Page 154 of The Waiting Game

His only concern was how quiet Jonah got sometimes. And the looks Jonah gave him when he thought Felix wasn’t looking.

Not the heated, hungry looks when Jonah was appreciating Felix’s hockey but small, worried frowns that wrinkled his forehead.

Felix didn’t like to read too much into looks without talking about them but it was difficult when both he and Jonah were so consumed by the pressure of the upcoming series against Buffalo.

They went into the series with high hopes. Beating their division rivals had given them a boost in confidence but the moment they got on the ice in Buffalo, it all went wrong.

They lost the first game in a painful 4-0 shutout.

The second game was only marginally better with a 3-1 loss.

“Do you think maybe we’re cursed in Buffalo?” Jonah asked with a sigh that night, when they’d finally crawled into bed at Grandma Ji-min’s place, exhausted after the game and the flight back to Toronto.

Felix huffed. “Does feel a bit like it, doesn’t it?”

“I mean, seeing Nico go down like that earlier this season …” Jonah shuddered. “I can’t get that out of my head when we play there now.”

“Imagine what it was like for him,” Felix said with a yawn.

“Yeah, he was quieter than usual tonight, wasn’t he? You think that’s why August came to both those games?”

“Probably.” Of course the team had tried to support Nico, knowing it would be difficult for him. But it was good that August had been there too. Felix flipped onto his side, sliding his arm around Jonah’s waist. “He seems like a good dude.”

“Yeah, agreed. Even if he is a ref.” Jonah yawned too.

They both laughed softly.

Felix closed his eyes, listening to Jonah’s breathing slowly start to even out. Felix was exhausted but his brain wasn’t quite ready to shut down.

“Hey, I wonder if you were right about them,” Felix said. “Maybe they were faking it and developed feelings for each other along the way.”

“Mmm?” Jonah muttered sleepily but Felix wasn’t sure he was even awake.

Felix sighed and tucked his head against Jonah’s shoulder. He needed sleep more than he needed to speculate about his teammate’s relationship.

The Fisher Cats won 2-1 in overtime at home for the third game. It was a tough, gritty game and they only managed it by the skin of their teeth.

As the Fisher Cats limped away, the team was the walking wounded. Dustin had a sprained wrist he was playing through, Matty was playing with a cracked rib, and Makarov was out with a hip injury that meant he was done for the season.

Despite the win, the media had been less than glowing about the way the team had played.

In the past week and a half, there had been article after article suggesting that good goaltending on the part of Makarov and lousy goaltending on the part of Montreal had been the only reason for Toronto’s near-sweep in the first round and that they were never going to make it past this second round.

And sure, the Lynx’s starting and backup goalies had both been injured and they’d been playing with a third-string guy with no playoff experience and what some people had suggested was a bum shoulder. That had undoubtedly been a contributing factor. Of course it had helped the Fisher Cats but it made Jonah bristle when they talked negatively about the way the Cats team was playing.

Felix was even angrier.

He claimed that at this point he was used to the beat reporters tearing apart his play but they were tearing apart Jonah’s too, and he wouldn’t stand for that. Jonah loved how much Felix wanted to stick up for him but it was pointless. The media would say whatever they wanted to say.

Although it had pissed the entire team off when various people had insinuated it was Jonah and Felix’s relationship that was part of the problem.

A couple of bad passes between them and there was speculation that their relationship was on the rocks.

“Does this feel like on the rocks to you?” Jonah asked with a lift of his eyebrows as he curled around Felix after a slow but heated jerk-off session in the shower.

Felix laughed and kissed his neck. “If this is what it feels like for us to be on the rocks then it’s definitely the best relationship I’ve ever had.”

Which … on the one hand, Jonah hoped it was the best relationship Felix had ever had. But on the other, it made Jonah wonder where Felix stood in all of this. It made him regret that they’d put off talking about this.

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