Page 47 of Gravity
Still, I check both directions before I kiss him goodnight. “I'll see you at breakfast.”
“I'll see you in my dreams,” he breathes. “Dors bien, mon coeur.”
We stand there holding hands and beaming at each other while our teammates snore and this hotel stands silently watching. If I could, I'd book a room for us both, and we'd spend the next six hours in each other's arms, and when we walked into breakfast, everyone would smile at us and sayof course we knewandwe're happy for you.I'd hold Bryce's hand above the table while we ate instead of sneaking brushes of my thumb across his thigh or surreptitious throws of my arm around his chair. If I could, I'd take these stolen moments in the hallways and stairwells and beneath tables and bring them into the light.
But I can't.
Our team is a brotherhood, and we're keeping a big secret from them. What does a secret like ours do to a team? Would they really toast us both so heartily if they knew the truth? Where's the line where a secret you keep for yourself becomes pain you inflict on someone else? And are we dancing on that line?
I kiss him one more time, backing him against his hotel room door. He sighs into me, and the kiss turns from sweet to sinful in seconds. I take his hands and raise them over his head, lacing our fingers together and holding him in place. He groans and whispers my name. One of his legs rises and wraps around my hip, anchoring me to him. The door rattles against the frame.
Footsteps. Then, cursing in Slovakian, and it’s getting louder.
There's just enough time to end the kiss and pull away before Slava tears open the door to his and Bryce's room. Bryce stumbles into Slava's side, and Slava glares at Bryce and me like we're reprobates picked up on a KGB sweep. “Sracka,” he growls. “It is two in the fucking morning, and you have been together since eight a.m. Why are you still up, banging on the door, huh?”
“Je suis désolé, Slava.” Bryce is trying not to laugh into his linemate's face. He and Slava are close friends. Closer than I thought at first, because Slava's form of friendship is sharp-edged and biting, unlike MacKenzie's or even Valery's. Bryce lays his hand on Slava's chest. “Désolé. We were… talking about how to improve our play tomorrow night.”
Slava snorts. He pushes Bryce off, throws me a glare, and stomps back into their dark hotel room.
We share a silent laugh and an embarrassed shrug, and I take the wise choice by walking away instead of going in for just one more kiss. I walk backward down the hall. Bryce watches me go, tilting his head against his doorframe with a smile.
When I reach my and Janne's room, Bryce blows me a kiss. I catch it one-handed and hold it to my heart.
In the room, Janne is facedown and snoring hard, half in and half out of his blankets. Once my teeth are brushed, I drop my clothes at the foot of my bed, plug my phone in to the charger on the nightstand, and crawl beneath the sheets.
Like clockwork, my phone lights up with a new text message alert.
Bryce:Slava is snoring very angrily.
Me:He almost got to see a big surprise.
Bryce:You have good hearing,mon coeur. I hadn’t heard him coming.
Me:Imagine how much he'd curse if we both fell on him.
Bryce:Ha ha! He'd wake up the team. Or the whole hotel. He'd still be cursing now, in fact.
Me:What do you think he'd say if he knew?
Bryce:Je ne sais pas.
There's a long pause, but I see three dots bounce and stop, bounce and stop. I wait.
Bryce:I want them to know, but I don't want to hurt them. I don't know how they'll take it, and I don't want to upset anyone right now. The team is doing so well, and we are all so close. It is perfect right now,oui?
Me:Yeah. It is.
Other than him not being in my arms each night. But this is as close to perfect as I could have ever dared to dream. No, it's beyond what I could have dreamed.
Bryce:Fais de beaux rêves, mon coeur. À demain matin.
Me:Goodnight.
I send him an emoji blowing a kiss, and he sends a heart back to me.
* * *
Breakfast.Bryce and I meet the team downstairs and load up our plates from the buffet before taking our seats at the long table reserved for all of us. The team is more subdued in the morning, but after pancakes and coffee and piles of bacon, life returns.
