Page 135 of Melting the Ice

“There’s no guarantees at all, in life,” Wes continued. “You’ve got to take the hand you’re given and play it the best you can.” Marcus nodded his agreement and gave Dean a little shove. But Dean had about six inches and about a hundred pounds of muscle on Wes’ boyfriend so he didn’t really budge.

“Come on. Go play that hand,” Marcus added.

Dean was beginning to realize he needed to.

He didn’t want to go to another party and have Brody introduce him as his roommate. He wasn’t just his roommate. He was his best friend and his lover and the person he wanted to wake up every morning to and whisper every secret to at night.

The only person he’d ever trusted to have his back the same as he himself did.

“Okay,” Dean said.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Brody played along until they were out of sight and then he pulled away from Ramsey’s grip and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Helping you two, because God knows you can’t help yourself,” Ramsey said.

“What do you mean?” Except that Brody had a pretty good idea what he meant, and he hated it. “I just fucked it all up, didn’t I? God, I did. I fucked it up.” He’d known, the minute the wordroommateexited his mouth he’d fucked up, but now he knew, one hundred percent for sure.

“You just told your friends and teammates that you’re dating Dean, but tonight, with a few other randoms, that Dean is yourroommate. Not even your friend. You’re pushing him back into the bro zone, and I don’t have to tell you that was shitty to do. You don’t gotta come out all at once, guns blazing, butgeez,give that guy a little consideration.”

“I . . .I know I should have said something else.” The moment the word had come out of his mouth, Brody had regretted it. But Ramsey was right; he could have fixed it. He could have at least added,and a friend.And, by the way, a guy I happen to be wildly in love with.

But he hadn’t.

“Yeah, you fucking should have.” Ramsey leaned against the wall. “I shouldn’t have to flirt with you—which wasgross, by the way—to get your boyfriend to tell you he loves you. Or for you to tell him back. For God’s sake.”

“It wasgross?” Brody was stuck on that.

“You’re my best friend. We don’t . . .it’s not like that between us. Just . . .ew. Gross.”

“I’m not gonna argue with that,” Brody said. “And we did talk. We’re together.”

“He tell you he wanted to stay in the closet?” Ramsey challenged.

“No,” Brody said, shaking his head. “In fact . . .he told me the opposite.”

“And I know you don’t give a fuck about it either, so what are you doing, Brody?”

“I’m . . .” Brody didn’t know. He only knew that the further he got into this with Dean, the more he didn’t know how he’d live without him. “Did you really mean what you said, that I’d end up chasing after him? Dropping all my dreams for his?”

Ramsey’s eyes bugged out. “Is that why you’re pulling this shit?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know. I have a plan . . .I decided on a whole fucking plan, and the moment it came to me telling him, I freaked out. I chickened out. And I’m still fucking chickening out. What if that’s what people think? That I’m dickmatized or something. Or that I think he’s my fucking meal ticket?”

“Brody Anderson Faulkner. Your parents own three houses andgaveyou a BMW for your twenty-first birthday. Nobody is gonna think you’re chasing after Dean’s coattails for his NFL money.”

“True,” Brody said morosely. “Maybe only that I’m dickmatized.”

“Let’s face it, youarea little dickmatized. But as an expert in that state, I can tell you, that’s not all it is. You genuinely like that guy. Youlovethat guy. You light up when you’re together. And also being an expert onyou, I can promise you that’s what it is. Sure, the sex is good. The sex is great. But you’d want him anyway.”

Brody thought about this. “Yeah,” he agreed and then looked down at the dusty floorboards, scuffed by so many pairs of feet. “At the end of next year, Dean’ll be drafted, but I’ll take a year off. Get all my prereqs out of the way, and then I can apply to med schools wherever he’s at.”

“Have you toldhimthis yet?” Ramsey challenged. His blue stare was hard as ice chips.

“You know I haven’t. I’ve barely decided it myself. We’re . . .we’re still figuring things out. We talked about the rest of the year, aboutnextyear, but . . .”

“You don’t want just a nice college hookup. You don’t want just a college boyfriend. You want a future.” Ramsey gestured towards the doorway they’d just come through. On the other side, Dean was probably confused, wondering what the fuck had just happened. Why Ramsey had flirted with him. Even though Ramsey flirted with everyone with a pulse, he’d never done it to Brody. “The truth is when you decided you didn’t want to play hockey, sure, you wanted to go to medical school. You love that science shit. And you want a life. But even more than that, you want a life withhim.”

It was true. Brody did.

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