Page 60 of Good Pucking Luck

“Maybe a little,” he admits, and then his eyes dart away. “Doesn’t Mads ever get tired of going into someone else’s room or heading downstairs so we can talk every road trip?”

“He’s actually out with the team tonight. They went for drinks.”

Hayes returns his gaze to me. “You could have gone! You didn’t have to stay in your room to talk to me…but then I guess the whole point of this is our sex, so I’m sure that’s why you did it.”

But it’s really not. “I didn’t want to go out. Tell me how things went.”

“Donovan’s best friend, Eric, was there. I’m fairly certain they’re secret boyfriends, or maybe they’re just having no-strings-attached sex like us, but there’s something there.”

And there’s something here for me too—strings, damn it! Why do I have strings? “He nice?”

“Yeah, I like him. I think you would too. He loves hockey.”

“When do I get to meet him?” I tease.

For a split second, it looks like Hayes’s lips straighten into a firm line. Is that a frown? Is he jealous? But then he dashes all my hopes when he says, “That wouldn’t work because they can’t know we’re…this.”

The dull ache in my chest grows. “Oh yeah. I forgot about that.”

“Hey, are you okay?”

I wave off his concern. “I’m good, H. What else happened?”

“I embarrassed myself by screaming and jumping when you scored. I wasn’t going to tell you that, but you’re good at getting your way with me.”

I chuckle. “I like the sound of that, but I didn’t even do anything.”

He just shrugs as if to say I don’t have to do anything, and maybe, just maybe, there’s a part of Hayes that likes making me feel good the way I do him.

He settles down, lying on the bed similarly to how I am, phone propped, Hayes on his side and looking at me. “Something kinda weird happened.”

Worry rushes the word, “What?” from my mouth. If that motherfucker Malcolm said or did something to him, I’ll fucking kill him.

“When I was acting like a Rylan Pierce cheerleader, they mentioned going to a game. Then they seemed to remember that it was at a Rebels game where this whole thing started. It was like…it’s hard to explain. They immediately felt bad and started saying that maybe next year would be better and stuff like that. It’s a small thing, but it made mefeelsomething. I don’t know. This sounds dumb. I’m going to shut up.”

“No, don’t. Keep going. Talk to me.” I love it when he does this, when Hayes trusts me. It’s not something he gives to many people. It makes me feel special, like even if he isn’t starting to have feelings for me the way I am him, that our relationship is still important to him. It means something to him.

“I’m not sure what to say. I think…I felt supported…like I was part of a team. Like there was something they wanted to do, but they didn’t want to do it without me, and then they realized it might hurt me, so they chose as a group not to do it. I don’t want them to miss out on something because of me, but it felt good. Maybe they’ll just end up going without me and I’m turning this into something it’s not.”

Jesus, this man. How did he go his whole life without having these kinds of connections, when he’s so special and feels so much.

“You’re not talking,” Hayes says after a few moments.

“Just thinking about how much I like you, and obviously they do too. They care about you. They see how awesome you are, is all.”

“I’m sure that’s not—”

“It is,” I cut him off.

“Okay.” Hayes nods slowly.

“You gonna come over when I get home?”

“Don’t I always come over when you’re home?” He grins.

“We should head down to the beach. I know we can’t do things publicly, but that stretch of water is private. Do you like the ocean?”

“I do. It’s scary, though. I don’t normally go in past my knees.”

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