Page 139 of Ice Dance Hockey

I knew it. I crow on the inside for knowing him. I tell him about school. About skating. I skirt around Scott, who’s still trying to convince me to lose a few more pounds.

“Make any interesting friends?” he asks.

“No.” I harden my stare so he knows to shut the fuck up about that. Everyone wants me to make friends. I don’t need any friends. I’ve been just fine all this time without them. I haven’t refused everyone’s attempts to set me up on friendship dates for this long to give in now.

Thankfully, he’s too tired to take that further. He nods and I’m pretty sure he’s falling asleep. “Rhett? Maybe you should call me later.”

“No. I don’t want to. Can’t you do some homework or something in the background while I take a quick nap?” he mumbles.

“I already sleep in your bed just to smell like you. We’re not doing that, too. I have limits.”

But he’s already asleep and while some might say that needing sleep breaks the illusion that he’s a God, I’m not part of the some. He looks more God-like when he sleeps, and it only proves that Gods need sleep, too.

Fuck it. “Rest, baby.” I pull out my laptop—the one he bought for me—and start my homework, looking up every now and then to watch the steep rise and fall of his chest.

Chapter28

Training Camp

Rhett

“Jack?” I say one night after a long and grueling training day. “Can I tell you something?”

He’s just gotten off a video call with Mercy and lust is still heavy in his eyes. It doesn’t do a thing for me, especially when I’m missing Logan like he’s the breath in my lungs.

“Yeah, Rhett?”

“I’m not saying this to hurt your feelings, but I think it will be good for both of us if I say it. When I loved you, I honestly loved you, but I pushed for you because you were my father’s idea of who I should be with.”

He smirks. “I know that, Rhett.”

“Just listen, I need to say it even if you know. Logan is everything I want. Me. Rhett. I’m so fucking glad you pushed me away. Thank you.”

I know he still feels horrible about all that, even though it was the right thing, because it hurt me at the time. I was caught up in the wrong things about him. My father’s vision.

“Okay, glad I kept my mouth shut. Didn’t know how much I needed to hear that.” He combs his strong fingers through his hair. “I hated hurting you because you mean a lot to me, but Merc is my everything.”

“Is it weird that we both fell for Meyers?” I say.

“You just called Logan a?—”

“Because he is.”

“Yeah, he is,” Jack agrees. “And it’s not that weird. We’re kinda similar, Rhett. Not in all ways, but in many ways. We got the boyfriends thing wrong, but we’re killer friends.”

“Good.”

“When are you going to tell him how much you love him?”

I scowl. “How do you know I haven’t?”

“Newsflash, Lo and I are besties, even though he won’t admit it. He tells me everything about you two.”

“Not everything.”

“Everything,Rhett.”

Fucking Goddammit. “I won’t scare him off?”