Page 86 of Breaking the Ice
“I . . .uh . . .I must’ve gotten tired,” Gavin said uselessly, not able to meet Zach’s eyes again.
When he’d woken up and done it, that had been bad enough.
“Yeah, me too,” Zach said, voice rough but quiet. “I think we missed the last half of the game.”
“I definitely got enough good notes from it.” He hadn’t gotten any notes on it all and would have to watch it again.
Alone.In his office.Without the unbearable temptation of Zach’s hot body to fall asleep against.
“Right.” He could tell Zach was smiling, even if he didn’t see it.
“Well, uh, thanks for coming over?” Gavin heard how awkward he sounded.
Zach patted him on the arm. “It’s alright, G. You’ve been working hard.”
He had been. But there’d been no excuse for him throwing all his rules and the whole fucking line out like it didn’t matter at all.
It mattered now, more than ever.
“Not that hard,” Gavin protested.
“Yeah, sure,” Zach teased. “I’vebeenthere. The final stretch of the season is tough, even for the coaches. You gotta take care of yourself.”
Maybe you could take care of me, instead.
Gavin compressed his mouth together so he wouldn’t ask. Because he was tempted, almost unbearably, to just throw caution to the wind and tell Zach he’d changed his mind.
But he hadn’t.
And that was why he kept his mouth shut.
“Sure,” Gavin said instead.
Zach put his laptop and notebook away in his backpack. Brushed off Gavin’s suggestion that he call an Uber, protesting it was only a few blocks.
Said one last quietMerry Christmas, pressing his fingertips to Gavin’s shoulder, and then was gone, fading into the wet darkness.
Gavin watched his back as he disappeared into the night, and finally shut the door.
Chapter 12
Zachwasalmostdonegetting ready to head out for the boys’ party on New Year’s Eve—he and Gavin had agreed it was better to host something than to leave them to their own frat-party-fueled-desires, and so Gavin bought out the Star Signs arcade for their own party—when his phone rang.
He swore, grabbing at the phone in his pocket, nearly dropping it as he tried to finish fixing his hair.
“Happy New Year,” Hayes drawled into his ear.
“It’s only just after nine here,” Zach said. He was running late. Gavin had already sent him two texts and Ramsey even more, wondering where he was.
“Yeah, well, welcome to the east coast,” Hayes said.
Wherever his friend was, it was quiet.
“You do something fun tonight?” Zach asked, though he had a feeling if Hayes was calling him at 12:04 AM, he hadn’t doneanythingfun.
“What do you think?” Hayes retorted.
Zach sighed, giving up on his hair and shoving a hat on. “I think you sound like you’re in a hotel room.”
