”
Arlo was ready to start swinging again. “You’reon.”
Jett
The next day, Jett woke in a haze of warmth and comfort, tucked into Harrison’s big arms and covered in the cloud-like expensive hotel duvet. They were on day one of their four away game stretch, and Jett secretly hoped they would win all of them to boost their rankings, making up for his early-season bumbling.
He felt no urgency to get out of bed and meet the guys for practice, even though heshould,but snuggling with Harrison was more appealing.
But all tranquillity was shattered when his alarm went off and roused him to consciousness faster than he would have liked.
Harrison’s grip tightened, as if even in sleep, he could sense something was wrong—like his body moved instinctively to shield Jett from it.
Jett reached over to the bedside table and silenced the offending noise, and let himself be tugged back into Harrison’s arms. The warmth of his chest pressed against Jett’s back was like heaven, and when his gravelly, sleep-heavy voice murmured something low in his ear, it made all his limbs feel weak.
“Good morning, Sunshine.”
Gods. He was a grown man. Why did that nickname make his heart flutter like he was the main character in a Disney movie? Especially when the things they’d done in this hotel room last night were as far from a Disney movie as you could get…
The scruff on Harrison’s jaw scraped his skin when he pressed kisses on Jett’s neck, causing shivers to erupt along his spine. Harrison’s rough hand trailed up his chest, pinching his nipple and eliciting a gasp from him.
That dreaded generic ringtone cut through their blissful morning, nearly causing Jett to elbow Harrison in shock. Harrison tightened his grip on him momentarily before releasing him with a groan.
Grumbling, Jett reached for the bedside table and shut off his phone.
“What time is it?” Harrison’s voice was still gruff and sleep-soaked, and did nothing to quell Jett’s libido.
“Seven,” Jett told him.
