Page 59 of Time to Shine

What was kind of a big deal was that Landon fell asleep immediately, and Casey quickly followed.

Chapter Twenty

It was probably rude to watch someone sleep. Landon had shared beds and rooms with plenty of guys, and he hadn’t found a single one of them fascinating when they were sleeping. He hadn’t been enchanted by their sighs, or tempted to gently adjust a lock of dark honey hair that was in danger of getting caught between parted lips. He’d never felt perfectly calm just being near one of those guys, hoping simultaneously that they would sleep forever and never ruin this moment, and that they would open their eyes and smile when they saw him.

So he was probably being rude.

It had been a weird night, but Landon couldn’t regret any of it. If Casey hadn’t come downstairs, Landon would likely have battled insomnia for the rest of the night and lost. Now it was late morning, and he’d been able to get a decent seven hours of sleep.

He couldn’t even regret revealing the worst about himself to Casey because he found he felt lighter this morning. He’d never really spoken to anyone about Erin, or his parents, or the guilt he’d been carrying for years. Right after Erin died, he’d had a couple of appointments with a grief counselor, and he’d hated every minute of them. He’d barely said a word, and everything the counselor had said made him angry. They’d had plenty of gentle, sympathetic words for Landon, and had seemed to think it was important that he talk about his feelings, but no amount of talking was going to bring Erin back. It had been, he’d decided at the time, an agonizing waste of time, and he’d never since visited another therapist outside of the team-employed ones, who he only discussed hockey-related problems with. He still had no interest in therapy, but talking to Casey had felt good. It was useful practice for the conversations he wanted to have with his parents when they came for Christmas.

His chest felt tingly, now, remembering how earnestly Casey had defended Landon. How sure he’d been that Landon was a good person, despite everything. Landon didn’t feel that he’d provided much evidence of that, during the few short weeks Casey had known him.

Casey obviously trusted Landon enough to tell him about his fear of the dark. Landon suspected he’d never told anyone about that before, and had been surprised to learn it, because Casey didn’t seem like he was ever bothered by anything. But everyone had their secrets.

Casey’s terrified reaction to finding Landon was going to be hard to forget. It had been awful, seeing Casey like that. Screaming like that. Landon wished he was better at comforting people.

Now, Casey looked anything but terrified, all peaceful and relaxed in the lamplight.

Landon closed his eyes. He shouldn’t be staring at him like this. He kept his eyes closed for as long as he could stand it, then opened them. And again. And again until he opened his eyes and found Casey looking back at him.

A slow, shy smile spread across Casey’s face. “Hi.”

Landon swallowed. “Hey.”

The smile grew until a dimple appeared, and Landon could only helplessly smile back at him.

“Did you sleep okay?” Casey said. His voice was huskier than usual. Softer. Landon loved it.

“Yeah. You?”

“Must have. I don’t remember anything after we got into bed. Is the power back on?”

“Yeah. The lamp was on when I woke up.”

Casey rolled to his back and ran a hand through his hair. Landon felt an odd pang of jealousy. “We should probably get up, I guess.”

It made sense. Why would they linger in bed together like lovers?

On the other hand, why did that sound so appealing?

“I’ll make breakfast,” Landon offered.

“I’ll make coffee.”

“Deal,” Landon said, then, with enormous effort and a lot of confusing feelings, he left the bed.

Landon felt invincible.

Almost invincible. He’d let one goal in, but it had been a tough one. Detroit had managed to get the puck past him on a third rebound. Landon had almost had it too.

Maybe it was for the best. The pressure was off for a shutout now, Calgary was ahead by two goals, and Landon had stopped twenty-eight shots with six minutes left in the game. Not bad at all. Certainly a huge improvement over the last game he’d started.

But six minutes was a lot of time in hockey, and Detroit proved it by scoring a goal a minute later, bringing them within one goal of tying.

“Bring it,” Landon muttered as both teams set up at center ice of the face-off. “Fucking try me.”

Lee won the face-off, and the play traveled to the far end of the ice. Landon relaxed a bit and left his crease to get a better view of the action. Casey was battling for the puck in the corner. Landon could see his pink laces sticking out from between the skates of a Detroit defenseman.

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