“Is everything okay?” Harrison asked, making Jett jump.
“Everything is fine,” Jett said too quickly. “Justpeachy.”
He was going to need a cold shower after this. That and a fuck-ton of Ativan.
Jett
The awkward dance between him and Killinger continued, and Jettmayor may not be panicking. Training was difficult enough because Killinger was a hard-ass, but sharing smouldering glances wasn’t helping either.
That’s why when the weekend hit, he chose to take a day off and relax on the lake instead. He was getting closer to pulling off Harrison’s trick, but there had been little success. If he didn’t take a break, he would start breaking sticks; it was that simple.
Lounging on the dock in his swim shorts was a thousand times better than getting sweaty and frustrated on the ice. Harrison had gone into town for groceries, which meant he had the next few hours to decompress.
Not that his phone would let him. It kept buzzing with texts from his teammates and Arlo, who was pestering him about the drama involving Jett and his cousin.
Jett didn’t want to think about drama or how badly he wanted to kiss the smirk off Harrison’s face. He didn’t want to talk about how he noticed stupid things, like when Harrison’s eyes went distant, and the pain was so strong that Jett could feel it like a blanket of misery settled over his skin.
And he didn’t want to talk about how—despite fighting his feelings since he was a kid—he was pretty sure he was in love with Harrison Killinger.
People said meeting a celebrity crush never went well, and yes, he and Harrison fought, butdamn. They were getting along so well, and Harrison was open to talking about anything that didn’t involve his hockey career.
Hell, they had spent one night looking at Jett’s highlight reels, and Harrison had offered advice on what he could do to better his game. Things he thought Jett was lacking were worked on during training, and Jett didn’t want to say he was being coached because Harrison hated when he made the comparison, but that’s what it felt like.
Harrison had gone from giving him the lukewarm shoulder and mocking him to putting effort into getting along with him and passing down his techniques to someone he considered his rival.
All of it came back to why Jett was worried about the building tension. He wanted, more than anything, to be Harrison’s friend. He deserved companionship that wasn’t family-related, even if Arlo was great.
Harrison needed him. He didn’t want to be cocky about it, but Jett noticed he made him smile a lot, and he brought out Killinger’s competitiveness on the daily. Arlo made several comments about how animated his cousin was during their last phone call, which was a huge ego boost but solidified his resolve.
By the end of next week, Jett was walking away with a new friend. He needed to visit his dad more often, so now he would have double the excuse to return home during his downtime.
He could invite Harrison to Christmas dinner and ask for conditioning help during his breaks. It sucked that they wouldn’t be spending tons of time together like they were now, but he was confident he could convince Harrison to visit him in Toronto—when he was ready.
His phone rang, and Jett prepared himself to tell Arlo to give it a rest and focus on his camp training, until he saw the name of the caller.
“Cap!”
There was a lengthy pause, and then his captain chuckled.
“What are you up to, Jetty? You’ve been acting shifty in the group chat.”
Shifty? Jett didn’t know what he was talking about.
“If byshiftyyou mean my refusal to answer Wolf’s question about Arlo Townsend being my boyfriend, I think I cleared that up.”
There was more laughter, and Ryan Bracken sighed.“Yeah, I was with him when you went into detail about how incompatible you are as bottoms. Thanks for that, because I’ve never seen Wolf blush before, and I managed to get a picture as proof.”
Jett crossed his ankles and readjusted his sunglasses. “You guys were hanging out? That sounds awful.”
“It was a quick practice session. We older guys need to keep moving or we seize up.”
Ryan wasn’t old, but how he whined about it sometimes gave Jett a headache.
“We have new blood coming too,” said Jett. “Niko Cote? He looks like he’ll be a good fit.”
Another pause.
“Jett, if I were a meaner person, I would have teased you about that one.”
