Page 51 of Scoring Position

“Don’t be an asshole,” Ryan said. He looked uneasy, and Nico didn’t blame him. It seemed like the whole table was watching him now. Besides, it wasn’t like he didn’t know what Nico’s dad thought of him. “I can get a hotel room for a couple days if you want space.”

Nico blanched. “No, Christ, don’t leave me alone with them.” He didn’t blame Ryan for not wanting to be there. Nico didn’t either. “Or at least take me with you.”

“Aww, a romantic getaway!” Katja teased.

Nico pointedly didn’t meet Misha’s gaze. Rising to the bait would only encourage them.

Despite the unpleasant surprise from his parents, Nico enjoyed himself at the party. But he wasn’t surprised when Ryan asked, on their way home in the cab, “You really want me to stick around while your parents are here?”

“You live there too,” Nico said. It would be rude to kick him out.

“Sure.” Ryan shifted in his seat. “I just don’t want to make anything worse. I get the impression your dad isn’t an easy guy to please.”

“You’re not wrong.”

“And, like… he didn’t exactly make it a secret what he thinks of me. Even if he didn’t say it to my face,youknow. I don’t want to cause more problems for you.”

Nico bit his lip. What he was going to ask for was selfish… but Ryan could say no, he rationalized. “It’ll be easier for me if you’re there than if you’re not. He won’t pick an argument with me in front of you.”

The car dropped them off, and they went inside. “You think we can pull it off?” Ryan finally asked, lying on the couch with his head in Nico’s lap. “Pretending we’re just roommates for over a week?”

“Maybe if we eat like we did tonight every day,” Nico said, carding his fingers through Ryan’s hair. “I’m too full to have sex.”

“Speak for yourself,” Ryan said, but he didn’t make a move, and his eyes were closed.

Nico snorted. “How does the saying go? Something about writing a check with your mouth.”

“Maybe a postdated one.” Ryan opened his eyes for a moment and smiled lazily. “Movie?”

“You’re obsessed,” Nico chided. But he dug the remote out from under the couch cushions. Nico missed sharing a bed with a partner, but Ryan couldn’t fall asleep with Nico there. He often drifted off to audiobooks or the TV noise, though; a couch nap could be the next best thing. “What are we watching tonight?”

RYAN HADa problem.

Technically, Ryan had several problems—Vorhees, the team’s ongoing struggle to win hockey games, and increasing side-eye from Yorkie and Kitty among them.

Nico was not a problem. Nico was perfect.

Ryan’s barely controlled physical reactions to Nico, however, proved challenging. Maybe they could get it out of their systems before Nico’s parents arrived.

Maybe Satan would buy skates and take up hockey.

If he did, he’d fit right in on the ice with Nico tonight. He had four shots on goal by the middle of the second period, and Nashville was lookinghunted. Behind the bench, Vorhees snapped his gum and paced and barked out orders, but he’d lost the team somewhere back in November, if not before. The guys might do what he said, but there wasn’t any loyalty behind it.

And they checked right out when they went into second intermission tied at two and Vorhees tried to fire them up, cursing a blue streak.

Eventually he saw himself out of the room. Ryan waited until the door closed to roll his eyes, and then he stood up and mockingly kicked the garbage can.

The tension in the room snapped with a round of laughter.

“Keep doing what you’re doing,” Yorkie said when the snickers died down. “Keep your cool.” He glanced over at Nico and shook his head. “And for God’s sake, get Kersh the puck. He’s determined to get it in tonight.”

For a moment there was dead silence in the locker room. Without meaning to, Ryan looked at Nico. Nico looked back, unabashed.

But no one said anything until Chenner leaned over toward Ryan’s stall and waggled his eyebrows. “If you know what I mean.”

Christ. Groaning, Ryan buried his face in his hands as the locker room erupted in catcalls.

The break in tension seemed to do the team good. They kept an even keel all through the third, even when Nashville got a power play and shelled Greenie from every angle. It looked like they were headed to overtime again—until Nico caught a pass from Kitty in the dying seconds of the game and went bar down on a buzzer beater that would have made Wayne Gretzky cry.

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