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Mikey chuckled, and I turned to look at him, trying to understand what was so funny.

“What do Cap and Ethan and T and Sebastian have in common, Cal?”

I swung back to Bell, whose left eyebrow was raised. “It’s a couple’s thing,” I stated.

He nodded. “It’s a couple’s thing.”

I dropped my head back against the headrest, feeling a strange mixture of alarm and relief. “How long have you known?” I breathed out.

“Well, you only confirmed it just now, but I’ve suspected something was going on between you since Toronto,” he said, reaching in to futz with the heater vent until it was pointed in his direction.

“What happened in Toronto?” I asked, my brows dipping in confusion. Mikey and I weren’t even together then. Hell, I hadn’t even told him I was gay until later that night.

“I’m an expert at reading body language, and Porter was about as subtle as a brick through a window when he saw that woman parked on your lap.”

Mikey snorted. “Fuck you. I am so subtle.”

Bell smirked. “You’re really not.”

I glanced at Mikey, then back at Bell. “You might want to rethink that whole body language expert thing, Cap. We weren’t together then. Mikey didn’t even know I was gay until later that night.”

“And I didn’t realize I had feelings for him until a couple weeks later,” Mikey added.

“Huh,” Bell huffed, resting his chin on his forearms. “Totally thought you were already fucking.”

“Nope,” Mikey said. “That didn’t happen until Raleigh. I took a bad hit, and needed a massage.” He waggled his eyebrows.

Bell let out a bark of laughter, looking at Mikey with an expression that could only be described as pure fondness. “Never change, Porter. Never change.”

But then his expression sobered, his eyes coming back to meet mine. “I should probably tell you Ethan knows you’re gay. Something about your ex running his mouth a couple of seasons ago.”

I blew out a breath. “Yeah, Will told me at Thanksgiving. I don’t know how it hasn’t leaked yet.”

“It might have, but E runs a tight ship, and most people are terrified of him, so …” He shrugged.

“You weren’t,” Mikey pointed out.

“Nope,” Bell agreed. “I used to piss him off just to get a rise out of him. Every time he’d scowl at me, I’d get hard.”

This conversation was …

“I’m not sure he’d want us to know that.”

Bell scoffed. “Oh please. You think I haven’t said worse.”

I considered it for a second, thinking back to some of the truly unhinged shit he’d been quoted saying in the early days of his career. “Point taken.”

He patted the window frame twice. “Anyhow. Christmas Day, four o’clock. Drive safe, boys.”

“See ya, Cap,” Mikey called out, rolling the window back up as Bell darted back toward his car, his head bowed against the snow.

Mikey shifted the car into reverse, but he kept his foot on the brake, looking over at me with a wide smile.

“Did that just happen?”

“I think so,” I said, feeling a grin tug at my lips.

Mikey scratched his nose. “Uh, it was kinda funny how he assumed we were already together back in Toronto.”