“Don’t say it that way,” Ramsey complained. “I can plan things.”
“Exactly,” Wes said. “You’re fucking amazing at planning things. You’re scary good at it. I don’t know why you’d ever think you’d needmyhelp.”
“But it’s adate. I don’t do dates.”
“Yeah, if you were trying to teach someone about having a hot hookup and leaving them wanting after, you’d be golden.” Wes shot Ramsey a smirk over his shoulder as he poured his coffee.
“Fuck you,” Ramsey retorted, but he was smiling too. “I’m multi-dimensional.”
Wes raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? Then why are you asking for my advice?”
Ramsey sighed. “I just . . .I want to do right by him. By me, too.”
“Of course,” Wes inserted slyly.
“Just if you had any suggestions or ideas,” Ramsey said, hoping this would be the end of it. He’d initially thought, why not ask, because it would give Wes something to think about—anything but how freaked out he was about any possible parallels between Ramsey’s situation with Nate and his own.
Wes sipped his coffee. “Be thoughtful,” he finally said. “Do things he likes. Do thingsyoulike. Dating is about meshing your two lives together.”
There was a part of Ramsey that wanted to make a face. He didn’t want to mesh his life with anyone else’s, even Nate. He liked his life. It was exactly as he’d arranged it to be—at least if he got hockey back—and he enjoyed it that way. He would have done things differently if he didn’t.
Nate was, always, a wild card he never saw coming, no matter how much he prepared for his eventual appearance.
“Don’t tell me you like your life the way it is. You wouldn’t be here in Toronto if that was true.”
AndGod, Wes wasn’t wrong.
“I’ve changed things since I got here,” Ramsey argued.
Wes shot him a look. “Sure. But the fact you can’t leave him alone, maybe take that as a sign that youdon’tknow everything.”
“Honestly, I love you, but also fuck you,” Ramsey said. He wasn’t sure he’d actually learned anything helpful, but it was certainly a new way to look at it. A new angle to consider.
Wes just laughed. “Love you too, babe.”
“You seem to be in a pretty good mood even though we lost last week.”
Dawson slid into the seat next to him and nudged him with his shoulder.
Nate had been sitting in the biggest auditorium in the practice facility, ostensibly getting ready for the week’s walk-through, but in reality staring at his phone.
Wanting to text Ramsey. Knowing he didn’t have a good reason, but wanting it anyway. Though, if he was being really honest with himself, that had been a thing for the last fewdays. Longer than that, even. But for the last few days, after they’d agreed to date for real, it had been a near constant need simmering under his skin.
When would he see Ramsey again? When would he talk to him again? Would Ramsey send him a text while he was at practice, just because he could, because he knew Nate wouldn’t be around, and it was okay if it was transparent?
“It wasn’t a bad loss, and we’re gonna bounce back this week,” Nate said, but he knew what Daws was getting at.
Daws also knew what he was getting at, and he only nudged him again. “Please, that’s not why you’re looking all starry-eyed.”
“I don’t—”
But Dawson didn’t let him finish. “Bud, you can’t argue with me about this, because I’ve been there, been right in your shoes, pretending that what’s happening isn’t what’s happening, but newsflash, it’s fucking happening.”
“What’s happening exactly?” Nate wondered. But he was afraid he knew. He had eyes, didn’t he? And it was nearly impossible to miss how Dawson looked at Cam, at how they rotated each other, alone in their own little cozy loving world.
It was similar to Aidan and Levi, but different, too. A reflection, maybe, of how different they were as couples.
What kind of couple were he and Ramsey going to make?
