Page 49 of Cold as Ice

“You know Brody’s thinking about going to med school?” Mal said, because he needed to saysomethingto break this nearly unbearable tension and maybe a mention of their teammate might distract him enough that he’d go soft-ish before they headed back into the locker room.

They’d been here long enough the locker room had likely emptied out by now.

“Yeah,” Elliott said.

“Guess we’re gonna give him a run for his money.”

Elliott chuckled under his breath. “Guess so.”

Mal tossed the wipe in the trash. Had felt his blood clear enough now that he could look at Elliott without being certain he was about point two seconds away from losing all semblance of control.

Elliott trailed him out of the treatment room. “We still on for tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” Mal said, nodding. “You want the library or Sammy’s again?”

“I really love those smoothies,” Elliott joked.

“Sammy’s it is.” Normally, Mal would never study so casually but last time had gone so well maybe there was something to be said for it.

Or maybe it had nothing to do with Sammy’s at all.

Mal told himself he wasnotlooking, but he couldn’t help it when the first thing Elliott did when he got back was to his locker was pull his phone out.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, just forgot to send a text before practice. So sending it now,” Elliott said, flashing him a bright smile.

“Oh.” Mal wanted to ask who it was to, but that was absolutely none of his business and it would’ve been completely out of character for him to wonder—and tocare.

Elliott looked up from the screen. He looked regretful. About the text he was sending? God, Mal hoped so. “Does it ever suck being so honest?”

Mal didn’t know how completely honest he was being.

After all, he’d been pretending, nearly from the beginning, that Elliott didn’t entice him.

“Yeah, sometimes,” Malcolm admitted.

“Ugh,” Elliott said, letting out a groan as he finished dressing. He glanced over at the phone again, like he was worried about the response he was going to get.

“But,” Mal added, “I’ve never regretted it, in the end.”

“Right.Right.” Elliott gave him another one of those smiles that lit him up inside.

Malcolm grabbed his bag. “See you tomorrow,” he said. He could wait another minute for Elliott. He could tell he was nearly ready to go, and then they could walk out together and . . .well, and dowhat?

Malcolm didn’t know.

Which was why he escaped.

Or at least, as he walked home, that was what he told himself he’d done.

Escaped with his mind and body completely intact.

Chapter 7

Elliott mostly liked school.That was a fact that would probably shock the hell out of Mal if he ever admitted to it, but once he’d started to get the required classes out of the way, the subjects he wasn’t personally interested in, he’d really started to enjoy it. Especially his literature classes.

Unfortunately this class was not his literature class.

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