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Michael lifts a brow. “That is weird.”
We watch without saying anything for a few minutes. Then I finally ask what’s been on the tip of my tongue all night. We’d agreed not to talk about it at home and I get it—we need to have some boundaries. God knows I don’t want Nathan coming home as my pissed off owner-boss when I fuck up. And we all know I will.
Home needs to be home. Work needs to be work.
The fact that the three of us work together is how we ended up in our situation in the first place. If we weren’t all a part of the Racketeers, we wouldn’t have all been here the night Dani had come to the game with her horrible date and ended up on the Kiss Cam.
But the working together and living together could definitely, easily, turn into a lot of together.
“Hey, Doc?”
He looks over at me. “Yeah?”
“I’m asking this as number seventeen, not your…roommate, okay?”
We still haven’t really settled on what we guys should call each other. We’re not each other’s boyfriends. We are friends. We are roommates. But we also feel like a hell of a lot more than that.
But Michael nods and I know he understands what I’m getting at. “What’s up?”
“I’m ready to play.”
He doesn’t seem surprised by the topic. “Okay.”
I lift a brow. “What?”
“I said, okay.”
“That’s it?”
“You can practice tomorrow, half-speed, and we’ll see how it goes.”
I turn on the bench to face him. “Seriously?”
He gives me a smile. “Yes. Seriously.”
I search his face. He was definitely more conservative with me last fall when I sprained my thumb. Sure, a thumb and a groin are two different body parts, but when I previously injured my groin, the team doctor kept me out for almost a month.
But then I wonder…
“Is this because I didn’t get to fuck Dani and you did and you feel bad?” I ask, my voice lower.
He actually chuckles. “That’s not how this is going to work,” he tells me. “You can’t bribe me or guilt me…not even with Dani.”
“Okay.” Yeah, Doc definitely isn’t the bribeable type. “So, what is this?”
“I trust you,” he says simply. “If you think you’re ready, I’m definitely willing to give you a chance. You know yourself well. You’ve been playing hockey for a long time. And I know your body, your game, this team, the playoffs all matter to you. I know you won’t fuck around with any of it.”
I watch the game for a little longer, thinking that over. I like that, of course, but…
“Is it about home?” I finally ask.
I look over to find him watching me. Then he nods. “Yeah, it probably is. For better or worse.”
“It’s not about Dani specifically,” I say. “Or that you and I are friends, exactly. But you’ve gotten to know me better. Last fall, I don’t think you would have let me make this call.”
Now he’s the one watching the game and obviously thinking things over. Eventually he nods. “You’re right.”
“Yeah?”
