Page 157 of Slew Foot
“Great!” It came and went so that didn’t mean anythingfor sure, but it was always nice when Mickey’s day started out good.
“No, Rafe,” he said slowly. “I don’t hear anything either.”
Rafe frowned. “You don’t hearanything? You can’t hear me?”
Oh no. Maybe something had gone horribly wrong.
But Mickey laughed. “No. I mean there’s no ringing. No whooshing. It’s like—it’s like it wasbefore.”
Rafe grabbed him in a big hug and kissed him, tumbling him down onto the sheets. “Holy shit. The cake was magic!”
Mickey laughed. “I’m not sure that’s true …”
“Magic cake,” Rafe said and kissed him again, little pecks all over his face. “I’m gonna buy youso much cake, Mickey Krause.”
“Krow-za,” Mickey corrected with a laugh.
“Fuck! I told you I was bad at languages,” Rafe muttered, hanging his head. He really fucking needed to learn how to say his boyfriend’s name.
“It’s okay. I guess you can’t take my name when we get married though. Maybe I’ll have to take yours instead,” Mickey joked.
Rafe froze, staring down at Mickey. “You want to marry me?”
“Not today or tomorrow,” Mickey said carefully. “I think we should be together for a while before we get married. And my mother and sisters would legitimately murder me if I got married without them there. But someday, yes.”
“Ohh.” Rafe grinned and placed another smacking kiss on Mickey’s cheek. “Hell yes!”
Laughing, Mickey wrapped a hand around the back of his neck. “I was kidding about the name though.” He made a face. “Mickey Moon is …”
“Pretty bad,” Rafe agreed with a wince. “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.”
Mickey smiled. “Yes, exactly. That’s what I want with you. The two of us working together to figure life out.”
Rafe had to kiss him one more time for that.
The following morning, after setting a few slices of cake aside to enjoy later, Mickey brought the remainder of the sheet cake to HCI to share with the team after practice.
Rafe had looked a little bummed Mickey wasn’t going to eat it all, but when Mickey had pointed out if he was finally feeling better and he’d be able to start conditioning and rejoin the team, he should probably watch what he ate and focus on lean protein and not dessert.
Rafe agreed it made sense.
And when the rest of the guys saw the cake, they gotexcited.
“Wait, is this celebration cake?” Jesse asked, nudging Mickey with his elbow. “Because you seem to be doingwaybetter than you were for a while there, Mouse. We’ve missed having you around.”
“It’s not an official celebration,” Mickey admitted. “I have some more tests to do. But I had a meeting with Dr. Pope this morning and he’s cautiously optimistic I’m on the road to recovery and can start training again.”
A loud whoop went up from the guys that, even a few days ago, would have made Mickey grimace and cover his ear. But nowthere was nothing. Just the blissful sounds of an ear working exactly the way it was supposed to.
Mickey was delighted. He hadn’t had a single bout of dizziness either.
“Glad to have you back,” Connor said, settling a hand on his shoulder and squeezing. “You’ve been missed.”
Mickey got jostled and passed around from guy to guy, being hugged and smacked and shaken in that particularly physical brand of love that belonged to a hockey team celebrating something. He even submitted to a noogie from Crawford without trying to squirm away, because Mickey was pretty sure that was Luke’s love language.
Eventually, Mickey ended up tucked under Rafe’s arm, smiling so hard his face hurt. “Thanks, guys, it’ll be good to be back.”
“I still can’t believe I got sexiled from my own place last night,” Tanner grumbled around a bite of plum cake. “You twosuck.”
