Page 51 of Game On

As Blair poured himself a glass of water from the faucet, Dorian slumped onto the couch and sent a hopeful grin Charlie’s way. “Do I get to stay for pancakes?”

“Only if you brought Poppy.”

“Alas, Jamie took her on a run when he got back from practice.”

Charlie shifted from the coffee table to the couch and took Dorian’s hand in his. “I’m sorry, Dori.”

“For what?”

“The other day, when I was teasing you about being attracted to Jamie, I didn’t realize feelings were involved too. I wouldn’t have teased you if I’d known.”

“It’s fine.” Glancing away from him, Dorian jerked a shoulder. “It’s whatever. I know you weren’t doing it to be mean.”

“And for what it’s worth,” Charlie said, bumping their elbows, “you are worth taking a risk on. Maybe Jamie just needs to settle into his life here and learn that the Orcas aren’t the Cobras.”

Dorian forced a smile he suspected looked more like a grimace. “Maybe.” He stood in one smooth motion. “So? Pancakes?”

Charlie rolled his eyes. “Fine. But your job is to set the table.”

“I can live with that arrangement.”

* * *

“He’s avoiding me,” Jamie said. Earbuds in his ears, he stood alone at the blue line of the ice rink at the Kitsilano Community Centre, in his skates, hockey stick in hand, and lined up several pucks in front of him.

“Or,” Gio Vitone said in his ears, “he’s busy.”

“Yeah, that’s a no-brainer. Dorian’s always busy. But he’s been busy before and still made time to hang out.”

“Maybe he’s busier.”

“He’s ignoring me.”

It had been three days since their walk with Poppy. Three days of Dorian finding excuse after excuse to not have dinner with him or walk Poppy together or chat in his office.

“I shouldn’t have said anything.” Jamie nudged a wayward puck into alignment with the others.

“About being attracted to him or not wanting to do anything about it?”

“Both. Either.”

“You didn’t have to tell him that he isn’t worth sacrificing your hard-won peace with the Orcas, you know.”

Gritting his teeth, Jamie set up a shot. The crack of his stick hitting the puck was loud even with his earbuds in, and the sight of it hitting the back of the net wasn’t as satisfactory as he’d hoped. “I called you for advice, not so you could take me to task.”

“I can do both.”

Jamie set up a second shot. It went into the net just as easily as the first. Not hard to do, considering there was no goalie. Nobody else at all, for that matter. Dorian had rented out the rink for the next hour so they could film Jamie’s social media intro video.

Originally, Jamie had wanted to film it in his hometown, but Dorian had vetoed that real quick.

“You want to go all the way to Kelowna to film what’s going to end up being a two-minute video?” he’d said, full of scorn. “I think not. And fuck you if you think I’m taking the Coquihalla in March.”

Jamie had grinned at that. “But I’m a Kelowna boy, born and raised. I know how to drive in bad snow on scary roads.”

“No,” Dorian had said with a heavy air of are you fucking kidding? “It’s nicknamed the highway through hell, Jamie. For a reason. I’ve seen the TV show. Pick somewhere else for your video.”

An ice rink had been Jamie’s next suggestion. Boring, perhaps. A little too on-brand, maybe. But it was one of the places where Jamie felt the most comfortable and the most like himself.

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