Page 15 of Melting the Ice

“You do?”

“I did, actually. I was like that. And then . . .” Brody gestured to his leg. “I wish Istilldid. Maybe I’ll find it again. I don’t know. All I do know is that I want something like that, something to feel so passionate about. I love hockey, I do, but it’s not the same. Which is why I haven’t made any decisions yet.” Brody made a face. “I wish I had a little of that certainty you’ve got.”

“You’re a good player, you can’t just give up on that,” Dean said, which was stupid to say, because he wouldn’t know a decent hockey player from a bad one, but when Ramsey had brought up his friend Brody who needed a roommate, unexpectedly, that had been one of the questions he’d asked.

Why had he even bothered? The truth was, he hadn’t wanted a partier or a guy who didn’t take his shit seriously, and if a guy was a good athlete, at this level, then he had to work at least a little at it. He couldn’t get by on pure natural talent. Not anymore.

And when Dean had asked, Ramsey had only nodded, one of the few times he’d been serious in the conversation, and it was clear he’d meant it.

“Oh, am I?” Brody teased, nudging him.

“I can tell.” He paused. “And I asked Ramsey.”

Brody burst into laughter. “You’re such a poser. I love it. You ever watch hockey?”

Dean shook his head.

“Well, I know jack shit about football. So we’ll just agree that we’re the best, okay?”

Dean knew he was the best, anyway. He wouldn’t ever settle for anything else. But he nodded anyway. Why? For the samegoddamned reason he kept talking to Brody when he should be eating dinner and reading his chapters for tomorrow. He justlikedthe guy. He made him feel comfortable in his own skin, and basically, nobody had ever made him feel that way.

“Sounds good to me,” he said. He stretched out his legs, bumping them up against the cheap coffee table. “I should eat something. Read my chapters for the first class tomorrow.”

“And he does his homework, too,” Brody marveled. “Do the rest of the guys in your classes drive you insane?”

“If they don’t come to class, if they don’t respect the professors, if they don’t do the work, then they don’t even exist to me,” Dean said.

Brody nodded, respect gleaming in those sugary eyes. “I get it,” he said. “If you want to study out here, I’ll turn the TV off. I’ve got some reading to do, too. It’s gotta be more comfortable out here on the couch than at the little desk in your room.”

Dean almost agreed. After all, Brody was one hundred percent correct. The desk was tiny and cramped. He often studied in the library because of that.

But he didn’t say he’d stay out here, because if he did, he had a feeling Brody would crack him open like a nut, and he didn’t know how to avoid that.

Or what to do with the desire to just let him do it.

Instead he shook his head. “Nope, it’s alright. I don’t mind. Quiet’s good for me, anyway.”

“Hey it’s all good. I get it,” Brody said, with a nod of approval. “You gotta do what you gotta do. I respect that.”

And Dean had a feeling that he actually did.

Chapter Three

Brody glanced up atthe clock, butt shifting on the bench, and knew, right before the opposing coach made the sign, that they were going to pull the goalie.

Coach B knew too, had probably known it was going to happen even before Brody did. But hehadrealized it, right before it happened, so he was ready. Ramsey was too, and the moment it happened, they were over the barricade, swapping out with the other defensive team.

Out of the corner of Brody’s eye, he watched as Ramsey circled around the left side of the ice, and the rest of the line gathering up, everyone watching as the Cougars’ best two forwards shifted the puck back and forth between them.

But Brody and Ramsey weren’t the best defensemen on the Evergreens for nothing.

They had this handled.

At least Brody sure fucking hoped they did.

They’d held the Cougars to only one goal, and they’d scored when he and Ramsey hadn’t been on the ice, a stray puck that one of the Cougars’ forwards had slipped right past Finn’s skate.

It had been overall a good performance, Elliott scoring on an absolute sick breakaway goal, and Mal adding another.

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