Page 55 of Slew Foot
They shook and Rafe’s calloused palm was warm against his. Mickey reluctantly let go.
They lapsed into silence again but apparently Rafe wasn’t done because he said, “So I guess I want to say thanks. For making this easier for me. Like, moving here and everything. You’ve been so nice, and it means a lot to me.”
“Yeah of course. I was glad I could help,” Mickey said automatically. “You know, I get it if you want to look at other places, but I think—I think when we get back to Boston, you should move in with Tanner and me. I mean why not, right?”
“I don’t know,” Rafe said slowly. “Are yousureyou want that? It didn’t seem like you did.”
“No, I’m good with it,” Mickey said firmly. “I promise.”
And he was. Now, anyway. But he wasn’t sure if he’d come to regret that later or not.
The words were out now though, too late to turn back, and Rafe smiled and leaned over to hug him.
Mickey tensed because fuck that was a lot, Rafe’s arms around him while they lay on a bed in this darkened room, their bodies warm as they pressed together. But the pure happiness on Rafe’s face made Mickey smile and hug him back tightly.
“Wanna watch more of the show we were watching on the plane?” Rafe asked when he pulled away.
“Sure,” Mickey said as Rafe got up to switch out Tanner’s laptop for Mickey’s.
Mickey had to give him his password and talk him through how to navigate to the streaming service app since everything was set to German, not English, but after it was all set up, Rafe returned to the bed, beaming.
His smile made Mickey’s chest ache.
Rafe wanted afriend. He wanted a friend and a teammate, and he didn’t want it to become anything else.
And Mickey was going to have to figure out how to give him that.
Because there was no guile in Rafe, no scheming or angling or anything like it. Just a simple, platonicdesirefor friendship and Mickey wanted to give him that.
Wanted it more than he wanted anything. Even Rafe’s body. Or knowing what it would be like to have Rafe completely surrender to him.
To Mickey’s surprise, Rafe fell asleep quickly.
They’d turned on the show and one minute he was watching intently and the next, his eyelids were closed and he was breathing slowly and deeply beside Mickey.
His hair had fallen over his forehead and Mickey resisted the urge to brush it away.
He was so … Mickey’s heart clenched because Rafe was honestlyeverything. It would have been bad enough if Mickey only wanted to fuck him. But it was so much more than that already. And that was the hard part.
A while later, Tanner banged through the door, hollering something back at a volume not even remotely appropriate for a hotel at this hour of the night.
“Quiet!” Mickey hissed. He nodded at Rafe, who had twitched a little, but hadn’t woken.
Mickey resisted another urge to smooth his hand over Rafe’s hair.
“Oops,” Tanner said, still too loud, but attempting to be quieter. “He passed out on you, huh?”
“Yeah. After we turned something else on.”
“You gonna wake him up?”
Mickey studied Rafe for a moment, then slid out of bed. “If you didn’t wake him up coming in, I’m not sure anything will.”
“Oh, I could come up with something,” Tanner said with a laugh. In the light of the TV screen, he looked practically diabolical.
“I’m afraid to ask,” Mickey said drily. “But no. Just leave him.”
“You gonna go sleep in his room?” Tanner asked. “Because you’re not sharing withme.”
